Veterans Affairs Timeline - 1930 through 1979

1930
July 21 – President Herbert Hoover signs Executive Order 5398 “Consolidation and Coordination of Governmental Activities Affecting Veterans” implementing legislation passed July 3 by Congress placing under one “administration” federal pension and other benefits program and veterans medical facilities. This consolidated the U.S. Veterans’ Bureau, the National Homes for Disabled Soldiers and the Bureau of Pensions, Interior Department, into the Veterans Administration (VA). At the end of the fiscal year, VA operated 48 hospitals and 54 regional offices with a work force of more than 30,000. VA net expenditures for the year, $786 million.

1931
Of 1,349,812 VA beneficiaries, eight are pensioners of veterans of the War of 1812, 547 are of the Mexican War, 9,753 of the Indian Wars and 193,721 are of the Civil War.

July 1 – new VA organization takes effect with the office of the administrator (CEO) over offices of assistant administrators for medical and domiciliary care, pensions and compensation, and finance and insurance, and an office of special counsel on insurance claims.

At year’s end, 294 women veterans were being treated in VA medical facilities and African American veterans made up seven percent of the VA patient population.

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1932
VA began merging field operations to cut costs. The merger of the regional office, Soldiers Home and hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., saved $20,000 in rental fees.

Veterans pension applicant physicals were moved to VA hospitals rather than being done by fee-basis private physicians.

VA set up temporary hospital at the War Department Reservation in Fort Hunt, Va., near Washington, D.C., to serve needs of “Bonus March” veterans temporarily encamped in the District June 11-August 12.

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1933
Congress granted sweeping power to Roosevelt administration to stabilize the government’s credit in the face of the Great Depression. As part of government economy drive, VA reviewed more than a million cases to insure “veterans’ relief” payments were justified and consistent with new laws. VA hospital and domiciliary work loads dropped 23 and 40 percent, respectively, due to new laws limiting VA medical care eligibility.

VA in charge of selection of veterans for enrollment into the Civilian Conservation Corps.

December 1 – Board of Veterans Appeals established.

1934
VA continues to trim its work force as part of government economy drive.

VA directed to oversee disbursement of paychecks for those employed by the new Civilian Conservation Corps.

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1935
VA implements new Spanish American pension program passed by Congress.

Hines VA Hospital, Ill., described as one of the largest cancer treatment and research centers in the world; 255 beds with high voltage X-ray equipment and a “radium emission plant.”

Dayton, Ohio, VA Hospital equipped with a Kettering Hypotherm which induces artificial fever to treat disease.

1936
Congress passes “Soldier’s Bonus” legislation making adjusted service certificates eligible to more than 3.5 million veterans.

VA receives its largest construction appropriation ever, $25.2 million.

VA gives priority to development of outpatient service at all VA hospitals.

Tuberculosis is single greatest cause of death in VA hospitals.

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1937
VA study projects that it will need 100,000 hospital beds to meet veterans’ health-care needs in ten years.

VA operates hospitals at 81 locations in 43 states and D.C.

VA officials say “employment opportunities” is the most important veterans’ relief problem.

1938
VA instructs its field facilities on claims adjudication policy: veterans not required to prove their cases “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

1939
Adjudication of World War I veteran dependents’ claims decentralized to VA field facilities.

Policy requiring many VA hospital “ward employees” of lower grade to live on station dropped.

VA establishes standard 8-hour workday with half-hour lunch for all employees.

Nearly 302,000 veterans registered for employment with U.S. Employment Service.

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1940
VA plans its medical preparedness role under the new national defense program. President Roosevelt approves plan that would transfer back to military beds used by VA in military hospitals.

Congress passes National Service Life Insurance Act creating federal insurance program for members of the armed forces.

VA organizes to implement National Service Life Insurance program and receives 662,000 applications by October.

Armed forces begin to drain VA of trained medical staff. Growing industrial activity competes for employees.

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1941
VA insurance activity mushrooms.

VA plans transition from national defense plan to war readiness.

Average age of World War I veterans is 49.

