The Veterans Administration is the peoples Responsibility and it's Duty to uphold the Contract that those that join our Military are served after their service, especially in the Wars that the Country supports and they are ordered into. Instead the Country ignores, especially the hidden wounds of, when those ordered into those Wars return home. Especially since Korea where photo op political bills etc. monies were shifted to us returning Vietnam veterans' leaving Korean vets nearly high and dry and not full funding for neither, instead of having hearings on the results of that long deadly and destructive occupation. What always has been, PTSD, was ignored! Agent Orange, was ignored, especially as to the long term results within Vietnam and to it's people! Previous wars had testing using those serving, Test Vets - Edgewood/Aberdeen Experiments that were ignored. More recently with Gulf War I Veterans Gulf War Exposures - Gulf War Syndrome they to were ignored. And still ongoing, one officially ended, while the one abandoned main missions for even sending the Military into that region years back still ongoing as those sent try to accomplish at least some of those original missions and promises from the country, those promises forgotten for the second time, i.e. after the Afghan/Soviet conflict, have their own issues Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Iraq War (OIF/OND) that were being ignored. As were many other Exposures and Hidden Wounds of War, were ignored.
All Still Ignored by the Country and their responsibility to fulfill their end of the bargain of service to the whole country, still. All these decades and especially this past decade plus, but finally trying to be taken care of by the present still underfunded, with two more extremely long wars that costs were rubber stamped and all borrowed, Veterans Administration with added help from the Executive Administration and it's Cabinet Secretaries, jobs and housing and more, including the DoD with issues like jobs and skills for and those directly around same. Including the long ignored issues of the previous decades and wars from. The only Government branch doing so continuously, along with all the other problems dumped onto them and total obstruction from Congress, and staying that course.
The media still tows the line of ignoring, following the lead of those representing in our government bodies, the Congress and State Legislatures who's job is to fully fund the needs. Those that still seek to privatize the Agency for profit and not for Responsibility. Keeping the agency underfunded causes problems, not compared to similar or worse in the private sector, that costs much more to correct then if funded fully, and not totally ignored, in the beginning. One of the VA's ongoing problems is the continued fight to better process those returning from the wars sent into, and from these two most recent done so in multiple tours. Why ongoing, because of the political appointee's heading the agency previously, only one in my lifetime tried correcting a number of issues, brother Vietnam Vet Max Cleland, but was blocked by the Congresses then, who never fought for the funding, nor seemed to care to, to stay in step with updated technologies, hiring the added personal needed, or even lead in same. Much of what is done, or developed, within the VA is brought into the private sector, for profit, especially related to war issues. With virtually nothing done as to the Veterans' Administration and for the Veterans' returning from these two present day long wars and occupations, added to the previous, in the past four years, still underfunded and even that targeted for cuts, the administration within the VA have been trying, DeJa-Vu all over again, to speed up the process of it's rapidly growing needs as one war ended and the other is winding down. Trying to find the right technology, of these modern times, that will be cost effective and ease that process much quicker.
The problems, Rachel and the rest of the media in which you point out a couple of reports from, are not with the Veterans Administration, it's with the People Served and you in the media to point that out, not join in condemning what's all the countries responsibility. And who do you bring on to discuss the backlog problems in the VA but another media type who helped write the recent Esquire piece on the SEAL who claims to be the one who shot the long forgotten bin Laden and also condemned the VA as well as the DoD and joined the long long list of all media types doing so. None asking why hasn't the Country upheld it's responsibility and demanded it Sacrifice, again, as to those who serve it!
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On this Executive Administration, it's Cabinet and those directly around same, "Best - Ever": "We haven't had this kind of visibility from the White House—ever." Joyce Raezer - Dec. 30, 2011, and plenty more of similar since Joyce spoke and will continue.
Certainly no 'visibility' from the previous administration, it's congresses and the people served who waged two more wars, abandoning one, as to the Hubris you Rachel pointed out only the day before.
February 20, 2013 - New research from the Minneapolis VA Medical Center has identified brain patterns that appear to be markers of resilience to trauma. The findings could suggest why some people exposed to trauma develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, while many others do not.
February 20, 2013 – Intelligent InSites, Inc., the leading provider of real-time operational intelligence for healthcare in the government and commercial sectors, has been selected to provide the enterprise-wide software solution for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) $543 million Real Time Location System (RTLS) contract, as a subcontractor to the prime contractor, HP Enterprise Services.
click on graphic for full view
February 25, 2013 - Too often the talented men and women who have served our country face barriers that make it difficult to find jobs that capitalize on the skills they have gained through their military education and experience. Many service members and veterans are required to repeat education or training in order to receive industry certifications and state occupational licenses, even though much, and in some cases, all, of their military training and experience overlaps with credential requirements.
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