When no less than thirteen former military personnel (of high rank) with intimate knowledge of the system tell you what you need to do to get a program properly implemented, you might want to take notes. When they write out the game plan and hand it to you, there are very few excuses you can summons later such as the dog ate it.

This came out in 2007. Regardless of whose tenure this occurred under, the fact remains that the repair order was posted and no one did anything about it. I find it incongruous that in 2010 the VASEC suddenly had an epiphany and the Eureka lightbulb of comic book fame came on over his head.

One thing I read this morning that made my stomach turn was the the latest VA-approved explanation for the backlog. It seems that Uncle Eric decided to grant service connection for Parkinson’s, IHD and hairy “b” cell leukemia to us AO Vets out of the kindness of his heart. No mention of the Institute of Medicine tasked with identifying these diseases and their correlation to AO. Just the bald assertion that Mr. Shinseki had seen the wisdom of doing it due to his compassionate regard for his fellow Vets. Bleh.

This whole business of the backlog is becoming more odoriferous by the moment. In the same article we are being prepared for worse. They mention that the backlog is (not might) going to get worse through the year before it gets better and now there is no “timetable” for a true 125 day adjudication. Well, there goes 2015. Can’t say they didn’t tell us ahead of time.

VA BACKLOG