Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/1153.VETFIRST.TXT

Text File | 1994-01-06 | 7KB | 141 lines

Does this sound familiar?

There she was. Sitting in her office at the VAMC Martinsburg WV,
directly under a sign that said "I put veterans first!"

The office was nicely decorated. Nice quality desks, comfortable
upholstered chairs, two modular computer work stations, tasteful
gray upholstered soundproof dividers, two personal computers and
several shelves of books, mostly having nothing to do with
veterans. Rather, I noticed "Learning Word Perfect", "Mastering
Lotus 1-2-3", "Italian Recipes", etc.

"I'm sorry, Mr. McArthur, you don't have a service connection for
the neck condition, so we can't issue you the neck brace. Now if
it had something to do with the scars or the other service
connected problems, I could issue it to you."

I glared at her for a full minute before she started to wilt.
Squirming around in her chair, she said "Well, I guess one
cervical collar won't break the VA. Take this requisition to the
prosthetic lab and Mr. Whatshisname will issue it to you."

Walking around the corner to a door marked "Prosthetic Lab" I
discovered it was locked. Knocking on the door several times
brought no response. Walking back to the office of Ms. "I put
veterans first", I was informed that Mr. Whatshisname was
probably out having a smoke. Waiting outside the door to the lab
for another fifteen minutes, groaning with the pain in my neck, I
walked back to Ms. "I put veterans first" and glared for another
couple of minutes. Getting the message that I was probably one of
those militant VietNam vets, she decided to do her good deed for
the year and take personal charge of the problem. Digging out a
massive ring of keys (ever notice that most professional
bureaucrats have huge rings of keys), she proceeded me to the
prosthetics lab where she commenced digging around in shelves,
lockers, closets and having no luck at all finding the neck
braces.

About this time, Mr. Whatshisname came back from his smoke break
(35 minutes, I timed it) and dug a neck brace out of a secret
hiding place under his desk. "You know it took a month to get
these. You sure you need it?" he asked. When he noticed the smoke
coming out of my ears, he didn't wait for an answer. He quickly
instructed me in the use of velcro fasteners, warned me to take
it off before taking a shower, and gave me the bums rush out of
HIS lab. Ms. "I put veterans first" quickly retreated to the
comfort of her well furnished office. No doubt to practice Lotus
1-2-3 or Word Perfect.

On my way out of the hospital, I noticed the job opportunities
listings on the bulletin board in the hallway. Aside from the few
jobs for cafeteria employees, there was one that caught my eye.
It was a GS-7 position in the Martinsburg VAMC. Seems that they
need a graphic illustrator, experienced in desktop publishing, to
produce internal memos, booklets and educational material.

What the hell is going on here? The VA is going to pay $22,717 of
its budget so that the deadheads can have fancy graphic drawings
on their union meeting notices? Go into your local VA Medical
Center and check out the job notices. I guarantee you'll find the
hospital understaffed with doctors but notices posted on the
bulletin board for more bureaucrats.

It's very clear what the problem is. Rampant bureaucracy. Waste
of money. Deadhead VA employees who are only interested in empire
building. The very same problems that plague all government
offices and departments.

These so-called public servants simply forget what they are there
for. All the "I put veterans first" signs in the world won't make
one bit of difference until some severe housecleaning is done.
The only thing that will ever have an impact on the problem is
continuous haranguing of the VA your senators and congressmen
until they do something to put an end to the country club
environment that feeds the problem.

Right now, with the recent articles and publicity concerning
unwilling radiation testing on military personnel, and the
coverage this problem is getting in the national media, we have a
chance to get some exposure that can make a lasting change.
Conventional veterans organizations are simply not going to make
a dent in this problem because they use conventional approaches
to dealing with the VA and the government in general.

I would like to solicit the help of any and all veterans who
feel that the time has come for a change. I am proposing that we
create our own lobbying group to be known as VETPAC; Veteran's
Political Action Committee. We need chapters in every city in the
country to actively seek out and HELP veterans in dealing with
problems with the VA, and to work toward making sure that the VA
budget dollars are spent helping veterans and not in supporting a
bureaucracy that doesn't work.

We aren't interested in collecting dues from members to support
this effort. We'll raise a war chest of donations from
individuals and corporations that can help. There are a number
of methods that can be used to raise money and we can use the
help of anyone that has experience in this field. If you'd like
to join the organization, send your name and address, with branch
of service and years you served to:

VETPAC
C/O  D. McArthur
1104 Courthouse Drive
Martinsburg WV 25401

Send along any horror stories that you might have had or are
having with the VA. I'll do my best to get them to the attention
of anyone that might be able to help.

Get out your word processor or at least a sheet of paper and
write to your senator and congressman. Tell him you are sick of
government indifference to the problems of veterans. Demand that
he start an investigation into government waste, especially at
the VA level. Demand that he start with the Veterans
Administration. Tell him about the waste YOU have seen. Tell him
about the number of deadhead employees sitting on their
upholstered chairs while the VA takes a year or two to process a
vets claim. Make copies of the letters and send them to your
local newspaper, television station and favorite radio talk show
host. We're talking about maybe an hour of work and a couple of
dollars in stamps. If we all do this it can make a difference.

Send copies of the letters that you sent to:

R. J. Vogel, Deputy Under-Secretary for Veterans Benefits
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
810 Vermont Avenue NW
Washington DC 20420

Mr. Vogel's telephone number is 202-535-7920, His FAX number is
202-535-8026.

Let Mr. Vogel know that he should get prepared for a barrage of letters
from angry vets together with all the media attention you can generate.

NOTE: I faxed this message to Mr. Vogel's office. Within twenty
minutes, someone from the VA called and asked if they could help
me resolve a problem. It works! Get involved now!