Thanks for your service.
According to my father and other veterans I've talked to: The Veterans Administration used to be an excellent place for veterans to go for medical services, and it was so up until somewhere after Korea; perhaps some time during Vietnam is when it changed for certain. It became where vets went to die, not be healed. The VA was the absolute worst place for care in the US. Several VA facilities were shut down because the care was just that bad. Interestingly enough, this coincided with JFK/LBJ's tenures... Nothing changed from then through Jimmah's term. I remember visiting VA facilities as a child; they were dirty, insect-ridden neglected buildings.
Per allhealth.org's synopsis, which I cannot better: "President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1988 creating the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which assumed responsibility from the Veterans Administration. The mission, as inscribed over the entrance to VA headquarters in Washington, is simple and sweeping: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." "
Reagan flushed the old, dead, disrespectful VA down the tubes and created a replacement that is far, far better than what used to be there.
The Reagan Revolution continues, even after his death.
Well, I am educated daily by fellow FReepers, and in this regard, all I can say is, thank God for our former President Ronald Reagan, who to this day affects the lives of veterans in a positve way.