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Show BUREAU EDllOR'S NOTE: This newspaper, through special arrangement with the Washington Bureau of Western Newspaper News-paper Union at 1616 Eye Street, N. IT, Washington, D.C.,is able to bring readers read-ers this weekly column on problems of the veteran and serviceman and his family. Questions may be addressed to the abov$ Bureau and they will be answered an-swered in a subsequent column. No replies can be made direct by mail, but only in the column which will appear ap-pear in this newspaper regularly. Provisions of Terminal Pay Veterans' Service Bureau today contains, the answers to countless inquiries which have come to our Washington office concerning provisions pro-visions of the new terminal pay law for enlisted men, recently signed by the President. Official title to the act is the armed forces leave act of 1946, which, by the way, is the first major revision of armed forces leave policies in 70 years, since the I basic law respecting army and navy officers' leaves dates from 1874, with an amendment in 1876. Here's what the act does: Overall, it gives to about 15 million former army, navy, marine and coast guard members ,an estimated 2.7 billion dollars in cash and interest bearing five-year bonds. Essentially the act gives officers and enlisted men and women of all services identical leave rights and limits the amount of leave which any individual may accrue to 60 days, instead of the maximum of 120 days for officers as heretofore. Men still in active service 'who have accumulated from 61 to 120 days leave as of September 1, 1946, will be reimbursed in cash and bonds for the balance over 60 days, and on September 1 will have to their credit 60 days leave. As more leave time accrues to these persons, per-sons, they must take their leave or lose credit for it. All veterans who already have left the service will be paid in cash and bonds for accumulated leave not taken up to 120 days between September 8, 1939, and September 1, 1946. The treasury, the army and the navy have outlined the following fol-lowing steps to be taken by veterans in applying for their payments: 1. Obtain from any post office in the country a form entitled, "Claim for Settlement Unused Leave" and the instruction sheet which goes with it. 2. Fill out this form, following the instruction sheet. If assistarp desired it may be obtained J of the 3,000 - odd veterans' cV munity information or advisory centers cen-ters throughout the nation, or at the office of any state or county veterans' vet-erans' service officer. 3. Swear to or affirm the statements state-ments made In the form before a notary public or other civil officer offi-cer authorized to administer oaths. The majority of the community information in-formation or advisory centers will provide this notarial service free of charge. 4. Mail the completed form, together to-gether with your discharge certificate, certifi-cate, or certification of service for each period of service covered in the claim, to the appropriate army, navy, marine corps or coast guard paying officer listed on the reverse side of the claim' form. Your discharge dis-charge certificate may be the original, orig-inal, a photostatic copy, or a certified certi-fied copy. If the original discharge certificate has been lost or destroyed, de-stroyed, a certificate in lieu of discharge, dis-charge, which will be considered as valid evidence for payment, will be issued on application to the appropriate ap-propriate one of the following agencies: For example the Adjutant general's office, 4300 Goodfellow Blvd.. St. Louis 20. Mo.: for nan Chief of Naval Personnel, Navy department, Washington 25, D. C. ; for marine corps Headquarters U. S. Marine Corps, Washington 25, D. C. ; for coast guard Commandant Comman-dant of the Coast Guard, Washington Washing-ton 25, D. C. In case of veterans from the army, a form for which to apply for a certificate may be obtained at any recruiting office. It is a good idea to have at least one photostatic copy of your original discharge certificate cer-tificate made for your own files. 5. Upon receipt of the claim and supporting papers, the paying officer of-ficer will examine all documents to make certain they are in proper form for payment, and after the supporting documents have served their purpose, they will be mailed back to you. Payment will be made as soon as possible, possibly by October 1. But do not write or call in person to paying officers inquiring, in-quiring, about your claim. . It will only delay speedy settlement of claims. 6. If the amount of the claim is less than $50, or if the claimant was last separated from active service before January 1, 1943, payment will be made in full by treasury check. For claims over $50 payment pay-ment will be in bonds in multiples multi-ples of $25, with a check for the balance. For instance, if the leave claim is for $219, the veteran will get $200 in $25 bonds and a check for $19. In cases where veterans have died, or in cases where they have been adjudged incompetent, payment will be made fully by check to survivors. i |