VietNow
National Magazine
Here We Go Again
Incoming VA Secretaries always talk a good
game, but how many of them have made
things better for us?
By Raymond F. Gustavson,
Jr.
Eric
K. Shinseki
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We now have another in a
long line of VA leaders. Like
all the others, this one is talking in
generalities that sound good. And he has
a wonderful record of service in the U.S.
Army. He’s even a Vietnam veteran.
But what kind of job will Retired General
Eric K.
Shinseki do for us? Is he really right
for this important job?
On January 21, 2009,
the U.S. Senate confirmed Retired Army
Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as the seventh Secretary
of Veterans Affairs.
At stake is a 284,000-employee organization
that delivers care and financial benefits
to millions of veterans and survivors.
The estimated budget this year is $98 billion,
and covers a national network of
regional offices and health care
facilities.
What qualifications and experience
does this man bring to this highly visible
and important position?
General Shinseki
is the product of a military, not veterans,
environment.
He graduated from the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point in 1965, and was
commissioned a 2nd Lt. Additional education
included a Master of Arts degree in English
Literature from Duke University, and attendance
at the Armor Officer Advanced Course, the
United States Army Command and General
Staff College, and the National War College.
His
combat military experience consisted of
two tours in Vietnam as a forward artillery
observer, and then as commander of Troop
A, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment.
During combat, he stepped on a land mine
and suffered a severe foot injury.
His non-combat
military experience consisted of a variety
of command and staff assignments in progressive
areas of responsibility in Europe, the
Pacific, and stateside. He was also a parachutist
and Army Ranger. His last duty assignment
was a four-year appointment to Army Chief
of Staff, and it was in that position in
2003 that he clashed with then Secretary
of War Donald Rumsfeld over the number
of troops needed for a military victory
and post-war stabilization in Iraq.
Following this quarrel he retired in June
of 2003.
Since retiring, General Shinseki
has served on the boards of Honeywell International,
Ducommun, Grove Farm Corporation, First
Hawaiian Bank, and Guardian Life Insurance
Company of America.
He has also served on
the advisory boards of the Center for Public
Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government,
Harvard University, and the U.S. Comptroller
General. He is a member of the Council
on Foreign Relations, the Atlantic Council
of the United States, and the Association
of the United States Army.
General Shinseki
thus brings a diverse
background that is, unfortunately, unrelated
to veterans affairs. His philosophy contains
generalizations as to the course the VA
should pursue. He has stated, for example,
that “The
overriding challenge…is to make
the Department of Veterans Affairs a 21st
century organization focused on the nation’s
veterans as its clients.”
He plans to develop a 2010 budget within
his first ninety days that will “transform
the VA into an organization that is people-centric,
results-driven and forward-looking.”
Other
generalizations include enhancing the GI
Bill, streamlining the disability claims
system, leveraging information technology
to accelerate and modernize services, and
opening VA’s health care system to
veterans previously unable to enroll in
it, while facilitating access for
returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.
We’ve heard this talk before, in
one form or another, by other incoming
Secretaries of Veterans Affairs, and still
the VA is bogged down in a myriad of problems.
Speaking
in generalities is fine as
a starting point, but in the end, the complex
problems of the VA will remain basically
unchanged unless the man chosen to lead
the agency is
familiar with its intimate workings from
the ground up.
How do you gain familiarity? By working
in such jobs as file clerk, claims-processing
clerk, supervisory coach, or rating specialist
in the VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration.
Other
examples can be found in the Veterans Hospital
Administration (VHA), Loan Guaranty, Office
of Inspector General, or Vocational Rehabilitation
divisions.
It could be argued that
advisors skilled in the technical aspects
of VA claims processing, for example, could
be used to assist the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs in making correct decisions that
impact the future course of the VA. But
such input from advisors lacks one thing:
The inability of the Secretary to test
such decisions in a real-life scenario
by comparing them to his own VA work experience.
Good
intentions are fine, but would you hire
a plumber to perform an angioplasty?
I think not.
Raymond F. Gustavson,
Jr. served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam,
and is a retired VA Rating specialist
currently writing a book to help veterans
better understand the VA claims process.
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