New VA Secretary pledges reforms: Secretary Shinseki said he supported advance appropriations for veterans health care and deemed long delays for disability claims to be adjudicated unacceptable
DAV Magazine, March-April, 2009 by Joseph R. Chenelly
With 38 years in uniform and more than a million soldiers under his charge, Gen Eric K. Shinseki was going to tell it like he saw it in 2003, even if that meant contradicting his superiors at the Pentagon in front of Congress.
He was unceremoniously ushered into retirement from the Army's top post after he told lawmakers several hundred thousand troops would be needed to successfully control a post Saddam Hussein Iraq, an opinion that garnered a lot or attention at the time because it directly conflicted with then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Shinseki's famous forthrightness is one reason President Obama nominated him to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. The Senate unanimously confirmed the nomination, and Shinseki was sworn in as the VA Secretary Jan. 21.
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During his confirmation hearing with the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Jan. 14, Shinseki said he supported advance appropriations for veterans health care and deemed long delays for disability claims to be adjudicated unacceptable.
Shinseki is a life member of DAV Kauai Chapter 5, which is based in Lihue, Hawaii. "We congratulate General Shinseki on his confirmation and are already moving to work with him. It is vital that he wastes no time in establishing himself as a strong veterans' advocate at this crucial point in the VA's history," said National Commander Raymond E. Dempsey. "With a growing number of wounded and disabled veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan putting even greater strain on the VA, already struggling to meet the needs of millions of other veterans from previous wars and eras, the VA needs a strong leader who can immediately take charge of the department."