What really happened on that VA call
Yesterday, I was on a conference call with TSO – well, actually it was just me and him – and I mentioned to him that it had been raining entirely too much in the DC area this weekend. I barely got off the phone when the rain finally stopped – and it hasn’t rained since that moment. So I’d like to thank TSO for ending the rainy spell we had this weekend.
VoteVet’s dicksmith had the same experience that I had a few days earlier. He was on a conference call will Tammy Duckworth and Lynn Nelson from the Department of Veterans Affairs and they were talking about the new GI Bill. At VoteVets, Dicksmith writes that all he had to do was mention to Duckworth and Nelson that he wasn’t getting his benefit – and Viola! they decided to pay everyone. Dicksmith swoons;
Honestly, I don’t think anyone on that call or in the Vet community in general expected this. I know I didn’t. The VA has shown what can be done when the agency actually cares what happens to the Veterans it serves.
Yeah, why should we expect the DVA to suddenly begin doing what they should have been prepared to do two months ago seein’s how they’ve had a year to get ready for the deluge of paperwork and claims? Um, Dicksmith, if the VA, Tammy Duckworth and Black Beret Guy REALLY cared, you wouldn’t have had a conference call Friday. You’d have your check in your grubby little paw in the line at the bank.
And, Army Sergeant, I’m not letting you off the hook, either – you swooned, too and forgave Shinseki all of his sins. For what? For doing his job – once?
First of all, this remedy is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. To get your partial payment of your GI Bill benefits which you earned and filed for months ago, you have to go to one of 57 Regional Offices.
I went to SUNY Oswego – my regional office was Buffalo. A four hour drive each way. But not to worry, the same VA who couldn’t get your benefit to you on time will send representatives to your school to arrange transportation to the regional office. How dependable will that be?
I can schedule buses, for Pete’s sake – the veterans don’t need an eight hour bus ride (how many buses will be late, and how many veterans will ride for hours to find out their paperwork is screwed up, how many buses will break down?) they need their money that the government has been promising since before the last election!
I guess some people are more pleased with the party to which an appointee belongs than they are the actual service they get from that appointee’s agency.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues
Not to mention, but I’ll mention it anyway. I applied for an increase in my disability rating. I applied last October. In May, the VA wrote to the Social security Department for a copy of my records. They are still waiting for them. So mu case, in less than two weeks, will be a year old, with no end in sight.
My VA regional office says that they are averaging 18 months to two years for rating boards to make a decision.
Meanwhile, i can’t work, and we are probably going to have to sell most of our stuff and move into a small apartment.
Oh joy.
I truly feel for the vets dealing with the GI Bill issues, but they ought to realize that what they are experiencing is par for the course with the VA.
Welcome to the ‘hood, bros. 🙂
Take a number and have a seat.
To defend myself, I really couldn’t care less what party Shinseki is, and honestly have never really thought about it. You know I’ve had issues with the beret, among other things.
What I do admire is someone who is willing to take the leadership responsibility of admitting they fucked up and to try a solution-a /fast/ solution. When you have people like Suspect and a few others I know dropping out of college because they couldn’t get paid, that’s a major problem.
I’m not going to give them a free pass-if this payment gets screwed up, I’ll be the first to post about it. But this is a really big step for the usually cumbersome and slow VA, known for among people I know with the words, “Delay, deny, until the day you die.”
As a guy waiting on $2500 in GI bill bennies for the last two months, I’m really not feeling the love from the VA. They have known this was coming for the last year, and it is still screwed up.
The only thing I will say in the VA’s defense is that they told Congress it would be a clusterfark to get everybody set up this year, and Congress said do it anyway.
At the end of the day we can thank God IAVA rammed this through with their partisan bullshit support.
Thanks IAVA! Next time you can suck a donkey dick. (it tastes like diesel)
[…] impressed with the VA’s too little, too late response to the newest GI Bill misadventure. Jonn from This Ain’t Hell brings up salient points about the implementation side of the $3000 […]