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Oh Calpernia, I've been hoping someone would post something about this...

Secretary Nicholson of the Department of Veterans Affairs Resigns.

Well, Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson has bailed out for the dreaded ‘Private Sector’. Did he jump, or was he pushed?

I’d like to believe that he was forced to resign by the groundswell of criticism and complaint by veteran service organizations and veterans themselves. Instead, I suspect that he is deserting a sinking ship due to his consistently inept decisions and policies. His performance as Secretary has been so egregiously flawed that ‘on his watch’ the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has become an even ‘deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American Veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield’. (quote from vnvets.blogspot.com)

Who was Jim Nicholson, and how did he become Secretary of DVA?

According to his bio page at Whitehouse.gov, he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, and served eight years on active duty as a Ranger-qualified Paratrooper, and then 22 years in the Army Reserve. While serving in Vietnam, he earned a Bronze Star Medal, a Combat Infantryman Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and two Air Medals(?). While in the Reserve he became a real estate lawyer, and then a land developer. In 1986, he was elected committeeman from Colorado to the Republican National Committee (RNC), in 1993 was elected vice-chairman, and Chairman in 1997 where he served through the 2000 elections. In 2001, he served as US Ambassador to the Holy See, and in 2005, he relieved Secretary Principi at the DVA.

In mitigation of his disastrous performance at the DVA, it is obvious from the above that while not completely incompetent—he did graduate from West Point—Secretary Nicholson simply did not have the executive talent or experience required by a multi-billion dollar department of the government. He was unprepared, inarticulate, and inept in the performance of his responsibilities. While I’m willing to concede his personal good-will, the of go-along-to-get-along political experience and skills he used previously were not those required to manage and control the empire-building Deputy- and Under-secretaries who really run the bureaucratic shark-tank the DVA has evolved into over the decades since WWII.

The Dog-Eat-Dog Culture of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

I should first point out that in my experience, the rank-and-file, public contact employees of the DVA have been without exception decent and honorable men and women. Whatever the constraints of the policies of the DVA, they truly feel a ‘duty to assist’ the veterans they are there to help.

From the beginning the VA, and later the DVA, has been a special case, differing from other governmental Departments. After WW-II, it was almost exclusively staffed by military veterans or patriotic citizens, whose only thought was to provide the wounded and disabled men and women who had served their country in war and peace the benefits they had earned from a grateful nation. Sadly, over the following decades, a certain, well, call it ‘pragmatism’ began to show up, particularly at the Ratings and Appeals Board level, and at the Deputy- or Under-Secretary, or General Council echelon of Veterans Affairs.

Granted, the DVA, and the Veterans Administration before it, did not become adversarial to veteran’s interests solely during Secretary Nicholson’s tenure. Because it is directly under the executive branch of government, the head of the DVA has always been what used to be referred to as a ‘patronage’ job. The position of Secretary is awarded by each succeeding presidential administration to someone who has made themselves especially useful or indebted to that political party or President. Thus, Secretaries are usually selected primarily to manage their departments quietly, and not make waves or embarrass the administration. (They are also expected to catch the flack when something goes wrong) Unfortunately, this administration or its staff have been notably ineffectual at this. (i.e., Ron Brown, etc., and now to include Jim Nicholson)

In the end, however, Secretaries of the various departments are always ‘temporary help’, there to serve until replaced by that or a succeeding administration. Consequently, the individuals who actually manage the Department are career bureaucrats, people who have worked their way up ‘through the ranks’ until they reach the Deputy- or Under-secretary level positions. Usually, these people are college graduates; or perhaps a double-dipping military type, (then almost invariably an officer) or perhaps a lateral transfer from the Department of Transportation, Justice, Education, or the Pentagon, who just happened to be qualified for an open position in Veterans Affairs. Either way, these individuals are careerists who tend spend years building coteries or fiefdoms within the Department, and they are in control of the day-to-day operations of some division. Their driving ambition is to get to the top and retire comfortably with a government pension, and they will do pretty much whatever it takes to accomplish this goal.

The unfortunate consequence of that goal is that, particularly since the end of the cold war and the fall of communism, the best way to get ahead is the ability to hatch various schemes designed to reduce the budget requirements of the DVA. Which, of course, makes the Secretary look good to the administration, and yields promotions or bonuses for the troops. This results in a constant flow of ill-advised efforts intended to either cut benefits, or reduce the number of persons who get them; and these people have generated a number of ingenious approaches to accomplish this.

One Case in Point of the Toxic-To-Veterans Culture in the DVA:

A perfect example of this process is the origin of the “Boots on the Ground” rule, which the DVA has used to eliminate an entire ‘class’ of Vietnam veterans access to benefits granted by the 1991 Agent Orange Act. (i.e., Blue Water Navy veterans)

The story goes that during the second Clinton administration in 1997, a lawyer named Mary Lou Keener, who at that time was General Council to the Department of Veterans Affairs, (GC-DVA) was married to the then Acting-Secretary of the DVA, Hershel Gober. In an effort to make her husband look good and possibly be appointed Secretary, the former Ms. Keener was looking around for ways of saving money in the DVA’s budget.

After a rather tortured reading of the Agent Orange Act of 1991, Ms. Keener came up with VAOPGCPREC 27-97, which had to do with the DVA being able to deny “Blue Sky” Air Force veterans Agent Orange service-connected benefits. (guys who flew over Vietnam without landing) Sadly, this didn’t work, and Mr. Gober had to withdraw his nomination for Secretary due to some unrelated shenanigans, and he remained a Deputy-Secretary.

