Calgarian veterans who served in U.S. military muster for benefits

Veterans in Calgary who served in the U.S. military and in its conflicts are gathering this weekend to sign up for benefits many never knew they could collect.

There could be several thousand of those veterans in Calgary who should be receiving some kind of benefits from the U.S. government for tours of duty in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, said local advocate James Grosset.

“The fact is, a lot of them don’t know about it … they think they ’re living outside the U.S. so they’re not eligible,” said Grosset. “There’s a heck of a lot more out there and we need to get the word out.”

Some of those veterans, like him, were Canadian citizens serving in the U.S. forces.

Grosset, 68, did a tour of duty in the U.S. Army in 1971 as a clerk during the Vietnam War in the hotly contested Mekong Delta. “The war was all around me,” he said.

The Vancouver native who was living in California when he joined the U.S. Army said he’s been receiving benefits for that service for years.

He said there are veterans in Calgary who fought in a number of conflicts under U.S. colours, from the Second World War to Afghanistan.

An official with the American Legion’s veterans affairs section in Montana is visiting the Royal Canadian Legion Forest Lawn Branch, 755 40th St. S.E. on Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. to inform former warriors of their possible benefits eligibility.

While there are many Calgarians who served in the U.S. military, an estimated 40,000 other Americans avoided fighting in the Vietnam War by coming to Canada in the 1960s and 1970s.

Many of those settled in southeastern B.C. and most never returned to the U.S.