1942
January 30 – Congress ends the Civilian Conservation Corps program.

1943
Congress grants World War II veterans hospital, domiciliary and burial benefits on a par with World War I veterans.

VA provides laboratory exams for Army induction boards.

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1944
Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill of Rights) enacted. The law recognizes VA “not only as an important post-war agency, but as an exceedingly important post-war agency.” It gives VA overall control of veterans affairs so that veterans will have one central agency to insure their rights.

World War II veterans treated at VA hospitals rise from 5,132 to 13,707; from nine percent of patients at beginning of year to 21 percent at year’s end.

1945
General Omar Bradley named VA Administrator to oversee veterans transition into civilian life during demobilization.

VA moves many regional benefits offices to downtown urban areas and establishes numerous contact offices to handle increase in benefits applications.

VA processes more than 83,000 applications for educational benefits during program’s first year.

November – Special Services program begins to coordinate patient welfare programs with local community resources throughout VA hospital system – recreation, volunteers, chaplains included.

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1946
VA workload unprecedented as demobilization begins in earnest. From October 1945 to August 1946, three-quarter million veterans released from armed forces. Veterans’ population swells to 17 million.

VA overhauls adjudication structure to meet growing demand.

VA divides country into 13 branch areas, each under a Deputy Administrator responsible for VA operations in that area.

VA Central Office reorganized into a policy-making supervisory organization – Department of Medicine and Surgery under a chief medical director; assistant administrators for claims, vocational rehabilitation and education, insurance, finance, legislation, personnel, contract and administration service, and construction, supply and real estate; chairmen for the office of solicitor and Board of Appeals; directors for coordination and planning, public relations, insular and foreign relations and special services.

Reorganization of VA hospital system begins. VA medical research and affiliation programs take shape. “Policy Memorandum Number 2” signed, authorizing affiliations between VA and the nation’s schools of medicine and applied science.

May – VA Voluntary Service established.

August – Veterans Canteen Service established.

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1947
Congress sets December 7, 1941 through July 25, 1947 service period to be eligible for benefits established for World War II veterans.

World War II veterans and their families make up one-fourth of the U.S. population.

Female veterans are 1.4 percent of VA patient population.

1948
VA operates 125 hospitals with 102,200 beds. One-third of VA patients have service-connected disabilities. At end of year, 20,700 veterans deemed eligible for VA medical care await hospital admission.

1949
VA staffs and equips seven hospitals to specialize in treatment of spinal cord injury patients. There are 1,400 paraplegics in VA hospitals.

1950
Growing veteran population stabilizes at just more than19 million.

VA begins to reduce number of benefits field offices.

Recruitment of doctors, dentists and nurses is a major challenge for VA.

Number of VA hospitals increases from 129 to 136.

Forty VA hospitals participate in investigation of new drug therapies for tuberculosis – streptomycin and terramycin. More than 50,000 veterans on VA tuberculosis case registry. VA demonstrates effectiveness of routine chest X-ray in screening TB patients.

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1951
Seventeen new VA general medical and surgical hospitals open for a total of 151.

VA faces critical shortage of stenographers.

VA launches forms standardization and reduction effort. VA field stations using 22,000 different forms of which only 15 percent are standard throughout system.

1952
Veterans’ Readjustment Act of 1952 provides GI Bill-type benefits package to Korean War veterans.

VA authorized to make direct loans to veterans for housing under Defense Housing Act of 1951.

Korean War adds 400,000 to veteran population.

Hines VA Blind Rehabilitation Center expands to meet needs of Korean War veterans.

VA distributes disaster relief planning guidance to all hospitals to insure their participation in community disaster preparedness.

January – VA Western Prosthetics Distribution Center established in Denver . (Becomes national center a few years later when Washington, D.C., eastern center closes.)

President Truman participates in VA Voluntary Service National Recognition Ceremony recognizing volunteers at 160 VA facilities. Some hospital managers create position of director of Voluntary Service.

VA designates certain hospitals as cardio-vascular surgery specialty centers.

VA owns 949 television sets at 90 facilities.

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1953
VA reorganizes along “major purpose” lines into three departments: medicine and surgery, insurance, and veterans benefits.

