The Coconino sun., 1922-08-04
FIVE YEARS FROM
 DATE OF DISCHARGE

Section oO9 or the war RISK lnSur-
 ance Act is quoted for the information
 of all ex-service men who may have
 been disabled while in active service
 and who have not applied for compen-
 sation to the U. s. Veterans Bureau:
 "That no compensation shall be pay
 able unless a claim therefor be filed,
 in case of disability, within five years
 after discharge or resignation from
 the service, or, in case of death during the service, within five years after
 such death is officially recorded in
 the department under which he may
 be serving: Provided, however, that
 where compensation is payable for
 death or disability occurring after dis
 charge or resignation from the sert vice, claim must be made within five years after such death or the begin
 ming of such disability"
 This section of the act has been en- forced but little up to the present
 time, the reason being that the five
 years mentioned therein has not run for many of the discharged service men who desire to claim their rights under this act rather than under the
 pension law. Those who were dis
 charged between April 6, 1917, and October 6, 1917, have an optional right, that is, they can either apply to the Pension Bureau or to the Vet erans' Bureau if they apply within the statutory period, namely, within five years. Persons discharged after
 October 6, 1917, will have no right whatever unless they make claim five
 years from date of their discharge.
 An example of that is "a man dis charged from navy on s. c. D. De- cember 1, 1917, files claim with the Veterans Bureau at one of the dis trict offices on December 15, 1922. His claim must necessarily be disallowed, because he has not applied for com pensation within the five-year period, unless he has a certificate of injury which he must get before August g., 1922" This is vitally important infor- nation to discharged ex-service men and should be given as much publicity as possible in order that rights may not be lost because of this feature of the act.
 The above outline relates also to duplication for compensation because of service connected deaths. Parents who are not receiving compensation must show dependency within five years after the death of the person on account of whose service claim is made. This provision of the act is found in Section 301, subdivision e." which is quoted as follows:
 ss C,,ol, cbau ha payable whether the dependency of the father or mother or both arises before or after the death of the per son, but no compensation shall be pay able if the dependency arises more than five years after the death of the person."
 Attention is also invited to Section 315 of the Act, which is quoted as follows:
 "That no person admitted into the military or naval forces of the United States after six months from the pas sage of this amendatory act shall be entitled to the compensation or any other benefits or privileges provided under the provisions of Article III of the War Risk Insurance Act as amended"
 This section, as it states, only cov- CTS those who are enlisted after Feb ruary 9, 1922. Should claim be filed by discharged man who was enlist ed after February 9, 1922, regardless of the date of discharge at the present time he is without protection. Several acts are pending in congress to cover such class of claimants but as the statutes now stand there is no act to protect them; neither the Veterans Bureau nor the Pension office has any jurisdiction over them.