Kansas Vietnam War Era Medallion

Section 73-1238 creates the Vietnam war era medallion program within the Kansas Office of Veterans Services. Every veteran who honorably served on active duty in the United States military service at any time beginning February 28, 1961 and ending May 7, 1975 is entitled to receive a Vietnam war era medallion, a medal and a certificate of appreciation. Read "at any time" carefully, because this is the point of the programme. There is no requirement of service in Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, or in any theatre at all. A veteran who spent the entire period at a base in Kansas or Germany served during the era and is entitled to the medallion on the same terms as one who served in country. Two conditions attach. The veteran must be a legal resident of Kansas, or have been a legal resident at the time they entered military service, or at the time they were discharged, or at the time of their death. Any one of those four moments will do, so a veteran who left Kansas decades ago still qualifies if Kansas was home when they enlisted. And the veteran must have been honorably separated or discharged, or still be in active service in an honorable status, or have been in active service in an honorable status at the time of death. The programme reaches the dead. Because the residency test and the discharge test both contemplate the veteran's death, a survivor may apply on behalf of a deceased veteran. The Office of Veterans Services accepts applications from a spouse or the eldest living survivor. Section 73-1239 governs the award of the medal, medallion and certificate and the rules and regulations for applications, and 73-1242 covers disallowance of a claim and the form and design of the items. There is no cost, no rating requirement, no minimum length of service and no deadline in the statute. What there is instead is an evidentiary problem: a veteran of this era may have no DD214 to hand, and the Kansas Adjutant General's Department archives hold DD214s for all branches from 1946 to 1991, which is the place to start before applying. This is recognition rather than money. It carries no cash payment, no preference and no further entitlement, and the catalog carries it because it is one of the few Kansas programmes with almost no barrier to entry and because families of deceased era veterans regularly do not know it exists.