Who Counts as a Veteran in Utah

Read this entry first. Utah is the opposite of the states in this catalog that scatter a dozen definitions of veteran across their code, and the single definition is short enough to quote in full. Section 68-3-12.5, subsection 43, the general definitions section of the Utah Code: "(a) 'Veteran' means an individual who: (i) has served in the United States Armed Forces for at least 180 days: (A) on active duty; or (B) in a reserve component, to include the National Guard; or (ii) has incurred an actual service-related injury or disability while in the United States Armed Forces regardless of whether the individual completed 180 days; and (iii) was separated or retired under conditions characterized as honorable or general. (b) This definition is not intended to confer eligibility for benefits." Five things in that follow. There is no wartime period. Not a list of date ranges, not a campaign medal route, nothing. Utah does not care when you served. Among the states written into this catalog that is rare, and it removes an entire category of argument at a county counter. Reserve drilling time counts toward the 180 days. Subparagraph (i)(B) says "in a reserve component, to include the National Guard", with no requirement of federal activation and no requirement that the 180 days be consecutive or on federal orders. A National Guard member who has drilled for a year and was discharged under honorable conditions is a veteran of Utah for every purpose that uses this definition. Most states in this catalog require either twenty years in a reserve component or an aggregate of federal active duty. The injury route waives the 180 days entirely. An "actual service-related injury or disability" incurred in the armed forces makes you a veteran however short the service was. Note the words "actual service-related", which is not the same phrase as "service-connected" and does not on its face require a VA rating. A general discharge is in, by name. "Honorable or general" covers a general discharge under honorable conditions. That is more generous than some states and it is stated in the definition rather than left to an agency to construe. What is out is an other than honorable discharge, a bad conduct discharge, a dishonorable discharge and, on the face of the words, an uncharacterized discharge. "Armed forces" is defined in subsection 5 as "the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and Coast Guard". Space Force is named. "Uniformed services" is a separate and wider term in subsection 39 and adds the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and of the United States Public Health Service. Because the veteran definition uses "Armed Forces" and not "uniformed services", a retired NOAA or Public Health Service officer is not a veteran of Utah. Now the sentence that does the most work: "This definition is not intended to confer eligibility for benefits." Meeting this definition makes you a veteran for purposes of statutory construction. It does not entitle you to anything. Every benefit in this file has its own conditions on top, and several use a different test altogether. Four of those departures matter. Community college enrollment preference uses a wider test. Section 53H-3-1103 requires a community college to give enrollment preference to veterans "who furnish proof of other than a dishonorable discharge from the armed forces of the United States." Other than dishonorable reaches an other than honorable discharge and a bad conduct discharge, both of which fail section 68-3-12.5. This is the widest discharge door in the Utah code. The veterans treatment court uses VA health care eligibility. Section 78A-5-302, subsection 7: "'Veteran' means a former service member who qualifies for health care benefits from the Veterans Administration." No days, no discharge characterisation. A veteran whose character of service was determined favourably by VA for health care purposes, notwithstanding a bad paper discharge, is a veteran for that part. The hunting and fishing discount uses a rating floor the statute never mentions. Section 23A-4-302 tells the Wildlife Board to use "the same guidelines for disability as the United States Department of Veterans Affairs" and to give at least a 25 percent fee reduction. The Division of Wildlife Resources then requires a service-connected disability of "20% or greater". So a veteran rated 10 percent qualifies for the property tax exemption and is refused the licence discount. The employment preference reaches people who are not veterans at all. Section 71A-2-101, subsection 1, paragraph (c) defines "preference eligible" as any veteran or service member, an individual with a disability regardless of percentage, the spouse or surviving spouse of a veteran or service member, a Purple Heart recipient, or a retired member of the armed forces. A currently serving soldier is preference eligible. So is that soldier's husband or wife. Two further terms recur through Title 71A and are defined in section 71A-1-101. "Service member" means a currently serving member of the armed forces, so where a Utah statute says "veteran or service member" it is deliberately covering both. "Government entity" means the state and any county, municipality, special district, special service district, or other political subdivision or administrative unit, "including state institutions of education", which is how the employment preference reaches public university hiring. What to do with this. When a benefit is refused, ask which section the refusal rests on and read that section's own words, because in Utah the general definition is a starting point that the individual programme is free to widen or narrow. Utah's county veterans service officers and the Department of Veterans and Military Affairs claims staff do this work at no charge.