By Summer 2019 M-VETS Student-Advisor Lillia J. Damalouji

Stolen valor, or the act of falsely claiming military service or displaying falsely-earned military decorations, medals, or badges, is an extensive problem throughout the United States that has sparked a myriad of governmental responses. In a year-long nationwide operation jointly conducted by the Department of Justice and Department of Veteran’s Affairs (“VA”) entitled “Operation Stolen Valor”, investigators uncovered over $1.4 million in fraudulent VA claims made in the Northwest Region alone.[1] Throughout the United States, this number is likely much higher. Also called the “phony war hero phenomenon,”[2] stolen valor is not only costing the United States millions of dollars in fraudulently-claimed benefits, but is also tarnishing the prestige of these decorations for the countless servicemembers who rightfully earned them.

In attempt to combat this abuse, Congress enacted the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, which penalized those who displayed unearned medals and badges.[3] The Stolen Valor Act, signed into law by President George H.W. Bush “amends the federal criminal code to expand the prohibition against wearing, manufacturing, or selling military decorations or medals without legal authorization”[4] and “prohibits falsely representing oneself as having been awarded any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces or any of the service medals or badges” [5] in § 704(a). Under this Act, one who fraudulently represented the receipt of military decorations or honors was subject to either a fine or imprisonment for up to six months, or both in § 704(b).[6] One who fraudulently represented the receipt of a Congressional medal of honor, a distinguished-service cross, a Navy cross, an Air Force cross, a silver star, a Purple Heart, or a combat badge was subject to either a fine or imprisonment for up to one year, or both.[7]

Fraudulent Representations about Receipt of Military Decorations Held Unconstitutional

While this act attempted to protect the reputation of these decorations, it was met with claims of unconstitutionality under the First Amendment right to the freedom of speech. In United States v. Alvarez, Xavier Alvarez lied in announcing that he was a retired marine who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor and was, in turn, indicted under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005.[8] On appeal, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit found the Act invalid under the First Amendment and reversed Alvarez’s conviction.[9] The Ninth Circuit, in C.J. Kozinski’s concurrence in the denial of rehearing en banc, suggested that “without robust protections of the First Amendment, the white lies, exaggerations and deceptions that are an integral part of human intercourse would become targets of censorship.”[10]

During this same time, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Tenth Circuit found the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 constitutional in its United States v. Strandlof opinion. In the aforementioned case, Strandlof was indicted under the Stolen Valor Act for claiming to have received a Purple Heart and Silver Star while serving in the Iraq War.[11] In a lengthy analysis that explored over 50 years of Supreme Court history, this court held that the Stolen Valor Act was facially constitutional and, in accordance with Supreme Court precedence, reasoned that “the Act prohibits only knowingly false statements of fact, it provides breathing space for valuable speech, and it reaches no farther than is necessary to protect the legitimate interest involved.”[12] Judge Tymkovich, in his opinion, outrightly disagreed with the Ninth Circuit’s holding in United States v. Alvarez, reasoning that contrary to the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, upholding the Stolen Valor Act would not “lead America down a slippery slope where Congress could criminalize an appallingly wide swath of ironic, dramatic, diplomatic and otherwise polite speech.”[13]

United States v. Alvarez, on certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, ultimately resolved this Circuit split, holding that the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 was an unconstitutional abridgement of the freedom of speech under the First Amendment. This holding was rendered on the grounds that the Act did not satisfy the “exacting scrutiny” approach when the Court assessed content-based restrictions on free speech.[14] Put simply, no clear showing of the necessity of the Act existed as required under the exacting scrutiny approach.[15] In light of the Supreme Court’s rule, both the opinion and judgment rendered in United States v. Strandlof were vacated.[16] With this holding, the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 became an unconstitutional statute.

The Enaction of the Stolen Valor Act of 2013

In response to the Alvarez decision, Congress enacted the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2013.[17] This Act “amends the federal criminal code to rewrite provisions relating to fraudulent claims about military service subject to a fine, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both to an individual who, with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, fraudulently holds himself or herself out to be a recipient of a Congressional Medal of Honor, a distinguished service cross [etc.]…”[18] This Act was drafted, with support from the American Legion, to include “the legal language in effort to meet the Supreme Court’s objections to the old [2005] Stolen Valor Act.”[19] While written to serve as a constitutional replacement to the 2005 Stolen Valor Act, this Act too, was met with backlash in United States v. Swisher.

