I listened to a news story this morning that needs to be discussed. According to the story, a federal report was filed in Oakland discussing the failure of our Veterans Affairs offices to timely file, process, and complete claims filed by veterans. In many cases these claims were filed with nothing happening for more than a year. The veterans affected are not being told why their claims are taking so long. Apparently, there is absolutely nothing they can do to speed up the processing of their claims. Meanwhile veterans are left with no where to go. All this comes after their dedicated service to their country.
I find this story appalling. I too am a veteran having served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam assigned to the First Marine Division. I filed a claim for extreme hearing loss more than a year and a half ago. I went to the VA clinic in Clearlake to file my claim. I was then told to catch the shuttle bus at 5 a.m. there and go to the VA hospital in San Francisco for a hearing test. This test was finally done on March 24, 2011. To this date I have not heard (pardon the pun) anything from the results of this test. I have contacted the Clearlake VA clinic several times to no avail. No one, it seems, knows anything about this test and there are no other options for me to pursue.
I almost died for my country in Vietnam and this is the best my country can do for me? I find this to be completely unacceptable. At this time I want nothing more to do with the VA. In my opinion they are very mismanaged, unorganized, and reluctant to do anything for us, the veterans of this country. I wish this was different, but it isn”t.
Michael A. Fechner
Hidden Valley Lake
