Veterans will be able to get federal ID card starting in November

Veterans will be able to go online and order their new identification cards in November, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, announced.

Buchanan, whose Veterans Identification Card Act (H.R. 91) was signed into law in 2015, said official ID cards will be available to all veterans free of charge by visiting the Department of Veterans Affairs website (www.VA.gov).

“Every veteran – past, present, and future – will now be able to prove their military service without the added risk of identity theft,” Buchanan said, noting that millions of veterans are currently unable to document their service without carrying around official military records.

These ID cards will make life a little bit easier for veterans and serve as a constant reminder that that the men and women in uniform deserve all the care and respect a grateful nation can offer, Buchanan said.

Carl Hunsinger, chairman of the Manatee County Veterans Council, applauded the new veterans ID.

“I was very happy to see three years of waiting for this law to finally be implemented by the Veterans Administration. Congressman Vern Buchanan and his staff did a great job seeing this requirement for a standardized non-retired Veteran identification card from the beginning through implementation. The majority of our veterans are not retired or 100 percent disabled and therefore are not entitled to be issued an identification card from the Department of Defense upon separation. At the very least, this new Veteran I.D. card will validate that the holder served in the United States Armed Forces honorably. It’s important to understand that this card and the VA medical card serve two different purposes,” Hunsinger said.

“Perhaps this new standardized form of veteran identification will eliminate the need for states to develop their own method of doing this. For example; Florida through two different sessions has changed the Florida driver license with first selling veterans the option of a “V” which was rarely understood and then again it was changed to “veteran” which spells it out to a vendor that offers a veteran discount,” Hunsinger said.

When ordering online, veterans will need to upload a copy of a valid government issued ID (drivers license/passport) and a copy of a recent photograph to be displayed on the card, and will need to provide service-related details. Once ordered, the Veteran ID Card will be printed and mailed directly to the veteran.

Don Courtney, past chairman of the Manatee County Veterans Council, said the arrival of a veterans ID card is long overdue.

A DD-214, the official record of a veteran’s military service, can become torn and tattered being carried in a wallet, Courtney said. “You need it for so many things, including burial in a national cemetery.”

Prior to Buchanan’s bill, the VA provided identification cards only to those who served at least 20 years in the Armed Forces or received care from the VA for a service-connected disability. Veterans who did not meet these qualifications had to carry around a paper DD-214 document to prove their military status. This form contains sensitive personal information including Social Security numbers and service details that put veterans at needless risk for identity theft if they lost or misplaced their documents.

The new identification card will also provide employers looking to hire veterans with an easier way to verify an employee's military service.

Buchanan represents more than 88,000 veterans in Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties. He served six years in the Michigan Air National Guard and four years on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 3:25 PM with the headline "Veterans will be able to get federal ID card starting in November."