Debt of Honor

Supporting, caring for, and honoring those who serve is woven into the fabric of the United States—a promise as old as the republic itself. From the earliest days of the Revolution, soldiers were wounded or killed in service, leaving widows and orphans behind, and the question of what a grateful nation owed them has been asked, and answered more generously with each generation, for 250 years. The story of the Department of Veterans Affairs is, in miniature, the story of America: improvised in war, expanded in peace, and forever striving to live up to its founding ideals.