1954
Korean War veterans number increases by 934,000.

1955
VA total expenditures for FY1955 -- $5,329,981,675.

Three new VA hospitals open.

Home loan applications up 80 percent.

One-hundred VA hospitals approved for medical school residency training.

VA institutes “intermediate service” programs at two hospitals as it develops a medical care program for long-term chronically ill patients.

VA trains management staff for new 672-bed Veterans Memorial Hospital for Philippine veterans which opens in November.

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1956
Study indicates VA faces a near-term problem of replacing generation of top-level managers eligible for retirement.

Twenty-five VA hospitals train 2,600 nurses from 100 schools.

VA research focuses on major health problems of veterans – heart disease, cancer, mental illness, TB, and problems of aging.

VA adopts plan to utilize volunteers at outpatient facilities.

More than 850,000 veterans are 65 and older. Forty-four VA hospitals have programs to care for long-term chronically ill patients.

August 2 – Last Union Army veteran of the Civil War Albert Woolson dies at age 109.

1957
VA research funding expands – 15 new research centers established for a total of 125.

VA develops prototypes and standardized specifications for 500 and 800-bed hospitals.

VA hospitals increase use of new tranquilizing drugs for treatment of emotional and mental disturbance. Fifty percent of psychiatric patients on drug therapy.

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1958
VA’s system of 172 hospitals undertakes 24 large-scale cooperative studies.

VA construction budget largest since 1951. Modernization of VA facilities begins.

VA explores potential of electronic computers. Acquires three electronic data processing systems. VA installs its first “medium scale, IBM 650” electronic computer in the VACO data processing center in September.

Veterans Benefits Department establishes five area directors to manage the operation of 67 regional offices.

March 16 – Last Confederate veteran of the Civil War John Salling dies at age 112.

August -- VA Administrator Sumner Whittier, testifying at HVAC hearing on the utilization of beds in VA hospitals, asks Congress to decide how far VA should go in providing care to vets with non-service connected disabilities.

September -- VA installs an IMB 650 Magnetic Drum Data Processing Machine for use by the machine records and accounting division, launching an agency-wide entrance into high-speed electronic computing “hardware.”

October -- VA receives an Aural Reading Machine that helps visually impaired employees read printed material. VA’s Visual Aids Division claims several firsts in film work, including production of the first government-produced color motion picture.

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1959
February -- VA 1960 budget request included an $18.7 million increase for patient care, bringing the total request to $5.1 billion.

May -- “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan…” chosen by VA Administrator Whittier to be inscribed on plaque and installed on the front of the Central Office building.

September -- A remote control typewriter that “may revolutionize the lives of many disabled persons,” went on trial at the Bronx VA hospital.

October -- An atomic reactor, the largest ever installed in a hospital and one of the first designed specifically for medical purposes, was placed in operation at the Omaha, Neb., VA hospital.

November -- First ADP operation launched at Philadelphia district office to service the GI insurance accounts of more than 6 million veterans.

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1960
The Hines, Ill., VA Data Processing Center is activated.

February -- $5.4 billion budget proposed reflecting a balance between growing and shrinking veterans benefits programs.

March -- New programs introduced included home-care plans for patients and three pilot geriatric clinics.

June -- VA begins a health benefits program for federal employees covering indemnity, comprehensive group practice and several other benefits.

December -- The first William S. Middleton Medical Research Award, honoring the Chief Medical Director, given to Dr. Solomon A. Berson and Dr. Rosalyn Yalow of the Bronx, N.Y., VA Hospital for their findings in the study of insulin.

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1961
March -- Dr. Rosalyn Yalow, chief of the radioisotope service at the Bronx VA Hospital, received the first Federal Woman’s Award. New VA Administrator Gleason presents President Kennedy a GI insurance dividend check. The President ordered a speed-up of dividend payments to help spur the economy.

July -- The new GI housing bill extended the right of WWII and Korean vets to obtain guaranteed loans.

August -- With a shortage of professional nurses, VA studies whether clerical and other chores can be handled by non-medical personnel.

November -- Invited by Administrator John Gleason, President Kennedy places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns for Veterans Day. This was the first time since 1954 when Armistice Day became Veterans Day that a president took part in the observance.