Unauthorized Wearing of Military Decorations Held Unconstitutional

The Stolen Valor Act was further degraded by the Ninth Circuit’s ruling in United States v. Swisher, which found that the reasoning in United States v. Alvarez, which invalidated § 704(b), the fraudulent representation of the receipt of military decorations, extends to § 704(a), which criminalizes the unauthorized wearing of military medals.[20] Appellant Swisher, who was indicted on four violations of federal law, submitted a fraudulent DD-214 to the VA in attempt to acquire additional benefits.[21]

This case overturned the United States v. Perelman ruling, decided two months after the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Alvarez, which narrowly construed § 704(a) as criminalizing only the unauthorized wearing of medals “when the wearer intends to deceive”.[22] Furthermore, Perelman did not apply the “exacting scrutiny” analytic framework because this section of the Stolen Valor statute did not criminalize speech, but criminalized “the harmful conduct of wearing a medal without authorization and with intent to deceive,” and was, therefore, a constitutionally-permissible provision.[23]

The holding in Swisher therefore, overturned § 704(a) of the Stolen Valor Act rendering this section unconstitutional under the First Amendment and noting the Perelman decision as moot.

Implications of Swisher and a Path Forward

These cases not only pose a concern for preserving the honor of these prestigious awards and medals, but also highlight the uncertainty of the scope of the First Amendment itself. With the most recent holding in Swisher, the Supreme Court has made clear that no distinction between conduct and speech holds significance, rather, the statute itself and the legislative purpose in regulating are central to the analysis.[24] These two provisions of the Stolen Valor Act were determined to violate the protections guaranteed under the First Amendment. In turn, Americans enjoy the freedom to both make false representations of their service and wear unearned medals and decorations, contrary to the intended protections of the Stolen Valor Act. Though, faith must not be lost as Congress is attempting to amend this Act in both the House and Senate, to provide penalties for the sale of any Purple Heart awarded to any member of the Armed Forces.[25] Servicemembers and veterans who have rightfully earned these medals should enjoy the full honor that is attached to these decorations; now is the time for Congressional action to restore the protections intended by the Stolen Valor Act to preserve the rights and honors of these medals now and in the future.

[1] Dept. of Justice, Northwest Crackdown on Fake Veterans in “Operation Stolen Valor,” Sept. 21, 2007, https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/waw/press/2007/sep/operationstolenvalor.html

[2] Id.

[3] 18 U.S.C. § 704.

[4] Stolen Valor Act of 2005, S. Rep. No. 1998-109 Summary (2006).

[5] Id.

[6] 18 U.S.C. § 704(b).

[7] 18 U.S.C. § 704(c); 18 U.S.C. § 704(d).

[8] United States v. Alvarez, 567 U.S. 709, 714 (2012).

[9] See id.

[10] United States v. Alvarez, 638 F.3d 666, 673 (9th Cir. 2011).

[11] United States v. Strandlof, 667 F.3d 1146, 1152 (10th Cir. 2012).

[12] 667 F.3d. at 1167 citing Gertz v. Robert Welch, 418 U.S. 323, 349 (1972).

[13] 667 F.3d. at 1155.

[14] 567 U.S. at 724.

[15] 567 U.S. at 729.

[16] United States v. Strandlof, 684 F.3d. 962, 963 (10th Cir. 2012).

[17] Stolen Valor Act of 2013, H.R. Rep. No. 258-113, Summary (2013).

[18] Id.

[19] The American Legion, Stolen Valor Act of 2013 Signed into Law, Jun. 4, 2013, https://www.legion.org/legislative/215862/stolen-valor-act-2013-signed-law

[20] United States v. Swisher, 811 F.3d. 299, 303-04 (9th Cir. 2016).

[21] 811 F.3d at 305.

[22] 811 F.3d at 310 citing United States v. Perelman, 695 F.3d 866, 870 (9th Cir. 2012).

[23] 811 F.3d at 310 citing 695 F.3d at 871.

[24] See Aaron P. Bretcher, Thinking about Speaking and Doing in the Ninth Circuit: United States v. Swisher, Feb. 25, 2016, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/civil-rights/practice/2016/thinking-about-speaking-and-doing-in-the-ninth-circuit-united-states-v-swisher/.

