Data Sources: VBA uses data from the DoD
and VA to prepare GWVIS reports. The list below
identifies the DoD and VA organizational source,
scheduled cycle dates, and specific file names.
Under the DoD there is the DMDC extract, dated
April 27, 2007 which contains the Active
Duty Master File, Active Duty Loss File, Reserve
Components Common Personnel Data System,
Operation Desert Shield/ Storm Files, Operation
Mission/Contingency Files. Under DHSD
there is the Khamisiyah Master File dated
March 2006, and Al Jubayl Master File, dated
August 2005. Under VA there is the VBA and VHA
each of which uses its respective sources. The
sources used by the VBA are the
Beneficiary Identification and Records Locator
Subsystem (BIRLS) dated March 2007, Compensation
and Pension Master Record (CPMR) dated March
2007, and Pending Issue File (PIF) dated April
27 2007. The sources for the VHA are the
VHA Gulf War Veteran Mortality Study - one
time study prepared in 2001, VHA Healthcare
Enrollment Files dated April 2006, and
Readjustment Counseling Service - Vet Center (RCSVC)
Utilization File dated March 9, 2006.
Limitations: There are eleven
limitations to the GWVIS report. 1. GWVIS
reports do not contain information about
individual veterans. 2. GWVIS reports do
not provide information on how claims are
adjudicated. Questions raised on this matter
should be referred to VBA’s C&P Service. 3.
GWVIS reports do not cite statutes or
regulations for terms and definitions. Questions
about compensation and pension terms and
definitions should be referred to C&P Service.
Questions about any healthcare terms and
definitions should be referred to VHA. The terms
and definitions used in this document are
intended for this report only, and they should
not be relied upon for any other purpose, such
as the presentation of claims for VA benefits.
4. Unless otherwise noted, this report
provides current counts from the data sources
listed. This report does not contain cumulative
counts of C&P benefit use. 5. GWVIS
reports do not distinguish between a veteran and
a “civilian veteran.” Some veterans counted in
the GWVIS report may currently be on active duty
due to re-enlistment to active duty or due to
activation from the Reserve Forces to active
duty. In contrast, “civilian veterans,” as
defined by the Census Bureau and in VA’s
official counts, are those no longer on active
duty. 6. The GWVIS report differs from
existing VBA Reports Control Symbol (RCS) and
Computer Output Identification Number (COIN)
reports. The GWVIS report identifies all
veterans with military service on or after
August 2, 1990. In contrast, the COIN and RCS
reports sort veterans into only one period of
military service, such as Vietnam Era,
Peacetime, or Gulf War. COIN and RCS reports
contain lower counts of Gulf War veterans
because some veterans of the Gulf War period who
served prior to August 1990 have multiple
periods of military service. These veterans may
be counted in the COIN and RCS reports under
another period of military service. 7.
This report contains “Gulf War Mortality Data.”
Please contact VHA’s Office of Public Health and
Environmental Hazards for more information
regarding Gulf War mortality data. The GWVIS
statistical reports, containing death counts, do
not constitute a Gulf War veteran mortality
study. 8. Some of the veterans identified
in this report had prior active military
service. Therefore, not all of the claims
counted in this report were incurred during the
Gulf War period or deployment to Southwest Asia.
VBA’s computer systems do not attribute each of
a veteran’s disabilities to a specific period of
service or deployment. 9. The report,
“Gulf War Readjustment Counseling Service - Vet
Center Utilization,” contains counts of unique
veterans who sought or are using RCSVC services.
The counts do not constitute a VA study of war
zone veterans. 10. The report, “Gulf War
Service Member VHA Healthcare Enrollment by
Priority Group,” is limited to counts of Gulf
War service members’ VHA healthcare enrollment
by priority group. VA services and treatment
available to enrolled veterans generally are not
based on priority groups. 11. This report
gathered information only from the Benefits
Delivery Network (BDN). Therefore, a small
number (less than 29,000) of new veteran records
processed in the VBA corporate environment are
excluded from this report. Only VBA-related
tables are affected by the data exclusion.
Service Member Statistics, May 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Category
Conflict
Theater
Deployed
Era Total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Service Members
696,842
432,498
1,129,340
5,670,404 6,799,744
Service Member Separations
633,783
347,147
980,930
4,942,007 5,922,937
Active Duty Separations
518,224
340,323
858,547 3,129,559
3,988,106
Activated Reserve Forces Separations
115,559
6,824
122,383
330,765 453,148
Non-Activated Reserve Forces Separations
0
0
0 1,481,683 1,481,683
Non-Activated Reserve Forces,
Service-Connected1 0
0
0 132,110 132,110
Veteran Deaths2
13,517
4,330
17,847
55,999 73,846
Estimated Living Veterans
620,266
342,817
963,083
3,536,435 4,499,518
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. VBA identified 132,110 Non-Activated
Reservists who are service-connected or
pensioners as "veterans." VBA identified 8,389
deaths among the 132,110. The 8,389 deaths are
included in the count for Deaths reported under
"Era." The 123,721 remaining living veterans are
included in the count of "Estimated Living
Veterans" reported under "Era."
2. These counts reflect raw data that has not
been subjected to any statistical analysis nor
has it been adjusted in any way to make it a
mortality study. There has been no adjustment to
account for age, gender, race, and other items
required for a valid mortality study. In
addition, the data will not reflect deaths that
occurred after March 2007. The use of these data
to draw conclusions regarding mortality rates
will result in inaccurate conclusions. For
analysis of Gulf War veteran mortality, see
"Mortality among US Veterans of the Persian Gulf
War: 7-Year Follow-up, "Han K. Kang and Tim A.
Bullman, American Journal of Epidemiology,
2001,154(5): 399-405.
