38 C.F.R. § 3.7

The following individuals and groups are considered to have performed active military, naval, air, or space service:

(a) Aerial transportation of mail (Pub. L. 140, 73d Congress). Persons who were injured or died while serving under conditions set forth in Pub. L. 140, 73d Congress.

(b) Aliens. Effective July 28, 1959, a veteran discharged for alienage during a period of hostilities unless evidence affirmatively shows he or she was discharged at his or her own request. A veteran who was discharged for alienage after a period of hostilities and whose service was honest and faithful is not barred from benefits if he or she is otherwise entitled. A discharge changed prior to January 7, 1957, to honorable by a board established under authority of section 301, Pub. L. 346, 78th Congress, as amended, or section 207, Pub. L. 601, 79th Congress, as amended (now 10 U.S.C. 1552 and 1553), will be considered as evidence that the discharge was not at the alien's request. (See § 3.12.)

(c) Army field clerks. Included as enlisted men.

(d) Army Nurse Corps, Navy Nurse Corps, and female dietetic and physical therapy personnel. (1) Army and Navy nurses (female) on active service under order of the service department.

(2) Dietetic and physical therapy (female) personnel, excluding students and apprentices, appointed with relative rank on or after December 22, 1942, or commissioned on or after June 22, 1944.

(e) Aviation camps. Students who were enlisted men during World War I.

(f) Cadets and midshipmen. See § 3.6(b)(4).

(g) Coast and Geodetic Survey, and its successor agencies, the Environmental Science Services Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. See § 3.6(b)(3).

(h) Coast Guard. Active service in Coast Guard on or after January 29, 1915, while under jurisdiction of the Treasury Department, Navy Department, or the Department of Transportation. (See § 3.6 (c) and (d) as to temporary members of the Coast Guard Reserves.)

(i) Contract surgeons. For compensation and dependency and indemnity compensation, if the disability or death was the result of disease or injury contracted in line of duty during a war period while actually performing the duties of assistant surgeon or acting assistant surgeon with any military force in the field, or in transit or in hospital.

(j) Field clerks, Quartermaster Corps. Included as enlisted men.

(k) Lighthouse service personnel. Transferred to the service and jurisdiction of War or Navy Departments by Executive order under the Act of August 29, 1916. Effective July 1, 1939, service was consolidated with the Coast Guard.

(l) Male nurses. Persons who were enlisted men of Medical Corps.

(m) National Guard. Members of the National Guard of the United States and Air National Guard of the United States are included as Reserves. See § 3.6 (c) and (d) as to training duty performed by members of a State National Guard and paragraph (o) of this section as to disability suffered after being called into Federal service and before enrollment.

(n) Persons heretofore having a pensionable or compensable status.

(o) Persons ordered to service. (1) Any person who has:

(i) Applied for enlistment or enrollment in the active military, naval, air, or space service and who is provisionally accepted and directed, or ordered, to report to a place for final acceptance into the service, or

(ii) Been selected or drafted for such service, and has reported according to a call from the person's local draft board and before final rejection, or

(iii) Been called into Federal service as a member of the National Guard, but has not been enrolled for Federal service, and

(iv) Suffered injury or disease in line of duty while going to, or coming from, or at such place for final acceptance or entry upon active duty,

(2) The injury or disease must be due to some factor relating to compliance with proper orders. Draftees and selectees are included when reporting for preinduction examination or for final induction on active duty. Such persons are not included for injury or disease suffered during the period of inactive duty, or period of waiting, after a final physical examination and prior to beginning the trip to report for induction. Members of the National Guard are included when reporting to a designated rendezvous.

(p) Philippine Scouts and others. See § 3.40.

(q) Public Health Service. See § 3.6 (a) and (b).

(r) Reserves. See § 3.6 (a), (b), and (c).

(s) Revenue Cutter Service. While serving under direction of Secretary of the Navy in cooperation with the Navy.

(t) Training camps. Members of training camps authorized by section 54 of the National Defense Act, except members of Student Army Training Corps Camps at the Presidio of San Francisco, Plattsburg, New York, Fort Sheridan, Illinois, Howard University, Washington, D.C., Camp Perry, Ohio, and Camp Hancock, Georgia, from July 18, 1918, to September 16, 1918.

(u) Women's Army Corps (WAC). Service on or after July 1, 1943.

(v) Women's Reserve of Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Same benefits as members of the Officers Reserve Corps or enlisted men of the United States Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard.

(w) Russian Railway Service Corps. Service during World War I as certified by the Secretary of the Army.