[25] Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart Preservation Act, S. Rep. No. 122-116 (2019); Private Corrado Piccoli Purple Heart Preservation Act, H.R. Rep. No. 2911-116 (2019).

By Summer 2019 M-VETS Student-Advisor Jacquelyn Cabada Branscomb

History

In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt put out a call for Filipinos to fight alongside the American forces against the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands.[1] During that time, the Philippines was still a commonwealth of the United States. Under this Presidential Military Order on July 26, 1941, military forces of the government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines were in service to America under the United States Armed Forces of the Far East.[2]

With that call, at least quarter-million Filipinos joined the American forces under four groups: regular Philippine Scouts, the new Philippine Scouts, Guerrilla Services, and the Philippine Commonwealth Army.[3] They were promised, by President Roosevelt, full veterans’ benefits to those who enlisted.[4] Many walked side by side American Forces in the Bataan Death March. Many fought off the enemy on Corregidor. Many were prisoners of war or missing in action. And as American forces retreated as Japan took over the islands, and after General Douglas MacArthur stated that he “shall return,” Filipinos continued to fight on the American territory of the commonwealth of the Philippines. Eventually, the United States did return as promised and Filipinos and US fought side by side again until the end of the war.

Unfortunate Reversal

In 1946, after the war ended, and under President Harry S. Truman, the United States passed what are called the Rescission Acts of 1946. These Acts deemed that the service of certain Filipino veterans is NOT to be considered active service for the purposes of nearly all American laws.[5] With the approval of those acts, thousands of Filipinos who fought off Japanese forces on the American commonwealth was stripped of their label as veteran and of the benefits promised by President Roosevelt. This unfortunate reversal is recognized by the federal government in the Filipino Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015.[6]

Codified at 38 USC § 107, the Rescission Acts, still in effect today, states that “service before July 1, 1946, in the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, […] pursuant to the military order of the President dated July 26, 1941, […] shall not be deemed to have been active military, naval, or air service for the purposes of any law of the United States conferring rights, privileges, or benefits upon any person…”[7]

Veterans who were granted benefits prior to the Rescission Acts being enacted in 1946 can receive their full benefits.[8] However, those who did not claim their benefits are restricted by the law. The Rescission Acts provide for some benefits such as service-connected disability or death benefits, dependency indemnity compensation survivor benefits, and burial benefits.[9] However, the law limits payment to 50 cents on every dollar.[10] Furthermore, receipt of benefits also depends on whether the beneficiary resides in America or in the Philippines.[11] The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) also provides benefits for survivors of Filipino veterans but they are also limited.[12]

Course Correction?

Seventy-three years later, these WWII vets are in the upper reaches of their 90s. They have seen several attempts to correct the errors that have kept them from benefits typically conferred on American war veterans. Many attempts have failed.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Barack Obama authorized a program called the WWII Filipino Equity Compensation (FVEC) Fund on February 2009. [13] The VA was appropriated $198,000,000 for lump-sum payments of $9,000 for non-US residents or $15,000 for US Residents.[14] There was a one-year window to apply and the VA received 42,755 applications.[15] As of January 2019, 18,983 claims were granted, and 23,772 claims denied. According to the VA, there is still approximately $56,000,000 available in the FVEC fund.[16] Some veterans have had issues with the required documentation. Thousands of official military personnel files were destroyed in a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center.[17] The Army had an 80% estimated loss of files for personnel discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960.[18]

On December 14, 2016, Congress passed, and President Barack Obama signed, Public Law 114-265, known as the Filipino Veterans of World War III Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2015.”[19] This act recognized the efforts of Filipino fighters during WWII and authorized the awarding of a single Congressional Gold Medal for all Filipino Veterans which should then be displayed in the Smithsonian Institution.[20] Copies can be sold to the actual Filipino veterans with funds going to the US Mint Public Enterprise Fund.[21] The ceremony was held on Wednesday, October 27, 2017.

