Senate Bill S3952

                                BILL NUMBER:S3952

TITLE OF BILL:

An act
to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
providing credit to members of public retirement systems of the state
for military service rendered during the cold war

PURPOSE:

To make eligible retirement benefits for United States military
personnel that served between September 2, 1945 to December 26, 1991;
also known as the "Cold War".

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

The addition of subdivision 2-a to section 1000 of the retirement and
social security law ("military service credit" portion).

EXISTING LAW:

Military members upon application to New York State's public
retirement system can obtain service credit of up to three years for
three years of military duty if such military members were found to
have participated in hostilities defined in subdivision 2, section
              

1000, of the retirement and social security law.

JUSTIFICATION:

The Cold War was a decades-long struggle for global supremacy
involving the United States and the Soviet Union. Certain factors
made the Cold War a militarized struggle: Communism takeover in
China, threats of Soviet nuclear weapons, tensions within Germany,
the Truman Doctrine of 1947, the Warsaw Pact of 1955, the formation
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and commencement of the
Korean War. The U.S. and Soviet Union's power resonated around the
globe, for there threat of a third world war was imminent with
possessions
of nuclear weapons. Military personnel stationed about were nervous
and filled with anxiety on what may unfold, and what may encompass
their services.

As such, many causalities occurred despite the exclusion of a third
world war. Three-hundred and twenty-five Cold War Americans would
perish as a result of hostile action, including two hundred plus
airmen from Communist air defenses. Forty American intelligence
aircrafts would be destroyed, and sixty-four cryptologists and forty
crew members would lose their lives.
American lifestyles were disrupted for adherence to military service
support for scenarios warranted by the Cold War(1).

For our brave soldiers tireless efforts to protect and serve American
freedoms, it is only fitting that these Cold War veterans are
financially recognized for their service to our country.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

To be determined.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

This act shall take effect immediately.

FOOTNOTES:

(1) John Pike, Military: Cold War,
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cold_war.htm (July 2010).