From the Squidley, South Dakota Newswire

At a time when incredibly large numbers of Vets are entering the civilian ranks (again) as they are wont to do after wars, the need for VA medical care rises exponentially. No more are the existing facilities adequate to the task. Vets are not sub-humans nor should they be treated like Negroes in the post-Civil War south. They are entitled now to several free years of health benefits from VAMCs to ease their transition back into civilian life. If injured, this is a lifetime entitlement. Vets shouldn’t have to choose where to live based strictly on VA’s whims.

After every war, as America’s population grows, it spreads out and covers an ever-larger   geographical area. Let’s examine one. The Hot Springs VAMC, located in western South Dakota for the last 105 years, is a good example. The next-closest VAMC is located north of I-90 up near Ellsworth  AFB. It’s outside of the famous Sturgis, SD motorcycle extravaganza that is put on every August  I’m not sure how many miles away it is from Hot Springs but it’s the only other major VA facility in that neck of the woods.

Hot Springs also has a Veterans Home. The medical facility is designed as a satellite to the  Sturgis facility and serves it’s purpose well. It’s close to the three contiguous corners of Wyoming and Nebraska as well. Since it’s off the beaten path of an Interstate, the Vets who use this probably travel longer, time-wise per mile, to access it as they are using rural roads. It’s certainly a hell of a lot more scenic so I’d drive more slowly. In fact, if you’ve ever driven through  Custer State Park, you’d think they subscribed to Better Housekeeping Magazine. The place looks freshly swept and vacuumed every time I’ve gone through there. It’s the back way off I-90 to Mt. Rushmore if you’re not in a hurry.

Because of this expansive rural setting, Vets tend to congregate more closely to where their medical care is provided. Since this creates a “pocket” of Veterans, it follows that closing a VA medical facility will force a lot of Veterans of limited means to relocate closer to a different one. What, then, of the Veterans Home in Hot Springs? Will the Sturgis facility be offering a daily dustoff back and forth or a meat wagon once a day up State Route 79? Something tells me not to even expect valet service.

Having looked at reducing or eliminating the VA medical in Hot Springs, has the VA even considered how that will impact some of the aforementioned deluge of new Vets now returning to this area? Or future ones?  Closing any VA facility where the need clearly exists is always counterproductive. Not discussing it with the “VA stakeholders” is tantamount to hostile indifference. Yet there you have it. VASEC remained intransigent over this for months. Pleas had been shunted off to the undersecretary where purposeful misunderstandings (as only the VA can misconstrue) seem to crop up with regularity. This creates the “he said- she said” vitriol that distracts everyone from the problem-the imminent loss of Hot Springs VAMC.  We shall see what develops. I’d be willing to bet that he has to pull his horns in. The other scenario is he “retires” by punting on 4th and 15 from his own 25 yd. line to the next VASEC. This is a lose-lose for him and the President although I suspect it’s not a black eye because it’s a “red” state.

If anything, VA should be doubling down on Hots Springs because they already have the infrastructure and a labor pool of willing and trained employees. What’s more, Veterans cannot be expected to travel vast distances from their homes to access these services. South Dakota and the upper Midwest is a enormous area. Folks from the east coast don’t comprehend driving 120 miles to go shopping at a Walmart. You’re talking Ponderosa country, Hoss. Why, its a three day ride to the kitchen in those parts.  Folks out there install extra gas tanks on their trucks for good reason. The nearest VAMC to Sturgis is clean on over in Sheridan, Wyoming and another 3 ½ hours. I wager to say you could hit  four VAMCs on the East Coast in a day and still make Happy Hour.

Veterans in Hot Springs, not to mention those in neighboring states adjacent to it,  will find themselves traveling a good 3 hours to go up to the Black Hills VAMC. Younger Vets might not find this an obstacle but it will pose a much larger hardship  for  older Vets (and their wives) who purchased homes and built their life around the availability of the Hot Springs facility. We don’t need to discuss the privations VA employees will face if this happens. Who speaks for them?

It is hoped someone will come to their senses and exercise common sense on this. We went through the military base closure contractions over previous decades and it appears the VA is trying to take a page from their game plan. Supersizing one regional Air Force/Army base situated cheek and jowl and condensing all your assets there might work for F-15s and C-17s  but medical care has to be far more sub-regional. Many Veterans of this latest conflict suffer from mental and physical elements that do not translate into mobility. Pretending they are is not going to make it so. The ultimate cost in uprooted families and financial privations on those least able to survive it is not well-thought out.

The Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) model of VA healthcare is already strained to its limits. I tried it at the Bremerton, Washington facility when I began at the VA and it was typical hurry up and wait. Beware the red light camera at the intersection, too.  Removing whole sub-regional VAMCs needs some intense rethinking. Hot Springs will not be the only one. This will simply be the harbinger of many more. In conclusion, one can only surmise that it flies in the face of the logic espoused by VA-that of a community-based medical system accessible to all. Rural VA medical facilities march to the beat of a different drummer and should be accorded far more leeway to serve their far-flung constituents.

Hot Springs VAMC

105 years of serving Veterans and a beautiful piece of architecture