CIVILIAN OR CONTRACTUAL GROUP REQUESTS FOR VA BENEFITS

You may receive a request in which the requester states, "I was an American Airlines employee during WW II and want to apply for VA benefits."  Or "I was in the WAAC and would like a copy of my discharge."  Or "My father was a Flying Tiger in WWII and I need a copy of his DD 214 to apply for VA benefits."  These requesters may belong to civilian or contractual groups who have been considered "active duty" by the Secretary of Defense for the purpose of VA benefits.  The Secretary certified that the groups have provided active military service under certain conditions and during specific timeframes.  Individual members of each group must be issued a discharge by the Defense Secretary to qualify for VA benefits.  NPRC has no authority to make active duty determinations for any of these groups.  Requesters should be directed to the appropriate service department.  Current service department addresses are listed on DD Form 2168 at the link below.

Before an individual can receive any VA benefits, the person must apply for an Armed Forces Discharge Certificate (DD Form 214) by completing a DD Form 2168, Application for Discharge of Member or Survivor of Member of Group Certified to Have Performed Active Duty with the Armed Forces of the United States.  The DD Form 2168 is available at http://www.dior.whs.mil/forms/DD2168.pdf.  Instructions for completing the form, including mailing addresses, are contained on the back of the form.  If the military service department determines the individual has provided active military service, the military service department will issue a discharge.  The individual may then present the discharge to the VA for benefits.

The groups that are considered "active duty" for purposes of receiving VA benefits are:

1. Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
2. Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit of World War I.
3. Engineer Field Clerks (WWI).
4. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC).
5. Quartermaster Corps female clerical employees serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.
6. Civilian employees of Pacific naval air bases who actively participated in defense of Wake Island during World War II.
7. Reconstruction aides and dieticians in World War I.
8. Male civilian ferry pilots.
9. Wake Island defenders from Guam.
10. Civilian personnel assigned to OSS secret intelligence.
11. Guam Combat Patrol.
12. Quartermaster Corps members of the Keswick crew on Corregidor during World War II.
13. U.S. civilians who participated in the defense of Bataan.
14. U.S. merchant seamen who served on blockships in support of Operation Mulberry in the World War II invasion of Normandy.
15. American merchant marines in oceangoing service during World War II.
16. Civilian Navy IFF radar technicians who served in combat areas of the Pacific during World War II.
17. U.S. civilians of the American Field Service who served overseas in World War I.
18. U.S. civilians of the American Field Service who served overseas under U.S. armies and U.S. army groups in World War II.
19. U.S. civilian employees of American Airlines who served overseas in a contract with the Air Transport Command between Dec. 14, 1941, and Aug. 14, 1945.
20. Civilian crewmen of U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey vessels who served in areas of immediate military hazard while conducting cooperative operations with and for the U.S. Armed Forces between Dec. 7, 1941, and Aug. 15, 1945.
21. Members of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) who served between Dec. 7, 1941, and July 18, 1942.
22. U. S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of United Air Lines who served overseas in a contract with Air Transport Command between Dec. 14, 1941, and Aug. 14, 1945.
23. U.S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc. (TWA), who served overseas in a contract with the Air Transport Command between Dec. 14, 1941 and Aug. 14, 1945. "Flight Crew" includes pursers.
24. U.S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp. (Consairway Division) who served overseas in a contract with Air Transport Command between Dec. 14, 1941, and Aug. 14, 1945.
25. U.S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Pan American World Airways and its subsidiaries and affiliates, who served overseas in a contract with the Air Transport Command and Naval Air Transport Service between Dec. 14, 1941, and Aug. 14, 1945.
26. Honorably discharged members of the American Volunteer Guard, Eritrea Service Command, between Jun. 21, 1942, and Mar. 31, 1943.
27. U.S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Northwest Airlines who served overseas under the airline’s contract with Air Transport Command from Dec. 14, 1941, through Aug. 14, 1945.
28. U.S. civilian female employees of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps who served in the defense of Bataan and Corregidor during the period Jan. 2, 1942, to Feb. 3, 1945.
29. U.S. flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Northeast Airlines Atlantic Division, who served overseas as a result of Northeast Airlines’ contract with the Air Transport Command during the period December 7, 1941, through August 14, 1945.
30. U.S. civilian flight crew and aviation ground support employees of Braniff Airways, who served overseas in the North Atlantic or under the jurisdiction of the North Atlantic Wing, Air Transport Command, as a result of a contract with the Air Transport Command during the period Feb. 26, 1942, through Aug. 14, 1945.
31. The Operational Analysis Group of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Office of Emergency Management, which served overseas with the U.S. Army Air Corps from Dec. 7, 1941, through Aug. 15, 1945.
32. Three scouts/guides, Miguel Tenorio, Penedicto Taisacan, and Christino Dela Cruz, who assisted the U.S. Marines in the offensive operations against the Japanese on the Northern Mariana Island from June 19, 1944, through Sep. 2, 1945.
33. Approximately 50 Chamorro and Carolinian former native policemen who received military training in the Donnal area of central Saipan and were placed under the command of Lt. Casino of the 6th Provisional Military Police Battalion to accompany United States Marines on active, combat-patrol activity from Aug. 19, 1945, to Sep. 2, 1945.