43 U.S.C. § 331 — Reclamation requirements waived in favor of disabled soldiers, etc.

This section applied to two groups: someone who had applied for or begun a claim on desert land under the desert-land laws, or someone with a preference right to enter land under section 326 of this title. To qualify, that person must have applied for the land or legally begun their claim, then enlisted or actually served in the U.S. Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during World War I, and that enlistment or service must have started before November 11, 1918. They also had to be honorably discharged, and unable to finish reclaiming and paying for the land because of a physical disability caused by their service. If a person met all of these conditions, they could complete their proof of claim without further reclamation work or payments, following rules the Secretary of the Interior prescribed, and could receive a patent (title) to the land if found entitled to it. But even then, no patent could be issued until the land had been surveyed.