person in the active service upon discharge to accept a commission and before resignation there from will be granted the insurance upon application, payment of premiums, and satisfactory evidence of good health (sec. 602c). (d) Any person who has been commisioned or examined, accepted, and enrolled and is in active service upon the enactment of this act, will be granted insurance upon application, payment of premiums, and satisfactory evidence of good health (sec. 602d). 2. Type of Insurance This insurance is issued upon the 5-year level premium-term plan with conversion rights to ordinary life, 20-payment life and 30-payment life. Unless converted it terminates at the expiration of the 5-year term (sec. 602f). The insurance is issued in multiples of $500.00. The maximum amount of insurance obtainable is $10,000 and the minimum that may be carried is $1,000 (sec. 602q). The insurance comes into effect not later than the first day of the calendar month following the date of application. The United States is not liable for death occurring prior to the effective date (sec. 602p). Pending the promulgation of the terms and conditions of the policy by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs a certificate in lieu thereof may be issued as evidence that the policy has been granted (sec. 6020). The United States shall bear the excess mortality cost and the cost of waiver of premiums on account of total disability traceable to the extra hazard of military or naval service (sec. 607). 3. Premiums (a) Payment. The premium rates are the net rates based upon the American Experience Table of Mortality and interest at an annual rate of 3 percent (sec. 602e). The Administrator will prescribe the date and method of the payment of the premium, but payments in advance may not be required for periods of more than 1 month each. The insured may order that the premium payments be deducted from his active service pay (sec. 602m). When the premiums are waived because of total disability no lien against the policy will be created. (b) Waiver.-In cases of total disability the insured may apply for a waiver of premiums during the continuance of the total disability, provided that: 1. The total disability begins subsequent to the issuance of the insurance. 2. The total disability exists for 6 consecutive months prior to the attainment by the insured of 60 years of age. 3. Application is made while the insurance is currently kept in force by the payment of the premiums and the insured furnishes satisfactory proof that he is and has been continuously totally disabled for 6 or more months prior to attaining 60 years of age. The Administrator may waive the premium for any period up to 6 months prior to the date of application for the waiver. Premiums tendered to cover a period during which such waiver is effective shall be refunded. The insured is subject to periodical examination and if it is found that he is no longer totally disabled, the waiver will cease as of the date of such finding; the policy may then be continued by the payment of premiums as provided (sec. 602n). 4. Beneficiaries The right to designate and change the beneficiary of the policy is vested in the insured, but only within the permitted classes. The insurance is payable only to a widow, widower, child, adopted child, stepchild, illegitimate child, parent, persons in loco parentis, brother, or sister of the insured (sec. 602g). 5. Payments The insurance is payable in the following manner (sec. 602h): (a) If the beneficiary to whom payment is first made is under 30 years of age at the time of maturity, in 240 equal monthly install ments. (b) If the beneficiary to whom payment is first made is 30 or more years of age at the time of maturity, in equal monthly installments for 120 months certain, with such payments continuing during the remaining lifetime of such beneficiary. (c) Any installment certain remaining unpaid at the time of the death of any beneficiary will be paid to any other designated beneficiary. If there be no designation, then as follows: 1. To the widow or widower of the insured, if living. 2. If no widow or widower, to the child or children of the insured, if living, in equal shares. 3. If no widow, widower, or child, to the parent or parents of the insured, if living, in equal shares. 4. If no widow, widower, child or parent, to the brothers and sisters of the insured, if living, in equal shares. The right of any beneficiary to any installment is conditioned upon his being alive to receive the payments (sec. 602i). In the event that no person within the permitted classes of beneficiaries survives to receive the insurance or any part thereof, no payments of the unpaid installments will be made (sec. 602j). Payments made to a person represented by the insured to be within the permitted class of beneficiaries are presumed to have been properly made and to satisfy in full obligations of the United States to the extent of such payments (sec. 6021). No insurance will be payable for death inflicted as a lawful punishment for a crime, or a military or naval offense, except when inflicted by an enemy of the United States; in such case the cash surrender value on the day of death will be paid in the usual way (sec. 612). No State law providing for the presumption of death is applicable to claims for this insurance. If evidence satisfactory to the Administrator is produced establishing the continued and unexplained absence of the insured from his home and family for a 7-year period, the death of such person as of the time of the expiration of the period may be considered as sufficiently proved (sec. 610). C. ADMINISTRATION OF THE ACT The administration of this act is under the authority of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, who is authorized to make such rules and regulations as are necesary and appropriate to carry out the purposes of the act (sec. 608). His decisions are final and conclusive on all questions of law and fact and are not subject to judicial review, except that in the event of a disagreement as to claims arising under the Act proceedings may be brought under the provisions of section 19 and section 500 of the World War Veterans' Act of 1924, as amended (secs. 608, 617). A permanent trust fund to be known as the National Service Life Insurance Fund is created in the Treasury for the deposit of premiums which will be available for the payment of liabilities under this insurance. The Administrator is empowered to create a reserve out of such fund and the Secretary of the Treasury may invest the funds in interest-bearing obligations of the United States or obligations guaranteed by the United States (sec. 605). The funds necessary for the carrying out of the provisions of this act are appropriated from the general Treasury (sec. 604), and the United States shall also bear the cost of the administration of the act (sec. 606). D. PENALTIES Punishments are specified for any manner of fraud or other wrongful conduct (secs. 612-615). E. OTHER LEGISLATION The two statutes referred to in section 616 are, in general, to the following effect. The first (49 Stat. 607) was enacted to safeguard estates derived from pensions or other Government funds belonging to veterans who are incompetent or under other legal disability, and to provide for payments of benefits to administrators or curators of such estates. The second (49 Stat. 2031) provides for benefits to World War widows and children in certain cases; for recognition by the Veterans' Administration of attorneys and agents for veterans and dependents; for issuance of subpoenas by the Veterans' Administration, and miscellaneous purposes. F. ACTIONS 3 Note that the practice adopted from the World War Veterans' Act 3 is modified by the last sentence of section 617. 