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Harlingen, Texas, October 29, 2009: Ask veterans a question about the performance of the Department of Veterans Affairs and prepare yourself to be overwhelmed with replies both good and bad, but most being just plain ugly.  That was the result experienced when we asked the military community about experiences with that governmental agency. The woeful responses of many veterans were difficult to read.  

The anger expressed by some veterans is understandable.  Plain bitterness and disgust were also noted in the many email responses.  When everything was sorted out rating the VA as a bumbling bureaucratic agency lost in a governmental maze seemed to be to general view.  However, sprinkled in among those who ranted and raged, were other voices that offered nothing but praise for how they had been treated.

Tony Nathe is a retired Army Sergeant Major and Past President of the Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees.  He claims his life has been filled with negative experiences dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs.  At the top of his list is dealing with his local VA in St Cloud, MN seeking some "government healthcare".

"Every time I go back", says Nathe, "my wife asks me why I continue to expose myself to such harassment and punishment?  Several years ago she quit her pharmacy technician job at the same VA because every time she tried to put a veteran first, her supervisor told her to 'Get back in your box. You are here to do what we tell you to do.'  The VA is a typical federal bureaucracy, overburdened with too many leaders and not enough workers.  It also has too few military retirees and veterans in its ranks.  Consequently, it is incapable of serving veterans, of 'Putting Veterans First'.  It also appears to b the future of all healthcare in the United States".

Kathy Champion is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel residing in Gulfport, FL.  She says,  "I have been going to the Bay Pines VA for three years.  I was wounded in Iraq and needed follow-up treatment.  My process to even get seen was a nightmare.  They gave me a team of individuals to follow my case, but then it stopped.  My case was closed with a rating.  I am 100% disabled with the VA and 90% with the Army.  Twice my doctors left to go to another VA and they never told me.  Now by the grapevine I hear my third doctor has left...and did they tell me. NO!  I have spent three years trying to get the mental and physical help I need from the VA.  Everyone talks the good talk but actions will speak louder to me.  I am a Lieutenant Colonel, but I worry most about the enlisted guys who have no pull to make things happen.  Case workers do not exist like they claim."

From Liberty, MO Vietnam veteran Larry Stephens writes,  "The VA is a politician run healthcare system.  It is subject to the will and the whims of the President, as exercised by the Secretary of Veteran Affairs, who serves at the pleasure of the President and a complicit Congress...none of whom are in the system they oversee."  He continues saying, "The problems I have experienced with the VA stem from myself and other Vietnam veterans being denied information.  Trust me, one small 'glitch' or a doctor who doesn't like you and you will be thrown into a black hole that is very difficult to climb out of."

Carl Mathison, an Iraq veteran from Columbus, OH feels the Veterans Affairs organization is filled with dishonesty.  He charges that internal watchdogs discovered more than 500 benefits claims had been shredded without completely processing the applications.  "Added to all that", he says, "even with more than 250,000 employees they still avoid processing claims thereby denying many veterans the benefits they often depend upon to have any quality of life."

Mathew Ford a retired Army SPC from Bethlehem, PA tends to agree.  "In my opinion, the VA is a corrupt bureaucracy", he charges.  "Unprocessed claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs now exceed 915,000. (Source:  Marine Corps Times, 30 June 2009)  My claim is now before the Court of Veterans Appeals for the second time.  The claim is now 14 years and 1 month old.  I have written to President Obama and not even received a reply.  This is proof veterans are third class citizens in their own country."

Doctor Daniel R. Sullivan is a retired Navy Korean War veteran and physician.  He claims, "The VA system has always had problems...usually referable to under funding.  Good care always costs money and the government never budgets enough to provide it.  The government promises so much, but is never able to deliver adequate funding to run their programs.  Anything that can be done to improve the system would be a positive step forward."

John Boring, a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant from Arizona has a different take on the VA. "I've never filed a claim with the VA for anything.  My reluctance to do so had more to do with the many veterans who "milk" the system, than it did with VA policies or treatments.  My son Dan, who was diagnosed with cancer while still in Boot Camp and later medically retired, used the VA extensively.  The oncology care he received there was excellent, as were the prosthetic people who fitted him with his prosthesis.  He was considered to be 100% disabled so that put him on a priority level that allowed him to receive prompt attention.

" I was involved with him and his VA care and I saw nothing there that changed my mind about the system.  In fact quite the opposite.  Some recipients of VA disability care, especially Vietnam veterans bragged openly about receiving monthly checks for their disabilities and were eager to share the "how" of getting those kinds of stipends.  The system is abused by the vets it serves and that is the VA's own fault.  It was a good idea that quickly went bad and now I believe it's terminally beyond repair."

Major Art Furtney, USMC (Ret) from Jacksonville, NC has never had problems with the VA.  "When I submitted my claims they were processed quickly and fairly.  Later after my wife hounded me concerning my lack of hearing her 'orders' or requests, I was sent to the Durham VA hospital for hearing tests...and issued a set of hearing aids.  I'm on my third set of aids now...and the new ones are just great."

Another retired Marine, Captain Donald Greenlaw of Oceanside, CA reports; "I have been dealing with the VA for over 15 years.  I have nothing but the highest praise for their service and caring.  I have had the same primary care physician for the past seven years.  The one bit of advice I can give to others, when corresponding with the VA or any branch of government, send your correspondence 'Certified Mail - Return Receipt Requested'.  They are prone to lose things and I attribute this to high column and staffing shortages."

Harry Meinhardt is a disabled Army airborne veteran from Fayetteville, NC.  He is very leery of receiving VA care.  "The is a large VA hospital here in Fayetteville, but I choose to go to my own family physician.  I would venture to guess that 70% of the doctors at the VA hospital are foreign born, from India, Pakistan, Brazil, etc.  I can't quote their qualifications.  I do know that anyone needing a colonoscopy is sent to the VA hospital in Durham, NC.  Many of the doctors there are from nearby Duke University hospital."

Neil E. Barber is a retired Marine Colonel from Pahrump, NV.  He says, "The retirement income that I receive from my service disqualifies me from receiving any benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.  I am what the VA terms Priority 8, which I believe must be one priority lower than that for illegal aliens."

Fred Rendon Jr. is a Vietnam veteran from Houston, Texas who filed his claim with the VA in 1981.  Finally in 1995 he was designated as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and assigned a 10% disability rating.  He laments, "The VA is a joke, only not a funny joke.  It is a travesty that they do whatever they want with veterans.  They pay thousands of attorneys millions of dollars to defend the VA from disabled veterans."

 He charges the veterans only have service officers from the DAV to act on their behalf against these attorneys. "Who do you think is going to win those fights?" he asks.

There were many more who registered their approval and disapproval of the VA system.  A large majority of the veterans felt the medical treatment they received was good to excellent.  Their primary complaint was the administrative nightmares they were forced to endure before treatment was received.  Other veterans never made it trough the bureaucratic maze to earn a disability rating and still other felt they were not given the correct percentage of disability their condition deserved.

For Americans now faced with the possibility of a nationwide government mandated healthcare program, what has been reported here should be eye opening.  It is touted as "government healthcare" at its best.... and at its worst.

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Semper Fidelis

Thomas D. Segel

tomsegel@sbcglobal.net