Any entryman under the desert-land laws, or any person entitled to preference right of entry under section 326 of this title, who after application or entry for surveyed lands or legal initiation of claim for unsurveyed lands, and prior to November 11, 1918, enlisted or was actually engaged in the United States Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during the war with Germany, who has been honorably discharged and because of physical incapacities due to service is unable to accomplish reclamation of and payment for the land, may make proof without further reclamation thereof or payments thereon under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, and receive patent for the land by him so entered or claimed, if found entitled thereto: Provided, That no such patent shall issue prior to the survey of the land.
43 U.S.C. § 331