The Department of Veterans Affairs

6-7-2023

The Department of Veterans Affairs

The VA’s mission is to provide health, education, disability, funerary, and financial benefits earned by Veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

VA offers benefits that can help Veterans buy, retain, or modify a home; earn a degree; start a career; stay healthy, and do much more in life after the military.

And no, this is not an infomercial for the VA.

My first interaction with the VA was in the late 1950s and early 1960s when my father a World War II navy veteran suffered an accident on our farm in rural southwestern Idaho and was transported to the VA hospital in Boise, Idaho. His injury was to his service connected leg injury which resulted in having his left knee removed and his leg fused together.

During his recovery and rehabilitation at the VA hospital our family moved from the farm to a house in the city in order to be close to him. I was 10 or 11 years old at the time. My younger brothers and I spent quite a bit of time with mom visiting dad, making hotpad-holders and watching movies in the hospital theater.

My experience with the VA began 2 months after my ETS after 3 years in the army in 1970 where I had outpatient surgery to do a biopsy of a service connected lump on my left shoulder which was benign. I didn’t realize it but that was the beginning of my official claim where I was awarded 0% disability.

Over the years I obtained a VA home loan Certificate of Eligibility, treatment at the Boise VA Medical Center’s Emergency Room, educational benefits to obtain a BA degree.

More recently my dealings with the VA have taken a totally different tone as I am one of many Thailand veterans of the Vietnam War suffering from the effects of herbicide (AO) exposure and having to “prove” how we were exposed.

After 22 years of active military service, exposure to herbicides in several worldwide locations, suffering from heart disease and fighting with the VA from 2008 until 2023 to obtain a 100% PT disability rating and receiving the associated back pay it is clear to me that the VA is like its own “pentagon” (Health, Education, Disability, Funerary, and Financial) benefits with literally thousands of employees, many of whom have no prior military background or knowledge of military jargon, composition or assignments, making it difficult for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing.

The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs is a Presidential political appointment, confirmed by Congress and yet the Under-Secretary is the CEO, and along with the heads of each department makes day-to-day decisions affecting the lives of millions of American veterans and their families.

Healthcare overall is superb and improving, with few exceptions, yet benefit and compensation rules and regulations lack clarity, continuity or consistency resulting in decision making an individual best guess by each claim reviewer. – RTM