Dubois County 77

US Territories Have High Rates of US Military Service, But Battle for Veterans’ Benefits Before Alex Ortiz’s wife gave birth to their son, she left the couple’s Caribbean home and traveled some 1,600 miles to Rhode Island, where she had family, to deliver the baby. Ortiz had grown up in Puerto Rico before he joined the Army, and after he left active duty, the couple lived in Arizona before returning to his roots. Ortiz was medically retired from the Army, so he and his wife had health care through TRICARE—the military medical system that provides care to active-duty service members, retirees, and their families. But when his wife got pregnant, he realized his decision to start a family where he had grown up put him at a disadvantage. Although Ortiz was a U.S. citizen and a veteran, because he lived in Puerto Rico—a U.S. territory, rather than a state—he qualified for only a limited version of TRICARE. If his wife wanted to give birth at a local hospital, the couple would have had to cough up tens of thousands of dollars. While the military benefits from high enlistment rates in U.S. territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, veterans who live in these places can face myriad challenges in accessing care and benefits after their service ends. These difficulties range from the logistical—inadequate internet access or time zone differences that can make phone calls to the continental U.S. tough—to the infrastructural—not enough health care facilities or veterans service representatives. And crucially, people who live in U.S. territories or outlying areas—a handful of islands with various legal affiliations with the United States—are not afforded full citizenship rights. Laws written to benefit veterans often exclude those who live outside the continental U.S. Because these places do not have congressional voting representation, veterans have limited advocacy in Washington.