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!