Final Thoughts

There are only a couple thousand surviving veterans and even more immediate family members of surviving or deceased veterans that are waiting for the benefits they were originally promised in 1941. The treatment of these veterans and their families remain a stain on an otherwise friendly alliance between the United States and its former territory. Although the one-time funding provided as part of the stimulus package in 2009 and the conferring of the Congressional Gold Medal on the WWII Filipino Veterans was an honor, the urgent necessity for these aging vets is a comprehensive approach for the vets residing in both the United States and the Philippines. Although ensuring benefits are conferred properly and accurately is complicated, time consuming, and messy, it would seem to be the least we could do for a group of people who volunteered to risk their life for the protection of a valuable American property.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/25/politics/congressional-gold-medal-filipino-wwii-vets/index.html

[2] 38 USC 107 note “Payments to Eligible Persons Who Served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East During World War II” (a)(3).

[3] Id.

[4] https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/25/politics/congressional-gold-medal-filipino-wwii-vets/index.html

[5] 38 USC 107 note “Payments to Eligible Persons Who Served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East During World War II” (a)(5).

[6] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1555/

[7] 38 USC 107(a)

[8] 38 USC 107 note “Payments to Eligible Persons Who Served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East During World War II” (a)(5).

[9] 38 USC 107(a)

[10] 38 USC 107 note “Payments to Eligible Persons Who Served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East During World War II” (a)(7).

[11] 38 USC 107 note “Payments to Eligible Persons Who Served in the United States Armed Forces in the Far East During World War II” (a)(6).

[12] https://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/survivors/FilipinoSurvivors.pdf

[13] https://www.va.gov/centerforminorityveterans/fvec.asp

[14] Id.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] https://www.archives.gov/personnel-records-center/fire-1973

[18] Id.

[19] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1555/

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

Nelson Henry Jr. in his WWII uniform before his blue discharge in 1945.

Nelson Henry Jr. on April 25, 2019 contemplating his chances of prevailing at the ABCMR.

By Spring 2019 M-VETS Student-Advisor Rachel A. Petrik

Red, white, and blue are three powerfully symbolic colors. After the Continental Congress passed a resolution on July 4, 1776 “authorizing a committee to devise a seal for the United States of America,” the Secretary of the Continental Congress submitted a report declaring that blue shall be the “the color of the Chief” and thereby “signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.”[1] Yet for more than 48,000 Army soldiers, blue constituted the color of disdain as they were involuntarily discharged from service for being African-American or homosexual. For almost the past 75 years, one of these WWII soldiers, Nelson Henry Jr. (“Henry”), has persevered and is still fighting today to attain the justice he has long deserved in the form of correcting his racially-discriminatory blue discharge to an honorable discharge. The time is now for the Army Board for the Correction for Military Records (“ABCMR”) to take action to automatically restore the honor of veterans like Henry without requiring independent appeals to right a century-old wrong.

Blue ‘Ticket’ Discharges

Only utilized by the Army and Army Air Corps (the predecessor of the Air Force),[2] the “Blue Discharge” originated in 1916 to replace the administrative discharge known as ‘Uncharacterized.’”[3] So defined, a Blue discharge is one “which is neither honorable nor dishonorable.”[4] The bases warranting such a characterization ranged from protracted absence without leave and fraudulent enlistment to poor performance and, the base for Henry’s discharge, “undesirable traits of character.”[5] While the law granted benefits to those whose discharge was “under conditions other than dishonorable,” the Veteran’s Administration at the time (now known as the Department of Veterans’ Affairs) determined that the Blue discharge was “really dishonorable at all,” concluding that such a servicemember “is not entitled to education or other benefits.”[6]

Ultimately, a disproportionate number of Blue discharges were given to homosexual and African-American servicemembers.[7] Regarding the latter, African-American soldiers constituted a mere 6.5 percent of the Army, yet received 22.2 percent of the Blue discharges issued from 1941 to 1945.[8] Consequently, nearly a quarter of African-American soldiers who fought in World War II were separated without benefits simply because of the color of the paper that their discharge was printed on and largely because of the color of their skin.

