The creation of the new Department of Veterans Affairs in 1989 required a new official seal to represent VA. In November 1988, after the law establishing VA as a cabinet department was signed, VA initiated a competition among employees for a seal design that would give the new department a "new look." The winner of that competition, and creator of today's VA seal was David E. Gregory, a medical media production specialist at the Indianapolis VA Medical Center. These are the key elements of the seal, as he described them:

• The eagle represents the United States.
• The circle of five stars above the eagle represents the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.
• The two flags in the eagle's talons represent the span of America's history from 13 colonies to the present 50 states.
• The flags are bound by a golden cord symbolic of those Americans who have fallen in service to their country.
• The eagle holds the cord to perpetuate the memory of those veterans who have fallen and sacrificed for the nation.