Show The Department of Veterans Affairs provides health care and other services but there is mounting dissatisfaction with the systemThe question looms: : '' iA ' - ?" - ' ! " V Bylyrfciig r v&llworicfr "CV: ioMjWnik £ HE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT At Walter Reed Army Medical Censer in Washington DGisthe first nop for some of America's newest veterans There are the agonized aies ofa soldier wounded in Aianistan tight bandages binding hiseyes and die Ci ’ labored speech ofa soldier snuggling with a traumatic brain injury from tin attack in Iraq A floor away ate amputees like Amy Staff SgL Roy MitdieU 32 jS?and othecs Uke National Guardsman Steven Wabrek' ' hut must learn how'li io‘ wdkagainThe shuttle of Iraqi 'shran- -JT inel that surgeons dug ’ V & from his knee sits in fijtxsidelbed Anthony Prinidpi Secretary of Veterans Af&irs has come here ' ' 1 achilfyaftemoon On The Cover fcniPMti—ypsopl yV f j Irv-asa- dkfcrtiwattaiilioiioii Service the Madal of Honor for his eowapaous aedens ' Amy ofRoarh v' ten Ptinripi himselfis and promise Vietnam vet who Vietnam "This year be! eve Itiey wii ‘llbeminUng thcUcbwihoirifighfng says Jacobs He V say he'd also be thinking ' ' about Hands he lost in y Vietnam-thewars Idds 1 (bol TfiMf 1 had BramiMu They al bed aqjirations "It was not to be 'They tied so that we Americans can Iveour Ives as we want To honor v' their saoiSce sl ot us have an oblpation to preserve eur freedoms end comport In Iraq i g Bronze Stir Each hospital room - oflDlidflUlllfllOf COVER PHOTOGRAPH AND “These soldiers gave upipaitofthrir Hues :br pan of their bodies ibr us We need to make the difficult decisions to care for them" Those decisions are difficult indeed The HAS PHOTO Department ofVetetans Affairs is the second-largeagency in die federal government with more than 210000 employees and an annual budget of $64 bil- lion But die US has 25 million veterans and up and their relatives— to 70 million Americans-ve- ts are eligible for VA dollars and services (Five children of Civil War soldilers still get benefits) And here lies the VA’s crushing dilemma: It serves aging World st - ABOVE BY GETTY IMAGES u War II vets Coki War vets and Vietnam vets—our with intractable hugest veteran population-som- e a Vietnam-erthree rimes as u are vets problems (Late likely to be homeless as ocher Americans) Plus die VA now faces an influx of new vra from the waron $ terror Daily it must simultaneously confront issues as diverse as homelessness aging poverty and grievously injured young then and women PAGE4 May 30 2004 PARADE |