Who Counts as a Veteran in Montana

There is no single Montana definition of "veteran". There are at least three in active use, they conflict on the questions that decide most cases, and a veteran told they do not qualify for one program should not assume the answer carries to the next. The Title 10 definition, at 10-2-101, is the narrowest and the one people mean when they say the Montana definition. A veteran is "an honorably discharged individual who served on active duty, other than for training, with the United States armed forces, including an individual who served with the United States coast guard". It then adds two historical groups: those who served with the First Special Service Force, the joint American and Canadian unit raised in Montana at Fort Harrison in 1942, and the American merchant marine in oceangoing service during the period of armed conflict from December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945. This definition governs the whole of chapter 2, which means the veterans' homes, the state veterans cemeteries, the county interment allowance and the honor and remember medallion. Honorable only. A general discharge does not open any of them. The employment definition, at 39-29-101, is much wider and is used for more than employment. It requires separation "under honorable conditions", and subsection (10) says in terms that the phrase includes both honorable and general discharges, and excludes only dishonorable and other-than-honorable administrative discharges. A veteran is someone separated under honorable conditions after more than 180 consecutive days of active federal duty other than for training; or a reserve component member mobilised under the named authorities who served during a war or a badged campaign; or a current or former member of the Montana Army or Air National Guard with at least six years of service in the armed forces, of which the last three were in the Montana Guard. The armed forces here include the Space Force and the merchant marine for service the Department of Defense recognises as active military service. This definition governs the public hiring preference, retention in a reduction in force, and the veteran apprenticeship tax credit. Inside that same section is a fourth and stranger term. A "disabled veteran" under 39-29-101(2)(a) is a person "whether or not the person is a veteran" who was separated under honorable conditions and has a present service-connected disability or receives compensation, disability retirement or a pension, or who holds a Purple Heart. That definition does not require 180 days of service, so a person medically separated after three months is a disabled veteran with a ten point preference while not being a veteran at all. The home loan definition, at 90-6-602(3), is the widest and reaches people who are still serving. An eligible veteran is a Montana resident who is or has been a member of the Montana National Guard, is or has been a member of the federal reserve forces under Title 10, is serving or has served on Title 10 federal active duty, or is the unremarried spouse of such a person killed in the line of duty. Subsection (9) defines "under honorable conditions" to include a general discharge. A serving Guard member who has never deployed is an eligible veteran for the mortgage program. Then there are the programs that use none of these. The property tax program at 15-6-301 writes its own test: honorably discharged from active service in any branch, and rated 100 percent or paid at the 100 percent rate. The state park camping discount at 23-1-105 says only "a veteran of the armed forces" and defines nothing. The licence plate section at 61-3-458 adopts the strict Title 10 definition in subsection (6) and then accepts an other-than-dishonorable discharge as evidence in subsection (4)(a), which is an internal contradiction the statute has never resolved. What to do with this. Establish which statute governs the benefit you want before concluding you are ineligible. A general discharge closes the veterans' home and the cemetery interment allowance and opens the hiring preference, the apprenticeship credit and the home loan. Fewer than 180 days of service closes the hiring preference as a veteran and may still reach it as a disabled veteran. Current Guard service is not veteran status for most of the code and is eligibility for the mortgage. All of it rests on one sentence of the Montana Constitution. Article II, section 35 reads: "The people declare that Montana servicemen, servicewomen, and veterans may be given special considerations determined by the legislature." That is the authority for the preferences and the tax provisions alike, and it leaves the definition to the Legislature, which is why there are several.