(x) Active military service certified as such under section 401 of Pub. L. 95-202. Such service if certified by the Secretary of Defense as active military service and if a discharge under honorable conditions is issued by the Secretary. The effective dates for an award based upon such service shall be as provided by § 3.400(z) and 38 U.S.C. 5110, except that in no event shall such an award be made effective earlier than November 23, 1977. Service in the following groups has been certified as active military service.

(1) Women's Air Forces Service Pilots (WASP).

(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 AEF (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 Dietitians in World War I.

(8) Male Civilian Ferry Pilots.

(9) Wake Island Defenders from Guam.

(10) Civilian Personnel Assigned to the Secret Intelligence Element of the OSS.

(11) Guam Combat Patrol.

(12) Quartermaster Corps Keswick Crew on Corregidor (WWII).

(13) U.S. Civilian Volunteers Who Actively Participated in the Defense of Bataan.

(14) United States Merchant Seamen Who Served on Blockships in Support of Operation Mulberry.

(15) American Merchant Marine in Oceangoing Service during the Period of Armed Conflict, December 7, 1941, to August 15, 1945.

(16) Civilian Navy IFF Technicians Who Served in the Combat Areas of the Pacific during World War II (December 7, 1941 to August 15, 1945). As used in the official name of this group, the acronym IFF stands for Identification Friend or Foe.

(17) U.S. Civilians of the American Field Service (AFS) Who Served Overseas Operationally in World War I during the Period August 31, 1917 to January 1, 1918.

(18) U.S. Civilians of the American Field Service (AFS) Who Served Overseas Under U.S. Armies and U.S. Army Groups in World War II during the Period December 7, 1941 through May 8, 1945.

(19) U.S. Civilian Employees of American Airlines Who Served Overseas as a Result of American Airlines' Contract with the Air Transport Command During the Period December 14, 1941 through August 14, 1945.

(20) Civilian Crewmen of United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (USCGS) Vessels Who Performed Their Service in Areas of Immediate Military Hazard While Conducting Cooperative Operations with and for the United States Armed Forces Within a Time Frame of December 7, 1941, to August 15, 1945 on a qualifying USCGS vessel. Qualifying USCGS vessels are the Derickson, Explorer, Gilbert, Hilgard, E. Lester Jones, Lydonia, Patton, Surveyor, Wainwright, Westdahl, Oceanographer, Hydrographer, and Pathfinder.

(21) Honorably Discharged Members of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) Who Served During the Period December 7, 1941 to July 18, 1942.

(22) U.S. Civilian Flight Crew and Aviation Ground Support Employees of United Air Lines (UAL), Who Served Overseas as a Result of UAL's Contract With the Air Transport Command During the Period December 14, 1941, through August 14, 1945.

(23) U.S. Civilian Flight Crew and Aviation Ground Support Employees of Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA), Inc., Who Served Overseas as a Result of TWA's Contract with the Air Transport Command During the Period December 14, 1941, through August 14, 1945. The “Flight Crew” includes pursers.

(24) U.S. Civilian Flight Crew and Aviation Ground Support Employees of Consolidated Vultree Aircraft Corporation (Consairway Division) Who Served Overseas as a Result of a Contract With the Air Transport Command During the Period December 14, 1941, through August 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 as a Result of Pan American's Contract With the Air Transport Command and Naval Air Transport Service During the Period December 14, 1941 through August 14, 1945.

(26) Honorably Discharged Members of the American Volunteer Guard, Eritrea Service Command During the Period June 21, 1942 to March 31, 1943.

(27) U.S. Civilian Flight Crew and Aviation Ground Support Employees of Northwest Airlines, Who Served Overseas as a Result of Northwest Airline's Contract with the Air Transport Command during the Period December 14, 1941 through August 14, 1945.

(28) U.S. Civilian Female Employees of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps While Serving in the Defense of Bataan and Corregidor During the Period January 2, 1942 to February 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 (ATC), as a Result of a Contract With the ATC During the Period February 26, 1942, Through August 14, 1945.

(31) The 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 August 19, 1945, to September 2, 1945.

(32) Three scouts/guides, Miguel Tenorio, Penedicto Taisacan, and Cristino Dela Cruz, who assisted the United States Marines in the offensive operations against the Japanese on the Northern Mariana Islands from June 19, 1944, through September 2, 1945.

(33) 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 December 7, 1941, through August 15, 1945.

(y) Alaska Territorial Guard: Members of the Alaska Territorial Guard during World War II who were honorably discharged from such service as determined by the Secretary of Defense.