1962
January -- Irene Parsons appointed director of personnel service in Department of Veterans Benefits. This was the first time that a woman had been selected to head a section of a major department.

April -- VA increases civil defense efforts by preparing its medical system to be able to care for mass casualties should nuclear attack ever occur.

October -- VA issues more than 54 million compensation and pension checks by means of a new interagency electronic date processing system.

December -- Dr. William S. Middleton reports during the annual meeting of AMSUS that a new hydraulic knee joint with fluid control is a highlight in progress of VA research this year.

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1963
January --VACO designated as a Public Shelter Area. The building is stocked with survival supplies containing provisions for 3,550 persons for 14 days. Spokane, Wash., VA Hospital begins using a device which counts blood cells electronically. It is heralded as “the only totally new piece of advanced electronic equipment for medical use in the past 30 years.”

February -- VA extends a revolutionary “unit system” of psychiatric treatment to 16 of its 35 mental hospital. It reorganizes a patient’s hospital life into a patient group, with medical personnel and social workers assigned only to that group.

The VA Department of Data Management is established February 1. VA has 14 computers in operation varying in size from large to intermediate and small.

July -- Nashville VA hospital opened. Among the attendees was Senator Albert Gore, Sr. To save the lives of veterans with incurable kidney diseases, treatment centers planned for VA hospitals. Two centers already open in L.A. and Hines, Ill. Newly opened VA Office in Rome serves veterans in 21 European countries.

August -- Dorothy Starbuck named manager of the Denver Regional Office. This was the first time that a woman had been made a regional manager of benefits programs.

October -- VA enforces an equal housing order by placing a special emphasis on securing nondiscrimination certification from GI home builders.

November -- PAID project in planning state. Plans to automate payroll, accounting and personnel operations for more than 172,000 employees were underway. In one of his last acts in recognition of veterans, President Kennedy placed a red, white and blue wreath of carnations and ribbon on the Tomb of the Unknowns for Veterans Day.

A Patient Data System employing electric accounting machine equipment is developed to collect patient data at hospitals for use by management.

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1964
VA’s Personnel and Accounting Integrated Data Pay System (PAID) begins.

February -- The distribution of free cigarettes and other tobacco products in VA hospitals was banned as a result of a Surgeon General report on smoking and health.

March -- VA studies low-grade job problems and places some employees in higher grade positions in which their skills were better used.

1965
May -- New VA hospital opens in Washington, D.C. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey dedicates the facility touted as one of the most automated in the world.

August -- VARO contact representative David Andrus travels to Alaska to help natives in remote villages fill out VA benefits forms, negotiating the 10-day trip with the help of a kayak, dog team, single-engine plane and hikes of up to three miles across ice and tundra.

September -- New VA Administrator Driver asked veterans service organizations to support President Johnson’s Vietnam policy.

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1966
January -- The largest group insurance agreement in the history of the nation was signed, signaling the beginning of Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance.

February -- VA employees in the five boroughs of New York City coped with a transit strike by riding bikes, postal trucks and walking, walking, walking.

April -- Administrator William Driver, Congressman Teague and a VA team travel to South Vietnam to see how VA can support U.S. troops.

November-- VAnguard, VA ’s employee publication carried the first tribute listing the servicemen and women serving in Vietnam who were immediate members of VA employee families. The list continued throughout most of the war.

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1967
January -- VA sent contact representatives to South Vietnam to provide on-the-spot counseling for home bound soldiers. VA creates a nuclear medicine service to coordinate the clinical uses of nuclear energy in VA hospitals.

February -- VA budget proposal for 1968 hits $6.6 billion, which includes a $66 million increase for medical care and research, the largest increase in 10 years.

May -- Administrator Driver establishes the Veterans’ Advisory Commission to hear veterans on readjustment problems.

July -- Administrator Driver reports that VA had reached an all-time high in employees’ purchase of U.S. Savings Bonds.

October -- 151 VA stations plus Central Office report that 869 VA employees had family members serving in Vietnam.

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1968
January -- A new VA Outpatient Medical Treatment Identification Card was introduced allowing veterans to be treated by private doctors if treatment by VA was not feasible.

