The Never Ending Battle of VA Claims

Normally when the American Legion Magazine comes, there isn't much interesting in it for me. Most of what's usually in it, I've read it all before online. This month, probably for the first time, I am really suggesting you get your hands on a copy of this. There is a report on the backlog of claims. While this numbers are not news to me or you because you read this blog, there are some very compelling stories in it. It's "The Never Ending Battle" by Ken Olsen. He did a great job, pulled in the reporting done by Dana Priest and Anne Hull regarding the deploring conditions at Walter Reed and then took off from there. Vietnam veterans, Gulf War veterans, Afghanistan veterans, Iraq veterans and Korean veterans and yes, even WWII veterans all suffering in the backlog of the claims we know the numbers of, but too often, never hear more than the numbers. These are people! They have wounds to be taken care of, promises to be kept to them, bills to pay they could pay if they could work and could also pay if the VA would honorably process their claims and figure out a way of doing it right the first time.

The problem is, these problems go back so far and the veterans have been feeling betrayed by the same country they would still risk their lives for. The article ends like this "The best solution, the Legion's Smithson says, "is to fix the entire VA claims adjudication system. Piecemeal does not work." This is the first of a three part series. There are charts, numbers, but more, stories of the men and women we keep saying we support. Well? Do we really? Or is it a slogan? How can we say we support them if we allow all of this to be done to them?