Trump order tells the Pentagon to send discharge records straight to the VA. A lifelong Democrat says credit where it's due. Now deliver.

Credit where it's due, then some homework. At the first meeting of President Trump's new Military Spouse Commission on Sept. 21, executive director Desiree Thompson Sayle said the group helped shape a Sept. 8 executive order on veterans' benefits, Military Times reports. The order directs the Pentagon and the VA to build systems for the "permanent, prospective and ongoing sharing" of personnel files and service treatment records, with DoD sending records to the VA when a service member is discharged. It gives the departments 180 days to roll out digital tools, including artificial intelligence, to speed benefit applications, and to update transition programs so departing troops get connected to jobs or training. Spouses flooded the commission with messages: nearly 500 about employment, about 350 about health care, and 709 about child care and education, nearly 40% of the total. Anyone who has watched a veteran chase paperwork between two departments knows this is the right target. The fair caution is that the commission only advises, and an order is only as good as its follow-through. My test is simple. In 180 days, ask a newly discharged vet whether the VA already had the file. That answer beats any press release.