Unfortunately, VAOPGCPREC 27-97 was not forgotten. In the first couple of years of the Bush administration, some bright light of the DVA under Secretary Principi fished it out and used it to come up with the infamous Manual 21-1. To quote the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) lawyers:

“In February, 2002, in a very irregular manner (that is, without public notice or regulatory comment or input), the VA changed its guidelines such that, in order for a Vietnam veteran to be presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, that Navy, Coast Guard, or Marine veteran who served aboard ships must demonstrate that they actually set foot in Vietnam. This became known as the ‘boots on the ground’ requirement.”

Almost immediately Commander Jonathan Haas, USNR (retired) was denied immediate and automatic compensation under the rules of “presumption of exposure” to Agent Orange, due only to the fact the Cdr. Haas served in the “Blue Water” Navy. He fought the denial all the way to the DVA’s tame Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. To the DVA’s surprise, on Aug, 16, 2006, the Court (Judges Hagel, Moorman, and Lance) found in favor of Cdr. Haas and reversed the DVA’s 2002 ‘Boots on the Ground” regulation. The Haas Ruling ordered the DVA to process claims of “presumptive exposure” to Agent Orange not just for Cdr. Haas, but for all “Blue Water” Navy veterans. The Haas ruling supported the argument that, if one had been awarded the Vietnam Service Medal because of their presence within the designated “Combat Zone,” then they were “in” the Republic of Vietnam. This ruling instructed the VA to grant compensation to service members who served on ships in the waters offshore Vietnam.

In a clear example of questionable judgment, Secretary Nicholson compounded the original error in policy and elected to appeal that decision. Even worse, prior to their actually filing any appeal and contrary to legal action, the Secretary refused to comply with the Court Order to process ‘Blue Water’ Navy claims and circulated an internal memo, #02-06-24, instructing all claim adjudicators each Regional Office and the Board of Veterans Appeals to hold off (or ‘stay’) adjudication of any claims of this nature until the Secretary informed them to do otherwise.

The Secretary Nicholson’s directive was in flagrant violation of the Court-ordered reversal of the ‘Boot on the Ground’ policy, and such prejudicial treatment was to cease; because once Court-ordered, the DVA had no legal right to “stay” Blue Water Navy claims without obtaining the permission of the Court. Secretary Nicholson’s memo continued the denial of benefits to all Blue Water Navy veterans, even when there was documentation that the claimant had actually ‘set foot’ on the ground of Vietnam in addition to serving under a ‘Blue Water’ command. In fact, in many cases where the veteran actually (but temporarily) did work on the soil of Vietnam, their claims were simply added to the growing pile, because doing so was a more efficient method for adjudication officers to quickly table those type claims.

Shortly thereafter in another case, Ribaudo vs. Nicholson, practically the entire Court, (Chief Judge Green, with Judges Kasold, Hagel, Moorman, Lance, Davis, and Schoelen) granted Mr. Ribaudo’s petition for extraordinary relief in an opinion issued on January 9, 2007. Therein, the Court held:

· That Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) Chairman's Memorandum 01-06-24
is unlawful and is ordered rescinded.

· That “The Secretary will proceed to process the appeals that were stayed in accordance with that unlawful memorandum ‘in regular order according to [their] place on the docket’ and will apply this Court's decision in Haas vs. Nicholson.

One would think that after the disastrous results of the ‘Haas’ and ‘Ribaudo’ cases in their own Court, a graduate of West Point would be able to figure out he was in a untenable position and comply with the decisions of that Court. Somehow, Secretary Nicholson was persuaded to appeal ‘Haas’ to the Federal Circuit Court. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims permitted the DVA to ‘stay’ Ribaudo, and later subsume the case into Haas for the appeal. The case is on the docket in the Circuit Court, and briefs are being filed by both sides.

One further note: Before his resignation, Secretary Nicholson sought to de-fund the ongoing Vietnam veterans Agent Orange studies by the Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM), probably in order to stop those pesky doctors from discovering even more dioxin associated diseases. He also is attempting to terminate funding for the maintenance and storage of the reports, specimens, and data produced by the IOM studies, and dispose of them. (Where I come from, we call this ‘destroying the evidence’)

So Who Should Replace Nicholson?

To conclude, we will probably never know whether Secretary Nicholson was incapable of controlling his subordinates in the DVA, or was being leaned-on by the White House; in either case he failed miserably in carrying out his responsibilities to this country’s wounded and disabled veterans. At this point the question is moot. Secretary Nicholson will be replaced.

Ultimately, the responsibility for the actions and decisions of the Department of Veterans Affairs falls to President Bush. In the last analysis, this President must not appoint just another crony, or political non-entity. This time, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by appointing a hard-nosed, highly effective Secretary of the DVA.

Perhaps call out of retirement some Flag-rank hardass, along the lines of a Georgie Patton, or Ernie ‘Jesus’ King. Someone like Curt LeMay or Admiral Hyman Rickover, who would kill to spend the last days of his career cleaning house at the DVA, getting rid of the short-sighted, self-promoting, amoral culture there and transforming the Department direction, fulfilling its intended mission. Someone who will use his authority to do the right and honorable thing. Those people exist, I’ve met them. They truly work hard to help veterans obtain the benefits to which he or she is legitimately entitled.

The President must appoint someone like this, and then he must support that Secretary to the limits of his authority. He must use his position as President to speak out for, and fight for whatever budget is required to take care of those who fought for our country. If he does not, then we as citizen-veterans must hold his feet to the fire. Since they confirm the President’s choice, we must write Senate Veterans Affairs Committee if his candidate is not up to the job. In a time of war, we simply cannot afford another political flunky or venal yes-man in this position.

Not this time. Not again.