By AARON GLANTZ,?Center for Investigative Reporting
Editor's Note: Southern California is home to the largest concentration of veterans in the U.S., and not surprisingly, it has a witheringly long wait time for disability applications to be decided. Nearly two million vets live in California, and half of them are in the five counties of Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino.* (See the map). The Center for Investigative Reporting has found that the VA made some headway since July in the densest population areas. But reporter Aaron Glantz also found that the VA is up to 1-in-3 error rate as it battles through a backlog it says is worsened by a perfect storm of returning veterans?from Iraq and Afghanistan warfronts coupled with aging Vietnam War vets. All of this further delays help for veterans. One such case involves a California Navy cook and the VA worker who tried to help him.
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U.S. Navy cook Hosea Roundtree watched the 1983 shelling of Beirut from the deck?of a ship, feelings of helplessness washing over him as people perished onshore.?That memory haunted him, resurrected in flashbacks eight years later after a tour in?the Gulf during Operation Desert Storm.
But when Roundtree?s claim for disability compensation crossed Jamie Fox?s desk?at the Department of Veterans Affairs more than two decades later, it was slated for?denial on the grounds that he had never seen combat. Fox, herself a Navy veteran,?tried to straighten things out ? and for that, she lost her job.
A lawsuit filed by the former VA disability claims representative provides a rare?glimpse into what veterans? advocates call systemic problems in how the agency?handles compensation claims filed by Americans wounded physically or mentally in the line of duty.
A Center for Investigative Reporting review of the VA?s performance data reveals?chronic errors ? committed in up to 1 in 3 cases ? and an emphasis on speed over?accuracy that clogs the VA system with appeals, increasing delays for all veterans.
?When the VA makes a mistake processing a veteran?s claim, then our veterans face?another unacceptably long wait,? said Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and former?senior VA project manager who now works for the Washington, D.C.-area law firm?Bergmann & Moore.
As of mid-October, appeals represented nearly a third of the more than 819,000?pending disability claims. Nationwide over the past year, the average time a veteran?waits for a decision has increased by more than two months ? to 260 days. Veterans?who appeal wait an average of 3? years, according to VA data obtained through the?Freedom of Information Act.
Read the full story from the Center for Investigative Reporting.
This story was produced by the nonprofit Center for Investigative?Reporting, the country?s largest investigative reporting team. For more, visit?http://cironline.org/node/3983
Contact the reporter at aglantz@cironline.org. ?
Southern California has the nation?s largest concentration of veterans. As of 2012, California has 1,965,000 veterans, according to the California Department of Veterans Affairs. The state?s five counties with the largest veteran population are all in Southern California. Note, you may need to refresh this page.
Los Angeles: 323,000
San Diego: 222,000
Orange: 133,000
Riverside: 124,000
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San Bernardino: 112,000
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