deserving vets can't get timely care.

[sfc_darrel]

Gordon Mansfield's legs are paralyzed from a wound suffered at Ia Drang, the Vietnam battle depicted in the movie, "We Were Soldiers."

In June, on orders from his boss, Anthony Principi, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Mansfield wheeled himself into six separate VA clinics in Florida. With service record in hand, he told staff he recently had moved to the area and, as a combat-disabled veteran, sought VA health care.

Four of the six clinics turned him away.


"They couldn't take care of him. They were too booked," said Principi, anger in his voice. "In one of the four clinics, one of my clerks told him, 'Mr. Mansfield, you have to understand that Congress created all veterans equal, so that if some affluent retiree who may have spent one year in uniform came in before you, we have to take him first.' "


In July, Mansfield, who is assistant VA secretary for legislative affairs, was denied access to care at two more clinics in Colorado.

"One clinic told him to go to Salt Lake City? to Utah from Colorado Springs to get his care! And we're talking about a guy who is 100-percent, service-connected, combat!"

That is going to change, Principi vowed during a July 26 interview.

"There is no place in the VA for that?If we can't take care of our service-connected disabled first, then, as far as I'm concerned, we may as well close the doors, because that's why we exist," said the VA secretary.

Because all veterans now have equal access, many of those most deserving, the combat-disabled, are just part of the crowd, often waiting months for VA care, like everyone else.

"I'm concerned it's causing quality to be degraded," Principi said. "To be told you have to wait six months or a year is not good medicine."

Because all veterans now have equal access, many of those most deserving, the combat-disabled, are just part of the crowd, often waiting months for VA care, like everyone else.

"I'm concerned it's causing quality to be degraded," Principi said. "To be told you have to wait six months or a year is not good medicine."

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?...4&article=9763