February -- President Johnson calls on Congress to pass a comprehensive package of benefits and programs for Vietnam-era veterans.

March -- Veterans Assistance Centers were opened in 10 principal cities.

May -- Coordinators to hire disadvantaged youth were designated at all VA stations, and plans were made for the employment of several thousand during the summer.

November -- Spouses of veterans for the first time were authorized to receive VA educational assistance allowances.

A cathode ray tube (CRT) for data display and a keyboard for data entry is installed in VACO. The device connects to the Austin Data Processing Center by long distance dial up.

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1969
June -- Edward Reinmuth, Central Office employee in Compensation and Pension Service, was honored for being the first federal employee to complete 50 years of service with VA.

1970
January -- The first VA school for nurse anesthetists opens at the Des Moines, Iowa, VA Hospital.

March -- Dr. Oscar Auerbach, pathologist, East Orange, N.J., VA Hospital, links cigarette smoking to lung cancer in a two-year study.

September -- A pilot project called the Hospital Based Home Care Program is tried at six VA hospitals.

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1971
March -- An earthquake collapses two buildings at the VA Hospital in San Fernando, Calif., killing 44 patients and 10 employees.

April -- Irene Parsons, assistant administrator for Central Office Personnel, is the first woman to receive the AMVETS Silver Helmet Award.

May -- VA reports the opening of its first five drug centers, in Washington, Houston, Battle Creek, Mich., Sepulveda, Calif., and New York City, and plans for another 25 by 1973. Dr. Valerija B. Raulinaitis is the first woman to be named director of a VA hospital in Pittsburgh.

June -- Cartoons featuring well-known comic strip characters, including Dagwood, Alley Oop and Beetle Bailey, sent to major newspapers to publicize benefits available to veterans.

November -- The first course in police skills and federal law enforcement at VA hospitals begins at the new Hospital Police Training Center at North Little Rock, Ark., VA Hospital. Joe Frazier, heavyweight champion, presents a one-hour stage show for patients at the Philadelphia VA Hospital.

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1972
January -- Since 1967 the VA outreach program provided assistance to approximately 1.75 million servicemen and women in Southeast Asia, and extended the program to include Germany, Japan and Korea.

October -- A betatron generator, capable of firing 25 million volts of radiation for treatment of cancer, went into operation at the Bronx VA Hospital in New York.

The Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator System (BIRLS), containing information on 33 million veterans, becomes fully operational and replaces a master index of 50 million card files.

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1973
January -- The first American license to implant nuclear-powered heart pacemakers was granted to the VA in July 1972. VA counselors participated in a series of overseas job information fairs in Europe under sponsorship of the Jobs for Veterans National Committee.

April -- After five years of service and the participation of 99 counselors, the VA ends benefits counseling program in Vietnam .

July -- Administration of the National Cemetery System was transferred by Congress from the Army to VA.

October -- Ten VA hospitals in the Appalachian region scheduled a test of communications through a space satellite.

November -- Veterans of three wars, some 8.5 million strong, passed the $100 billion mark in the value of homes purchased under the GI Bill home loan guaranty program.

1974
January -- VA Central Office receives by mail $10,000 from an anonymous donor. VA’s one-stop, mobile-van service extended to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

February -- VA adds new hemodialysis centers at its Birmingham and Cincinnati hospitals, increasing the capacity of its nationwide kidney machine network by 100 patients a year.

June -- VA announces that 1,300 VA representatives were going to college campuses to speed processing of educational benefits for veterans. Two annual awards, named for the late Sam Rose, chief of Central Office’s Contact Division, were created to recognize VA employees for accomplishments in assisting veterans and their families.

The latest “automatic data processing/telecommunications technology” pilots the Target system to automat Veterans Benefits Administration Regional Offices and provide online access to veteran master files in Austin, Texas and Hines, Ill.

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1975
March -- VA begins making education loans up to $600 a year under a new law benefiting Vietnam era veterans.

May -- A VA van tours the Navajo nation in Arizona and nearby states to locate beneficiaries.

July -- Bob Hope gives a 90-minute performance for patients at the Brecksville Division VA Hospital in Cleveland.

