Posted on 09/04/2009 3:04:25 PM PDT by Drumbo
VETERANS RIGHTS ADVOCATES UNDER ATTACK BY SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS AND MEMBERS
[Snip]Article
... What vets don't know is how the American Legion, VFW and other groups have advised the DVA and Congress, led us, every step of the way, to the total failure and utter disaster we have now. These groups "played" at helping vets but became a home for political extremists or dimwits addicted more [sic] grandstanding than the hard work required by informed veterans advocacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at veteranstoday.com ...
I am a member of both the American Legiona and the VFW. My father was a member of both although he was really active in the VFW to the extreme.
There are problems.. but I don’t think there is a grand conspiracy at foot..
Looks to me as if our liberal Democrat friends (not) are attempting to create another class of “victims” beholden to them among our country’s veterans.
If a veteran or their family is waiting 18 years for disability claims, they are not taking ownership for their claim. The average amount of time to process a claim for service connected benefits is 8 - 12 months. While that seems like a long time, the process is not terribly inefficient. The VA is legally bound to validate injuries as service connected. Injuries or illness must be documented in the Service Medical Records(except for presumptive disabilities which are know to manifest years after service - very specific to Agent Orange exposure). No claim takes 18 years unless it has been in some sort of extreme appeal status.
There are perhaps veteran service organizations that don't always make the diligent effort to pull every thread. But, if not for the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), there might not be any recognition of Agent Orange related disabilities. As a result of their efforts in the 70s and 80s, we now have the list of presumptive disabilities statistically more significant in Vietnam veterans. And, the CDC with the VA is looking at other possible disability all the time.
The “fallout” of the VVA efforts has been the attention directed to Gulf War Syndrome and the priority placed on the OIF/OEF veterans. Where the average claim takes 8-12 months, the VA is prioritizing OIF/OEF veterans and generally completing their claims (at least in Florida) in 4 - 6 months. This is precisely because of the lessons learned from the return of the Vietnam veterans.
But, let's consider that for a moment. We see today, World War II veterans walking for the first time, into a VSO office to file claims for benefits. They may have received medical care for years but have never filed for benefits. Why?; because when they returned from WWII, they went home, found a job or went to school and then found a job, worked, married, raised a family and went on with their lives. Now they are older and need medical asisstance so the VA, not the author of this screed, is directing them to the on site VSO organization to apply for benefits.
They generally suffer from hearing impairment and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from which they've suffered for years. It may have strained or broken marriages and families but they never complained. Similarly, vets from Korea and, yes, even Vietnam. They cam home, found jobs, married, raised families and went on with their lives. Regrettably, because Vietnam was politicized, a stigma was place on every Vietnam vet and the VA has been blamed. That is perhaps fair but it must be pointed out the VA is strictly constrained by law (Title 38, Unites States Code and 38 Code of Federal Regulations). No matter how much they may want to side with the veteran, they can only do so to the extent the law allows.
This is not to justify or excuse any negative issue with the VA in general. But, remember, the VA is a large government bureaucracy. And large government bureaucracies are by definition, inefficient. It is the role of the Veterans’ Services Organizations to navigate the VA’s bureaucratic pathways and to attempt to keep the pressure on the VA to expedite all processes. No one is in bed with the enemy and the processes of the VA have been made more efficient and responsive precisely because of the aggregate efforts of the Veterans’ Services Organizations.
I am thankful for my VA benefits. I have no service related disability, but still, the VA saved my life at a time when I had no health care and nowhere else to turn. I received excellent care over the last six years at five different VA hospitals. The specialist I was seeing in Boston was one of the top endocrinologists in the northeast, if not the country. I can’t imagine a higher level of care from any civilian organization, nor can I imagine any service-related ailment being treated with any less diligence or compassion.
The charges leveled against the VA by “Marine combat veteran” Gordon Duff are BS in my experience which tempers my opinions. The accusations against the VFW and the American Legion and the obvious political agenda on display at this so-called Veteran’s site are egregious hyperbole and the pernicious belittling of service organizations is evidence that Duff has never set foot inside a VFW hall or an American Legion Post. It’s difficult for me to imagine a marine combat veteran speaking such foolishness, but then I am reminded of the John Kerry’s and Jack Murtha’s out there fornicating with the enemy.
As you would know, the monthly American Legion Magazine is running an ongoing series on VA claims processes - a series involving veterans and genuine cites from their cases and histories.
As in what veteran Duff does not have in his apparently baseless rant here.
:o)
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