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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release February 2, 1998
              PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES ELIGAH DANE CLARK AS
                CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF VETERANS' APPEALS

The President today announced his intent to nominate Eligah Dane Clark to be Chairman of the Board of Veterans' Appeals at the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Eligah Dane Clark, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is a Marine Corps colonel who is currently Senior Appellate Judge on the Navy Marine Court of Criminal Appeals. He enlisted in September 1968, and was commissioned through the Enlisted Commissioning Program in October 1969. Since 1977, he has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility within the Marine Corps legal system, including chief legal assistance officer, Tri-Command, Camp Lagan, North Carolina; trial judge for the Piedmont Judicial Circuit, Camp Lagan; senior defense counsel, Far East Okinawa, Japan; and appellate government counsel, Navy-Marine Corps Appellate Review Activity, Washington, D.C. From August 1987 to July 1994, Col. Clark served as Chief Circuit Judge, the senior trial judge, with assignments in the District of Columbia, California and Okinawa, where his jurisdiction included mainland Japan, Guam and the Phillippines.

Col. Clark received a B.S. in Biology from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, an M.S. in Romance Languages from Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas, and a J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law.

The Board of Veterans' Appeals, administered and supervised by the Chairman, renders final decisions for the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs on all veterans' appeals for entitlement to benefits administered by Veterans' Affairs.

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