I agree with every sentiment share in this post. I refuse to set one foot in a VA facility. Between there constantly prescribing narcotics for every ailment, botching routine dermatology procedures as a result of my service, dental procedures that destroyed my teeth and the straw that broke the camels back was the insistence to continue to mandate masks long after the charade was even admitted by the CDC...
I stood in horror in the derm clinic in Tampa watching a clerk scream at an old women you couldn't breathe as they demanded she leave her mask on. I had to wheel the woman out of the clinic so she could take her mask off and breathe. I called my representative and demanded action, he sat on the Armed Forces committee. The clerk in his office, an Army veteran who I knew, tried to make excuses for it as necessary and probably should have been stopped.
I responded by asking him if his MOPP gear included a paper mask? He was speechless. I told him it did not because the fucking things are absolutely worthless against virus, chemical, biological or anything like that and he knew it. It was never necessary and I was insulted by his response. He acknowledged the fact and within a week the mandate was lifted. I have no idea if that was coincidental or not. But it illustrates just how broken the VA is and how tyrannical.
I could spend all day on this subject but I will provide one other specific true fact. I was medically retired from the US Air Force as a result of an anthrax vaccine injury they still won't acknowledge. The injury was determined permanent by the Air Force within 24 months. It took the VA approximately 10 years to make the same exact determination about the exact same injury. It cost me approximately $30,000 in property taxes bc I would have been exempt from paying them with a permanent rating from the VA but not from the Air Force. It also costs me two full college tuitions of my daughters because with a permanent rating the VA pays for that tuition. My permanent rating came a month after my youngest daughters college graduation and I do not believe that was a coincidence. Just like I don't believe the VA didn't pay for them, even though they were on every document I filed with the VA for the first two years they paid my disability claim. The initial VA claim took over two year to be approved EVEN THOUGH I WAS MEDICALLY RETIRED and then another two years fighting with them to pay for the dependents.
They suck, they've always sucked. The process is the punishment for surviving the medical experimentations of serving.
This is Richard Webb. He's my father-in-law. He served two tours in Vietnam as a Marine Recon Sniper. He received two purple hearts for his service along with countless other medals.
This photo is seven years ago...
Today, Richard spends most days not knowing what the hell is going on because he developed type 2 diabetes from agent orange in Vietnam.
My wife has been fighting the VA for over a year to get Richard the care and benefits he needs just to survive. The process is a joke. The service is a bigger joke.
The VA case managers are absolute dog shit and treat our nation's heroes like garbage. They also act as if they're doing our vets a FAVOR for the most basic of care.
@SecVetAffairs, I've been to your headquarters building in DC, and have first hand experience dealing with the incompetent staff.
This is hands down the most embarrassing department in all of the Trump administration. If the Boss knew how horrendously our veterans are still being treated after you've had eighteen months to fix these issues, you'd be fired tomorrow.
I waited a long time to write this, but at this point I've seen enough.