September -- Dr. William S. Middleton, Chief Medical Director from 1955 to 1963, dies.

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1976
January – National Cemetery Service develops a program to identify deceased Medal of Honor recipients to memorialize them with an engraving of the Medal on the headstones.

March -- Insurance hoax about dividends for World War II vets exposed. National personnel records center in St. Louis rebuilt after being destroyed by fire.

July -- BIRLS (Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator Subsystem) automated identification cards for nearly 30 million veterans. Number of living veterans soared from about 4.7 million in 1930 when President Hoover established VA to almost 30 million.

October -- Plans called for issuing flame-resistant Nomex pajamas to all VA inpatients.

1977
March -- Max Cleland, at age 34, becomes the youngest VA administrator and the first Vietnam veteran to head VA.

April -- Women VA employees outnumber the men. VA domiciliaries develop new look and services.

May -- Administrator Cleland visits VA employees in D.C. as part of the program “Operation Handshake.”

October -- VA “May I Help You” campaign begins to encourage competent, courteous and compassionate service among employees. Civil Service Commission cited VA’s affirmative action program for people with disabilities as outstanding.

October -- Dr. Rosalyn S. Yalow at Bronx VAMC and Dr. Andrew V. Schally at New Orleans VAMC were awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in the field in medicine.

November -- TARGET computer system goes nationwide, linking 56 regional offices.

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1978
February -- Drs. Margaret Rhea Seddon and Norman Thagard were chosen to be on board the Space Shuttle. Administrator Cleland established an Office of Human Goals to centralize civil rights and equal opportunity programs and activities.

March -- Allan Lee Reynolds was named to fill the newly created position of VA Inspector General.

April -- A new Department of Memorial Affairs was established. ”VA – May I help You?” began Phase II with Operation Better Letters, stressing “feelings for those with whom we correspond” as a theme.

July -- Little Rock VA Hospital initiates VA’s first rural Hospital Based Home Care (HBHC) program in Hot Springs, Ark. National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans, started in 1974 by veterans of the Vietnam War, became an official VA program.

September -- The Post-Vietnam Era Veterans’ Educational Assistance Program had some 71,300 participants since being established in 1977. Olin E. Teague Award established for outstanding achievement by a VA employee in rehabilitation of veterans.

October -- Legislation establishes Veterans Affairs State Cemetery Grants Program to complement VA’s national cemeteries.

October -- First new national cemetery in 25 years dedicated at Calverton, N.Y. Certain VA facilities designated as “medical centers” to more clearly indicate their services to veterans. Administrator Cleland began attending President Carter’s Cabinet meetings.

November -- The first national cemetery to be opened in the West in nearly 30 years was dedicated at Riverside, Calif.

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1979
February -- Recreation Service established to encourage veteran patients to discover and enjoy spare time interests. VA’s first annual Olin E. Teague Award went to Dr. Myron G. Eisenberg, Cleveland VA Medical Center.

March -- First IG hotline opens to all employees to help VA curb misconduct.

April -- DoD announces that Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) serving during WWII are eligible for VA benefits.

May -- VA takes lead in recognizing Vietnam veterans during presidentially proclaimed Vietnam Veterans Week. Eleven researchers selected to study alcoholism looking at the biochemical, genetic and pharmacological causes.

June -- Syndicated cartoon Ripley’s Believe It or Not told of Betty C. Keenan, 76, who had volunteered at the Bronx, N.Y., VA Medical Center for more than 36,500 hours.

July -- The 18th proclaimed by President Carter as POW-MIA Recognition Day. VA sought answers to Agent Orange puzzle by forming an advisory committee on health-related effects of herbicides.

September -- VA reaches out to vets in prison, jail, probation or parole, and Veterans Assistance Service makes 75,300 face-to-face briefings on veterans benefits.

October -- Central Office receives its first TTY (telephonic/teletype communications system). ”Hello Girls,” Signal Corps telephone operators who served in World War I, were officially discharged some 60 years later, making them eligible for VA benefits.

November -- General Omar N. Bradley returns to VA as part of a dedication ceremony to name the Central Office executive conference room after him.

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