Valley veterans review VA care

Sometimes the stories we publish hit a nerve with readers. And rarely, is it a story we expect that winds up generating such a wave of phone calls, emails and letters. Case in point:

We published a story on Tuesday, June 10 about the Wasilla Veterans Administration clinic and a mention it warranted in a Washington, D.C., report from the Senate Appropriations Committee. The clinic was included in the report after U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski specifically requested it be reviewed.

The results of that report called for an investigation into staffing shortages at the clinic that have caused long wait times and a stressful working environment amplified by a veteran shot himself to death in the VA parking lot.

Nationally we know this story is a hot-button issue. We’re glad for the big spotlight on the shortcomings of the VA nationwide. We hope this examination will lead to the overhaul of this broken system and begin to craft a new process that will better fulfill the promises we made as a nation to our veterans.

But the story we wrote was relatively straightforward. It came together so late in the day we didn’t even try to call D.C. offices (with their four hour time differences) for comment. It was written completely off of the record of those meetings and using quotes from press releases issued by our state’s two senators.

Andrew Wellner wrote the story for us. He spent most of Tuesday afternoon answering calls from veterans with a lot to say about the services provided by the VA in Wasilla.

Veterans called to encourage further reporting on this issue, to share their stories of bureaucratic runaround and to call on our senators to hold public meetings to review the shortfalls and find solutions.

This community level review from veterans who rely on the VA for medical care was much more thorough and enlightening than the few sentences mentioned in the national report we wrote about Tuesday.

Valley veterans made it clear to us that this is an important local story for many people in the Mat-Su. Thank you, Readers, for your calls and emails.

We will continue to follow this story line and we will work to create a community dialog with our U.S. Senators so they have the can benefit from the same educational opportunities veterans shared with us this week.

We hope in doing so we can help improve the medical care our veterans receive.

Honoring the promises made to our members of the Armed Services is one important way as a community and a nation can honor their service.