I find it interesting that every time we go through the machinations of installing a new VA Secretary, that all manner of trepidation and fear race through the minds of the Veterans’ population. Well, perhaps the minds of those who concern themselves with these matters at any rate. What the hey? Count me in. I’ve had the pleasure(?) of witnessing each and every one of them from Derwinski to Denis ascend the Vermont Avenue NW Throne. Some I felt were pro-Veteran and some not. So let’s unpack Mr. Collins and see what’s under the hood.

First, and foremost, I’d note that this is a departure from the previous President’s VASEC choice inasmuch as he’s actually a Veteran this time. I don’t feel that’s a prerequisite for the job anymore than being Mayor of South Bend, Indiana qualifies you for the job of Secretary of Transportation. Shucks. Say what you will but Pete was a former Naval Intelligence weenie from 2009 to 2017 before becoming mayor. I can’t say with any confidence that it prepared him for any of his later jobs but we  gave him a shot at it. Right?

 It would seem that T ’47 is nominating quite a few former military Veterans. I think it will be interesting to see how all these choices pan out. But that’s not the reason I called you here today. Mr. Collins certainly doesn’t fit the mold of who I would expect to take the reins of the VA. He was a former Naval Chaplain and is now an Air Force Reserve Chaplain. Based on that, he will need to prove himself but he needs to be installed first to show us his potential. Conjecture on his qualifications beforehand is pointless.

The talking heads of media seem perturbed he comes from the Baptist faith. All I can say about that denomination is they put their hearts into their sermons and sing at the top of their lungs. We had a First Baptist church down the road from our Episcopal house of worship when I was a kid. They could drown out our Doxology plaints from a quarter mile away. With that said, I don’t think being a Baptist (or a Chaplain) is a disqualifier for this position.

Considering some of the choices I’ve read about in the last four years for various other Agencies, being a Chaplain might be a tremendous asset inasmuch as he’ll have more compassion for the Veterans’ plight. It certainly can’t hurt. I need look back no further than Jesse Brown to wonder how one of our own- a Viet Nam combat Veteran- confirmed to the office by Congress- could fight so hard at the CAVC to defeat his fellow Veterans he served with in the ‘Nam in their early fights for Agent Orange benefits. But then, I guess that could be said to some degree about all VASECs to date. They work for the Guy that cuts their checks…

A VA Secretary is ostensibly entrusted with the welfare of all Veterans from all walks of life regardless of their race, gender (as determined at birth) and religious or political affiliation. It seems almost counterproductive to spend your whole tenure protecting your turf, denying Veterans and pissing money away like a drunken sailor (no pun intended) at the Court to deny deserving Veterans. If we look back at the historical record, we see Secretary Peake spent untold millions fencing out Blue Water Squids (Haas v Peake) only to see it fall a decade later ignominiously under the Procopio decision. We even had to fight to get the “inland waterways” definition changed to get Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang Harbor included at one point. VA considered this a major concession. See? Nonadversarial. Veteran Friendly.

Witness the long, protracted fight (from 1991 to 2022) for Agent Orange presumptions for Thailand and Laos Veterans -including my Air America brethren who, incidentally, also receive their benefits from VA. All of these fights entailed massive expenditures of your tax dollars against you only to be eventually subsumed by common sense. Any previous VASEC with an ounce of compassion would have entertained arguments that might have a basis in fact rather than acting like that “contrary” Indian (Younger Bear) in Little Big Man.

Younger Bear of Little Big Man fame

I don’t wish to inject my own tribulations into this but can you imagine a 13-year fight for a greenhouse that encompassed three trips to the BVA, three extraordinary Writs,  three Veterans Law Judges’ salaries and untold millions of dollars in litigation at the Seattle Regional Office only to be begrudgingly conceded in spite of §3120’s guarantee of the ILP for severely disabled Veterans?  Congress promised 2,700 Veterans with life-threatening disabilities they would be given things to lessen their dependence on others. The year I first prevailed (2015), VA VR&E poohbahs could only find 1,457 deserving souls who qualified. It was below one thousand when I prevailed again this year. I assure you there were, and are, millions of us vying for those thousands of slots yet VA would have you believe they somehow fell short of measuring up or were “independent in their activities of daily living.”

