Disabled American Veterans (dav)

Disabled American Veterans (DAV)

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was designed to provide benefits and services for Americas Veterans. The VA does provide a wide array of services to veterans but can be difficult to work with if you are not familiar with how the process works. The difficulties dealing with VA’s processes are where organizations like the DAV can help. The DAV will represent the veteran when dealing with the VA office. I have seen firsthand DAV’s abilities when dealing with VA offices and personnel. The DAV provides these services free of charge to veterans and their families. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my experience and results from talking to a DAV member.

The Veteran as a Victim

The term victim has many different meanings and can be interpreted in many different ways by members of society. Veterans may not be looked at as victims because they voluntarily signup to become part of the Armed Services but this could not be further from the truth. The main goal of the Armed Services is to defend the constitution of the US against all enemies foreign and domestic by any means possible. Defending the constitution of the US means the different armed forces place military personnel anywhere they deem fit to complete the military mission. Military personnel throughout history have been exposed to numerous chemical and biological agents after being sent to certain locations around the world. In addition, military personnel have and still face extremely harsh physical and mental conditions in combat environments. These conditions and exposure to numerous unknown chemicals are just a few reasons veterans should be considered victims and need groups like the DAV to ensure they are cared for long after their military careers are over.

The DAV

The DAV ensures military veterans receive the benefits and services they require and have earned through the veterans service to our country. As mentioned above, I have personally received help from the DAV so I contacted Mr. King, whom worked with me before, to talk about the DAV and its role. The DAV has been in existence since the post WWI era to help ensure the wellbeing of disabled veterans.