3 See Note 2 on page 41 of this manual. APPENDIX SELECTIVE TRAINING AND SERVICE ACT OF 1940 [PUBLIC-No. 783-76TH CONGRESS] [S. 4164] AN ACT To provide for the common defense by increasing the personnel of the armed forces of the United States and providing for its training. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the Congress hereby declares that it is imperative to increase and train the personnel of the armed forces of the United States. (b) The Congress further declares that in a free society the obligations and privileges of military training and service should be shared generally in accordance with a fair and just system of selective compulsory military training and service. (c) The Congress further declares, in accordance with our traditional military policy as expressed in the National Defense Act of 1916, as amended, that it is essential that the strength and organization of the National Guard, as an integral part of the first-line defenses of this Nation, be at all times maintained and assured. To this end, it is the intent of the Congress that whenever the Congress shall determine that troops are needed for the national security in excess of those of the Regular Army and those in active training and service under section 3 (b), the National Guard of the United States, or such part thereof as may be necessary, shall be ordered to active Federal service and continued therein so long as such necessity exists. SEC. 2. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, it shall be the duty of every male citizen of the United States, and of every male alien residing in the United States, who, on the day or days fixed for the first or any subsequent registration, is between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-six, to present himself for and submit to registration at such time or times and place or places, and in such manner and in such age group or groups, as shall be determined by rules and regulations prescribed hereunder. SEC. 3. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, every male citizen of the United States, and every male alien residing in the United States who has declared his intention to become such a citizen, between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-six at the time fixed for his registration, shall be liable for training and service in the land or naval forces of the United States. The President is authorized from time to time, whether or not a state of war exists, to select and induct into the land and naval forces of the United States for training and service, in the manner provided in this Act, such number of men as in his judgment is required for such forces in the national interest: Provided, That within the limits of the quota determined under section 4 (b) for the subdivision in which he resides, any person, regardless of race or color, between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six, shall be afforded an opportunity to volunteer for induction into the land or naval forces of the United States for the training and service prescribed in subsection (b), but no person who so volunteers shall be inducted for such training and service so long as he is deferred after classification: Provided further, That no man shall be inducted for training and service under this Act unless and until he is acceptable to the land or naval forces for such training and service and his physical and mental fitness for such training and service has been satisfactorily determined: Provided further, That no men shall be inducted for such training and service until adequate provision shall have been made for such shelter, sanitary facilities, water supplies, heating and lighting arrangements, medical care, and hospital accommodations, for such men, as may be determined by the Secretary of War or the Secretary of the Navy, as the case may be, to be essential to public and personal health: Provided further, That except in time of war there shall not be in active training or service in the land forces of the United States at any one time under subsection (b) more than nine hundred thousand men inducted under the provisions of this Act. The men inducted into the land or naval forces for training and service under this Act shall be assigned to camps or units of such forces. (b) Each man inducted under the provisions of subsection (a) shall serve for a training and service period of twelve consecutive months, unless sooner discharged, except that whenever the Congress has declared that the national interest is imperiled, such twelve-month period may be extended by the President to such time as may be necessary in the interests of national defense. (c) Each such man, after the completion of his period of training and service under subsection (b), shall be transferred to a reserve component of the land or naval forces of the United States; and until he attains the age of forty-five, or until the expiration of a period of ten years after such transfer, or until he is discharged from such reserve component, whichever occurs first, he shall be deemed to be a member of such reserve component and shall be subject to such additional training and service as may now or hereafter be prescribed by law: Provided, That any man who completes at least twelve months' training and service in the land forces under subsection (b), and who thereafter serves satisfactorily in the Regular Army or in the active National Guard for a period of at least two years, shall, in time of peace, be relieved from any liability to serve in any reserve component of the land or Naval forces of the United States and from further liability for the training and service under subsection (b), but nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent any such man, while in a reserve component of such forces, from being ordered or called to active duty in such forces. (d) With respect to the men inducted for training and service under this Act there shall be paid, allowed, and extended the same pay, allowances, pensions, disability and death compensation, and other benefits as are provided by law in the case of other enlisted men of like grades and length of service of that component of the land or naval forces to which they are assigned, and after transfer to a reserve component of the land or naval forces as provided in subsection (c) there shall be paid, allowed, and extended with respect to them the same benefits as are provided by law in like cases with respect to other members of such reserve component. Men in such training and service and men who have been so transferred to reserve components shall have an opportunity to qualify for promotion. |