So, when considering former Representative Collins for this job, what metric should we apply? Does being a chaplain (and an attorney) automatically disqualify him? Does being a former congressman disqualify him? Does his former job in the Congressional field versus a lifetime tenure in an executive capacity at, say, the State Department leave him skinny in the experience field?

Considering we’ve been getting the shitty end of the Punji stick since the Revolutionary War, I’d say a chaplain might be just the ticket for a prospective VASEC. If your prescribed mission is ‘for he who has borne the battle, his widow and orphan child”,  it would seem a man of God might already have a leg up in this endeavor.

Politicians, and I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, seem to have a proclivity for passing out these plum jobs to those who have stood shoulder to shoulder with them once they are elected. It very well could be that Mr. Collins is reaping his just reward for being a loyal acolyte of Trump’s. But then, it could be that he has extraordinary insight as to how this job might be done better than his predecessors. Considering the previous inhabitants of 825 Delay and Deny Avenue NW have made a hash of the job for 35 years, how could anybody do worse?

I suppose it could be said, by the same token, that the job of Defense Secretary being held by inept, morbidly obese chuckleheads who have never heard a shot fired in anger has not kept us out of endless imbroglios in foreign countries where we have no dog in the fight. One would think that, of all jobs, America’s Defense would demand a Veteran as a prerequisite. So why not give it to a relatively untested, lowly former Lt. Colonel who sports a Bronze Star and a CIB? How could he possibly be worse in the scheme of things than the long line of civilian Bozos who preceded him? Doesn’t anyone remember McNamara? His claim to fame was running a car company.

Several of you who read this drivel  suggest Mr. Collins might be a harbinger of change at the VA and reduce or eliminate the medical arm of the Agency. There seems to be some trepidation that he will inject Project 2025 into the mix and reduce Veterans to abject poverty. Newsflash. In my view, that eventuality is already upon us. Congress begrudgingly gives us a meagre budget considering their  propensity to start wars and create shit tons more disabled Veterans. Each newly disabled Veteran essentially dilutes the amount of money for all of us Veterans collectively. Ergo, if you find yourself in the proverbial money hole, quit digging it deeper by manufacturing more disabled Veterans.

I, for one, am a positive thinker. If it’s broke, and has been since its most recent iteration back in 1918, why in Sam Hill not try a different approach and see if that works? Why this insane desire by the powers that be to keep repeating a litany of errors that haven’t reduced the backlog one iota? Each new approach, such as the AMA, has been touted as the panacea for all the previous years of inefficiency. I recall the advent of the conversion to electronic records from paper files (VBMS) was guaranteed to speed this up to 186,000 miles per second. In 1992, a legacy appeal with a hearing took a year from the Form 1-9 certification. Under AMA, this very same appeal has metastasized into three and a half years-if you decided to stay in Legacy; more if you opted into AMA.

Captured 122 cm rockets

I say we give Mr. Collins a shot at repairing a broken system. I doubt he could screw it up any more than it currently is. That’s not to say he’ll be any vast improvement over his predecessors but we can at least pray he will (pun intended). To say he’s arbitrarily unqualified to take the reins without a plausible reason only reinforces my opinion that certain politicians couldn’t care less about our plight and wish we’d just shut up and go away. That, my friends, is not in the cards. We owe our Disabled Veterans far more than lip service and a ‘thank you for your service.’ It makes little difference which political stripe you sport. If they’re peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining, it doesn’t really matter if it’s democrat pee or republican pee in my book.

Lastly, I’d say that Denis McDonough (or at least his little people) have fairly responded to some of my most urgent pleas for my most disabled Veterans. In that regard, I’ll miss him mainly because I’ve established a line of communication. With the changing of the guard, a whole new job of introducing myself will create a speed bump for a while.

  Navy Liberty chits…