Keep up Rep. Jones’ fight for veterans rights
Every day, Representative Walter Jones walked past the faces of 580 fallen Marines to his office in the Rayburn Building. The photos—each of a young marine trained in Camp Lejeune and killed in the Iraq War—were intended to serve as a permanent memorial of Jones’ 2003 vote authorizing military force in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Committed to grappling with the human consequences of his decision, Jones sent out more than 12,000 condolence letters nationwide to the families of the fallen over the next fifteen years.
Jones passed away last Sunday. He will be remembered by North Carolinians, and Marine Corps officers like me, as a relentless advocate for veterans and their families—and his death leaves an enormous hole in Congressional leadership on veterans’ rights.
Jones didn’t just fight for veterans when it was easy or politically expedient: he personally and painfully recognized the enormity of their service and sacrifice. During his time in Congress, he cosponsored over 90 veterans’ bills—more than any member of Congress—and fiercely championed legislation for an especially vulnerable group of veterans: those with “bad paper” discharges.
For many veterans, a “bad paper,” or less-than-honorable, discharge is equivalent to a life sentence of stigma and exclusion from hard-earned veterans benefits. In a cruel irony, many veterans have received bad paper discharges precisely because of wounds inflicted in service—wounds such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury, or military sexual trauma. For these veterans, bad paper prevents them from accessing the healthcare, housing, employment, and education benefits they desperately need to address their trauma, contributing to the disturbingly high rates of veteran suicide and homelessness.
Veterans who put their lives on the line for our country should not be denied the support they’ve earned, simply for being hurt in the line of duty. Recognizing this, Rep. Jones successfully pushed to change the law governing discharge upgrade petitions. In 2016, Congress required the military give “liberal consideration” to discharge upgrade petitions relating to military sexual trauma and mental health conditions like PTSD. The law was intended to ensure that military boards were more generous in upgrading unjust or erroneous discharges, helping thousands of veterans access healthcare and other benefits.
Jones leaves behind a legacy of leadership on veterans’ discharge issues, but there is still work to be done. Congress’s effort to create a fair process for veterans suffering from invisible wounds is still being undermined by the “presumption of regularity” in upgrade proceedings—an overwhelming administrative presumption that the military has acted correctly in initial discharge decisions. It places a heavy, often insurmountable, burden on veterans. It is estimated that 125,000 veterans who have served since 2001 are still unable to access services, and 260,000 bad paper discharges were issued to Vietnam veterans.
For older veterans, overcoming the presumption of regularity is nearly impossible, either because their records are incomplete or destroyed, or their paperwork does not properly diagnose the symptoms of PTSD (first recognized as a disorder by psychiatrists only in 1980). The military historically has also failed to document race- and sex-based discrimination, leading the presumption of regularity to disadvantage survivors of sexual assault applying for discharge upgrades. So, while Jones and his colleagues have made significant strides to fixing discharge upgrades, too many veterans are still left out in the cold, fighting a broken system.
As the director of the Veterans Legal Clinic at Wake Forest University School of Law, I represent veterans fighting to correct unjust discharges. However, our clinic and similar legal aid organizations can’t do this work alone. North Carolina’s representatives—like Sen. Thom Tillis, chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel—can honor Jones by continuing his fight on behalf of veterans with bad paper, and legislatively eliminating the presumption of regularity in upgrade proceedings in which it may stand as a barrier to justice.
Jones once reportedly said: “When I leave Congress, I would rather have one thing said about me: ‘I will never question Walter Jones’ integrity.’” In the last years of his life, Jones never stopped fighting for veterans. For his tireless dedication and willingness to buck the party line, he occasionally earned the ire of his colleagues—but no one ever doubted his integrity. Now, it’s up to his colleagues to pick up his mantle and continue to fight, with integrity, to protect the rights of veterans, whose sacrifice protects us all.
Brandon Heffinger is a Marine Corps veteran and the Director of the Wake Forest Veterans Legal Clinic.