Rhode Island Counts Merchant Mariners as Veterans

Federal law has treated merchant mariners of the Second World War as veterans for a narrow set of purposes since 1988, and most states have never followed. Rhode Island did, in 1943, and the provision is still in force. Section 30-22-2(a) extends to members of the American merchant marine service "all credits, benefits, and privileges, excepting bonuses, granted and bestowed as of December 7, 1941 by the state upon men and women in the armed forces of the United States of America and then enjoyed by those armed forces". The member must have been a legal resident of Rhode Island at the date of enlistment and must have been in service for at least six months. Where a member died before completing the six months, they receive everything they would have been entitled to had death not intervened. Subsection (b) supplies the paperwork route: all eligible members shall file with the department of veterans affairs for a discharge certificate on forms the department provides. That certificate is the document that makes the rest of it work, and obtaining it is the first step rather than an afterthought. The exclusion is bonuses. Cash bonus programs are outside the extension. Credits, benefits, and privileges are inside it. The date matters and is easy to misread. The benefits extended are those the state granted as of December 7, 1941 and then enjoyed by the armed forces, so the section is a snapshot rather than a moving reference. What a Rhode Island merchant mariner gets under section 30-22-2 alone is the 1941 set. But the merchant marine is also named directly in three later statutes, and those name it in the present tense. Section 30-24-1 establishes the Rhode Island Veterans' Home for those who served in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, "Merchant Marines", Space Force, or Air Force in any war or conflict and were honorably discharged. A merchant mariner is admissible to the Bristol home on the face of the chapter. Section 31-6-8 gives the registration and license fee exemption and the Disabled Veteran plate to a veteran honorably discharged from the armed forces "or the Merchant Marine" who meets one of its disability gates. Section 20-2-31 extends a resident's hunting or fishing license for six months past the termination of service in the armed forces "or the merchant marine", and lets a member of either buy at resident rates. Taken together that is a real body of state benefits reaching a group that most states leave out entirely. A Rhode Island merchant mariner, or the family of one, who has been told they are not a veteran should read these four sections. Two neighboring construction provisions round out the chapter and are worth citing alongside. Section 30-22-1 provides that all Rhode Island statutes granting benefits or privileges to veterans of any earlier war, or to the widow, widower, domestic partner, or other surviving kin of a deceased veteran of that war, shall be construed to provide like benefits for World War II veterans and their survivors. Section 30-22-3 does the same for veterans of undeclared wars and campaigns including Korea, Vietnam, "or any following" campaign, and extends to bonuses as well. Section 30-22-6 defines domestic partner for the chapter by a five-part affidavit test. No disability rating is involved in the merchant marine extension itself, so the rating filter never hides this entry.