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It's the Brian Laird Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we continue our WNYC

Centennial series, 100 years of 100 things. And for this Veterans Day, it's thing number 39, 100

years of how we treat our veterans, roughly from World War I, which was a turning point in this

history, to the present. By how we treat our veterans, we mean the benefits they're granted from

the government upon completing their service, especially on the front lines of war, how they're

received by the broader society, how well they're set up to heal physically and emotionally from the horrific

experience of war and return to civilian life. I'm also interested in how decisions about going to

war are shaped or not by the life experiences veterans have to share. With me now is James Ridgway.

He's a partner at the law firm of Bergman and Moore, LLC, based in Maryland,

which focuses on what they call providing quality representation to veterans and their families.

He's also adjunct professor of Veterans Law at George Washington University and author of the

textbook, Veterans Law, Cases and Theory.

James, thanks for some time on Veterans Day, which must be very important to you.

Welcome to WNYC.

Oh, thank you for having me.

This is the type of thing I always do on Veterans Day, try and get out and spread the word about the system.

Well, I'm so glad. And let's actually start with veterans of the Civil War. Was that a

turning point in establishing veterans' benefits of any kind? And how are they experienced

those veteran benefits after World War I? Oh, yeah. The Civil War was a huge turning point. So the story of the revolution,

the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War was all very big promises that were not delivered upon.

And so the Civil War veterans initially were not treated well either,

...