For my own personal patriotic reasons, I was a volunteer all during the Vietnam War, was processed for four assignments, and actually served on two tours. I concealed the pain and disability because I wanted to do the job I was doing.

After the war, I went into the reserve and finally retired after 10 years of active duty and 16 of reserve duty. While in the reserve I had earned a second bachelor's degree and a master's degree and started a 20 year career with a large Information Technology company.

They eventually offered early retirement to clear out all the senior employees and I gratefully took it because work was getting to be a chore with chronic headaches, joint pain and arthritis from all the old injuries.

I invested $6,000 in classes to retool my computer skills for a new IT job, but the pain increased and I wound up talking to the VA about a claim. They eventually awarded me a disability rating for the damage from the old accident and the wear and tear that the active-duty military had caused. Damage from reserve time didn't count, or my rating would have been even higher.

As I said before, I'm not looking for sympathy, I just wanted to set the stage: because of my active-duty injuries and my VA rating, I am eligible for free VA medical care for life. I can go to any VA clinic or hospital and have any necessary treatment or procedure done at no cost to me.

BUT, I would rather perform the procedure myself, out in the back yard, sitting on the garbage can with a rusty razor blade than go to a VA hospital. I have seen VA hospitals, doctors and staff while being evaluated for my disability rating, and I have read horror stories about VA hospitals.

The hospitals that I have seen are old, dirty and located in slums. Many of the doctors seem past retirement age and possibly affected by senility. The younger doctors seem to be mentored by the senior doctors. The staff seem to be rejects from the DMV, or perhaps they represent the cream of the crop of civil-service (or both).

Enough of my griping.

Go read this article, be sure to click on the links in the text. Read the gripes the GAO has about incidents at VA hospitals in early 2009.

I'll bet nobody at GAO would go to a VA hospital either.

"We owe so much to our disabled veterans"