3.2 COOPERATION BETWEEN THE VETERANS ADMINISTRATION AND THE NTPR PROGRAM. On 15 June 1979, Vice Admiral Robert Monroe and Dorothy L. Starbuck, Chief Benefits Director at VA, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. The under- standing was "to formalize and improve existing procedures to ensure the most complete investigation of veterans’ ionizing radiation claims." DOD and VA representatives had cooperated closely regarding these claims during the preceding year but thought they were "in a position to do more, particularly in cases for which no recorded radiation dosage is available." As stated in the document, VA would "determine the critical elements of information necessary to support each case" and DOD would "thoroughly research each case to develop as much as possible the information needed" (7). procedure has remained intact. This general Through its Service teams, the NTPR program gives the VA information useful in providing medical care and compensation to eligible veterans (8). 3.2.1 VA Medical Examinations and Health Care Services. The VA Office of Public and Consumer Affairs distributes a flier identifying the medical care available to eligible veterans of the atmospheric nuclear testing and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki occupation. This section highlights and extends the information presented in the flier, reproduced as figure 4. Medical Examinations. As it has throughout the NTPR effort, the VA will give a complete physical examination, including all requisite tests, upon request to any veteran exposed to ionizing radiation during the nuclear tests or the Hiroshima and Nagasaki occupation. The NIPR teams, as indicated in chapter 2, send special notifications concerning the availability of these examinations to personnel whose radiation doses exceeded current Federal guidelines: Over-25-rem Participants, Desert Rock Volunteer Observers, and Over-5-rem Participants. Health Care Services. The "Veterans’ Health Care, Training, and Small Business Loan Act of 1981," enacted on 3 November 1981 as Public Law 97-72, authorized the VA to provide hospital and nursing home care and limited 56