Eventually, Congress began to acknowledge that these Blue discharges had “much of the practical effect of a dishonorable discharge” simply without the attendant court-martial.[9] Indeed, “[r]epeated complaints ha[d] arisen from all parts of the country in connection” with the implications and ramifications of this discharge.[10] Yet the House of Representatives was acutely aware that the number of complaints hardly denoted the significance of the devastation already felt by too many servicemembers:

For a person to make such a complaint in his own case implies that he feels a sense of injustice so great that he is willing to risk publicizing the stigma of having been discharged from the Army under circumstances which savor of disgrace. For each complainant there are many more persons who feel the same sense of injustice but prefer to bury their hurt in as much oblivion as possible.[11]

Accordingly, Congress explicitly denounced the practice of denying benefits to blue discharge recipients, proclaiming that “[n]othing could more clearly prove the anomalous and illogical and disingenuous nature of the blue discharge than this policy of the Veterans’ Administration.”[12] Recognizing that decisions “on such subjects as ‘habits and traits of character’ are necessarily subjective and often highly questionable,”[13] the legislative body further asserted that “Veterans’ Administration should be estopped from passing moral verdicts on the history of any soldier, and should be required to accept all veterans but those expressly excluded by Congress[.]”[14] To right these wrongs, Congress thus recommended that “procedures be instituted for an automatic review of all blue discharges issued since the beginning of the present emergency, for the purposes of restoring such discharges to the status of honorable discharges [and] in all cases where records admit of any doubt, the soldier [is] to be given the advantage of the doubt.”[15]

Following Congress’s lead, the Army abolished the Blue Discharge in 1947. However, no automatic review procedure emerged from the dust, nor did the Veterans’ Administration reinstate their benefits. Although future freedom fighters were safe-guarded from receiving a colorful discharge that “gives the impression that there is something radically wrong with the man in question, something so mysterious that it cannot be talked about or written down, but must be left to the imagination[,]”[16] those already stigmatized received no remedy.

Veteran Nelson Henry Jr.’s Fight

Enter Nelson Henry, Jr. Having grown up in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, Henry enlisted in the Army in 1942 while he was a pre-dental major at Lincoln University.[17] He began his active duty journey in Missouri in 1943, at which time he was “assigned to segregated units where black soldiers endured racism and horrible conditions, especially in the South in the Jim Crow era.”[18] It was not long until Henry was disciplined for minor, unsubstantiated infractions such as permitting a fire to burn out.[19] After only two short years, his superior officer recommended a Blue discharge.[20] Henry recounts, “I was furious, to tell you the truth. I had no choice.”[21]

Returning to civilian life, Henry started a family with his wife, Lydia.[22] He struggled to find employment with his Blue discharge and lack of educational opportunities without a GI Bill. Yet he never gave up. A taxi driver by day to support his three children and a student by night, Henry graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Temple University after 13 years of perseverance.[23]

All the while, however, Henry says the Blue discharge “left a bad taste in my mouth, a cloud over my future. This was a blot on my character.”[24] He had tried shortly after his separation in the 1940s to appeal and upgrade his discharge with assistance from the NAACP and American Red Cross, but to no avail. In a markedly succinct letter, Henry was told bluntly that the review board “denied his appeal for an honorable discharge” without further explanation. [25] He thought the door to justice would be forever closed to him and indeed it was for roughly 72 years. Then suddenly the door opened just last year in 2018.

On an unsuspecting day, Henry’s son “saw a segment on NBC about Helen Grace James, a lesbian woman who was kicked out of the Air Force in 1955 because of her sexuality, and whose discharge was upgraded in 2018.” [26] Similar to Henry, she had received an ‘undesirable’ discharge and was separated without any benefits due to a personal trait.[27] She too had continued to fight her stigmatizing discharge until she was 89, finally obtaining a long-overdue correction.[28] If the Air Force was willing to upgrade hers, perhaps the Army would now upgrade Henry’s.

Fortunately, Legal Aid at Work, who handled James’ successful appeal, agreed to represent Henry as well alongside the Golden Gate School of Law Veterans’ Advocacy Clinic, a student-run clinic like M-VETS.[29] The two groups filed in March 2019 with the ABCMR on Henry’s behalf, requesting yet again for “the Army to clear his name and grant him an honorable discharge.”[30] They have also requested for an expedited hearing as Henry is soon to turn 96 this upcoming June.[31] As one of his lawyers highlighted, “The Army doesn’t have much time to do right by him, or by the many other veterans who were wronged by this shameful practice.”[32]

Corrective Actions

How is it that nearly 75 years have passed without remedy for the majority of Blue discharge veterans? Notwithstanding Congress’ unequivocal recommendation in 1946 to establish an automatic review proceeding, no attempt has been made by the ABCMR to do so. Instead, WWII veterans like Helen Grace James and Nelson Henry, Jr. are forced down an unalterable life path of injustice without benefits or support after having served their country. Whether because of their lifestyle or color of their skin, these veterans deserve so much more than to spend the last remaining years of their lives still fighting for what they should have received that fateful day of their separation: A chance to be heard and a chance to be granted an honorable discharge.

