(a) Every disabled person who has served in the Navy or Marine Corps as an enlisted member or petty officer, or both, for ten or more years, and has not been discharged for misconduct, may apply to the Secretary of the Navy for aid.

(b) Upon receipt of an application under subsection (a), the Secretary of the Navy may convene a board of not less than three naval officers (one of whom shall be a surgeon) to examine into the condition of the applicant, and to recommend a suitable amount for his relief, and for a specified time. If the Secretary of the Navy approves the recommendation, he shall so certify to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who shall pay a pension in such amount monthly to the applicant.

(c) No naval pension under this section shall be paid at a rate in excess of the rate payable to a veteran of World War I for permanent and total non-service-connected disability, unless the applicant’s disability is service-connected, in which case the naval pension payable to him shall not exceed the rate of disability compensation payable for total disability to a veteran of any war, or of peacetime service, as the case may be. In the case of any initial award of naval pension granted before July 14, 1943, where the person granted the naval pension is also entitled to pension or compensation under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, such naval pension shall not exceed one-fourth of such pension or compensation.