Army Asks a VA Office to Stop Helping Vets Fillout Disability Paperwork

National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story today on the Department of Veterans Affairs office in upstate New York that got a call from the US Army. Evidently the VA people there were being too helpful. The workers at the VA office were helping disabled soldiers at Fort Drum fill out their military disability paperwork. The VA workers there were good at it. So they got a call from the Army, asking them to stop helping Vets - at least with this paperwork.

You can listen to the NPR story here.

A quote from the NPR story:

One disabled soldier, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation from the military, says it feels like a slap in the face.

"To be tossed aside like a worn-out pair of boots is pretty disheartening," the soldier says. "I always believed the Army would take care of me if I did the best I could, and I've done that."

The situation seems typical of Bush administration care for returning war veterans. Early last year conditions at Walter Reed Medical Center were so bad that Congress started an investigation, the general in charge of the facility resigned, and the head of the Veterans Administration eventually stepped down.

However you feel about the war itself, it's difficult not to be outraged over the Bush Administration's treatment of veterans...