Instead, they are relegated to do just that by filing individual appeals that require legal assistance and span several years with no assurance that the efforts will be recognized. Because of the inherent hardships in pursuing a military discharge upgrade from the 1940s, many veterans do not take the leap. Illustratively, a search for “blue discharge” in ABCMR records yields only 16 decisions.[33]

It is estimated that we lose 372 WWII veterans each and every day.[34] It is unacceptable for these veterans to carry the injustices of their era—to no fault of their own—with them to their final resting points at Arlington National Cemetery. They fought for us, our rights, our freedom. Now it is time for us and the ABCMR to fight for them and restore their honor. After all, “[c]aring for our veterans is the duty of a grateful nation.”[35]

*Photos: Jessica Griffin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylvania/nelson-henry-army-blue-discharge-military-discharge-petition-20190503.html.

[1] Duane Streufert, What do the Colors of the Flag Mean?, The Flag of the United States of America (2005), http://www.usflag.org/colors.html.

[2] Upgrading Less Than Fully Honorable Discharges – Introduction, 1 Veterans Benefits Manual 21.1, FN. 6 (2018).

[3] Major John W. Brooker, Beyond “T.B.D.”: Understanding VA’s Evaluation of a Former Servicemember’s Benefit Eligibility Following Involuntary or Punitive Discharge from the Armed Forces, 214 Mil. Rev. 1, 151 (2012).

[4] Blue Discharge, Ballentine’s Law Dictionary (2010).

[5] Bradford Adams et al., With Malice Toward None: Revisiting the Historical and Legal Basis for Excluding Veterans from “Veteran Services,” 122 Penn St. L. Rev. 69, 76 (2017).

[6] Investigations of the National War Effort, H. R. 20, 79^th Cong. at 8 (1946).

[7] Melanie Burney, WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him, The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 3, 2019), https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylvania/nelson-henry-army-blue-discharge-military-discharge-petition-20190503.html.

[8] Id.

[9] Investigations of the National War Effort, H.R. Rep 1510 at 13 (1946).

[10] Id. at 1.

[11] Id. 13.

[12] Id. at 8.

[13] Id. at 13.

[14] Id. at 9.

[15] Id. at 13.

[16] Id. at 6.

[17] Melanie Burney, WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him, The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 3, 2019), https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylvania/nelson-henry-army-blue-discharge-military-discharge-petition-20190503.html.

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] Id.

[21] Id.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24] Id.

[25] War Department Letter to the Honorable William T. Granaham, RE: Appeal of Former Private Nelson Henry Jr. (August 27, 1946).

[26] Melanie Burney, WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him, The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 3, 2019), https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylvania/nelson-henry-army-blue-discharge-military-discharge-petition-20190503.html.

[27] Id.

[28] Id.

[29] Elizabeth Kristen, Army Veteran Seeks the Honorable Discharge he was Denied After WWII Because of his Race, Legal Aid at Work (March 12, 2019), https://legalaidatwork.org/releases/at-95-black-army-veteran-seeks-the-honorable-discharge-he-was-denied-after-wwii-because-of-his-race/.

[30] Melanie Burney, WWII vet wants Army to upgrade discriminatory discharge to ‘honorable,’ nearly 75 years after expelling him, The Philadelphia Inquirer (May 3, 2019), https://www.philly.com/news/pennsylvania/nelson-henry-army-blue-discharge-military-discharge-petition-20190503.html..

[31] Id.

[32] Id.

[33] ABCMR Reading Room, “Blue Discharge” (May 2019), https://search.usa.gov/search/docs?utf8=✓&dc=8134&affiliate=boards&query=”blue+discharge”&commit=Search

[34] Frequently Asked Questions, The National WWII Museum, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us/frequently-asked-questions.

[35] Quote by Patty Murray, Quote Fancy, https://quotefancy.com/quote/1338528/Patty-Murray-Caring-for-our-veterans-is-the-duty-of-a-grateful-nation.