By Bill Griffith
There are two new hoops for us vets to jump through: https://www.vetverify.org/ and https://www.id.me/. Why should you bother? Well at Vetverify you can shop at the exchange. The exchange lets you buy online at the same price as active military and at the same time you save the sales tax.
The other website, id.me, is now used by the VA for secure messaging and access to the VA system. An added benefit of id.me is that you can get online discounts at many stores. You can also use id.me to prove to stores in person via your smart phone that you are a vet. If you have served since 1985 the process of signing up is straight forward. If you are like me and you served before 1985 you will need to provide your DD214 to both verify.org and id.me.
If you are having trouble getting these benefits please contact the post where several of us can help you with the process.