Introductory Remarks

I am very pleased to welcome this distinguished company to the University of Maine School of Law and to Portland. I thank Chairman Cragin for bringing such a distinguished group to his law school. I thank the Maine Law Review for taking the sponsor's role and for insuring that the publication of our proceedings will take our thoughts far beyond this room. My interest in military law and veterans law as participant and scholar extends over the last twenty years.

And so, when Chairman Cragin broached the idea of a conference to provide the first assessment of how the “new law of veterans affairs” was working, I needed little persuasion to carry the idea to the Maine Law Review Editorial Board, who has ably advanced it from there.