The problems with the Veterans Administration, more commonly known as the VA, have been pretty well documented in recent years. Many Veterans throughout the country have had issues receiving the medical help they need, and a Manitowoc County Veteran has voiced his frustration as well.
Staff Sargent Jason Zeddies is currently serving in the Army Reserves, and he had some strong words to describe his experience with the VA.
“Thankfully I don’t have any dire needs, but how slowly the VA moves is atrocious,” he said bluntly. “I filed a claim back in December of 2019, and I understand COVID happened this year, so that made somethings slow down, but you can work remotely. We figured it out.”
On top of the slow service, Zeddies said that he can’t even really file a complaint because, “all you do is get a generic number or email, and there is never anybody there who answers the dang phone.”
We spoke with Assemblyman Paul Tittl, who serves on the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, and he offered some assistance to those struggling with the VA.
“If they have issues, they should try to contact our office,” the recently re-elected State Representative said. “We can possibly help if it’s Wisconsin related. If it’s federal related, we have contacts within that department, and we could probably give them some phone numbers to call.”
Tittl also voiced his support of all servicemen and women, saying “We need to be very cognizant of the sacrifices made for us…We need to help our veterans.”
Zeddies did have a few suggestions on how to fix the problems including, “Maybe make it more palatable for people to want to actually work for the VA. That’s number 1. Maybe streamline things. Make them more transparent. And get people there that actually care and maybe have case workers who are assigned to you. Maybe they do have that but the person that’s assigned to me I can never get ahold of.”
Zeddies told SeehaferNews.com that he decided to voice his frustration for a couple of reasons. First, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” and second, there are people he knows in worse situations than himself that are truly struggling because of the problems with the VA
