OTH Veterans Services

OTH Veterans Services (OVS) is a charity and veterans service organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida that offers beneficiary guidance for veterans with an Other Than Honorable discharge. OTH Veterans Services is the only veterans support organization in the U.S. that totally specializes in assisting the 1.2 million veterans with this discharge type. Since 2013, OVS has helped several hundred former service members including combat wounded, military rape, and homeless veterans get the VA benefits they fought for and deserve at no cost to the veteran. Unlike many other veterans service organizations that rely on membership fees, donations, and federal grants this project is entirely funded by US Navy veteran Samuel Young and staffs service officers who are trained in United States Department of Veterans Affairs benefit claims processes and military upgrades.
According to the organizations website, Young started the project due to wide spread misinformation about OTH discharges and lack of support from the VA and other veterans organizations for OTH discharged veterans. Many of these veterans suffer from Posttraumatic stress disorder and combat injuries for which they receive no support or VA disability compensation. New York Times journalist Dave Phillips who won a 2014 Pulitzer prize in journalism for his "Other Than Honorable" series said, "it was disturbing to find how these heroic soldiers were being treated."
As of November 2015, the organization claims to have helped return nearly $106 million worth of benefits to veterans and their families and received the 2014 for Outstanding Veterans Services.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu