Washington County Veterans Affairs

Washington County Veterans Affairs is the office every Pennsylvania county must have: a director of veterans affairs appointed by the county (16 Pa.C.S. 15524). See the Pennsylvania entry on county directors. It sits inside the Department of Human Services, and its pages live on the department's own site. The team is two full-time accredited Veteran Service Officers and an administrative assistant working toward accreditation, with a combined eighteen-plus years of claims work behind them, for a county the office says is home to more than 15,000 veterans. Director of Veterans Affairs Michael C. Pierce (724-228-6926, cell 724-206-6580, [email protected]); Veterans Affairs Coordinators Leigh Mawhinney (724-228-6864) and Caroline DePhillips (724-228-6865). Crossroads Center, Third Floor, 95 W. Beau Street, Washington PA 15301. Because of the volume, the office asks veterans to phone 724-228-6865 and schedule an appointment. What it does. The office "will help them discover the benefits to which they are entitled and assist them with the application process for those benefits as established by federal and state regulations": VA compensation, pension and survivors' claims, VA health care enrolment, the State real estate tax exemption, Veterans' Temporary Assistance, the county burial allowance and grave markers, and the Pennsylvania Veterans' Registry. The commissioners fund a veterans transportation programme through the county transportation authority (see that entry). County burial forms. The site publishes the county's own "Burial Allowance, Service Person or Widow or Widower" form, which states the $75.00 allowance outright and is certified by the Director of Veterans Affairs, plus a widow or widower version, and lists a "County Headstone Allowance" form that is named but not posted for download. See the burial entry. Discharges. The Recorder of Deeds invites veterans to file their military discharge papers for safekeeping: the original stays with the veteran, the recorded copy is confidential, and the office makes certified copies when a veteran applies for employment or benefits. Under 16 Pa.C.S. Chapter 13 a recorded discharge is confidential for 85 years. Where the pages are thin. The county site's Veterans Affairs tab now points at the department's own site, washingtoncountyhumanservices.com (rechecked 2026-10-13), whose Veterans Affairs and Our Team pages name Director Michael C. Pierce; the previous director's name the sweep read on the county site is gone. The burial form's own heading still points to Suite 703, Courthouse Square, 100 W. Beau Street, an address the office has since left for the Crossroads Center.