Veterans and loved ones shouldnt have to work so hard for simple things..

I just happened to catch some of 60 Minutes and Dateline NBC tonight. The first featured a wife seeking answers about the crash of a Blackwater plane in Afghanistan. You see her husband, another officer, was killed in that crash. It happened in 2004 after the aircraft took off from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The terminal had no aircraft tracking equipment and destination, a landing strip in Farah,western
Afghanistan had, well, nothing. It was just a landing strip. The only way they found out the plane crashed was that the soldier waiting for the plane on the landing strip notified his CEO that the plane never showed.
60 Minutes aired a clip of the conversation between the pilot and the mechanic. The pilot said he "hoped" they would make it over the mountains, the tallest mountains in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the pilot took off in the wrong direction. The officer,a passenger in the back, mentioned that the route didn't look familiar. When the pilot realized the plane didn't have the lift to get over the mountains, he tried to do a 180 to turn around and then they crashed. Everyone died. All those people killed by yet again, Blackwater, the infamous company that did questionable things in Iraq. Now they are ferrying our soldiers around Afghanistan with no tracking devices, no communication at the destination sites. I mean , seriously, i have about had enough of this stuff. It is a downright shame that they put our soldiers at risk.
On Dateline,a father was seeking answers about the death of his son in Afghanistan in the Battle of Wanat. The government has been slow to provide answers about his son's death. This is the inspiration for today's blog. I haven't written in awhile due to medical appointments at least 4 days a week. I am dealing with so many chronic illnesses on my own. These two stories moved me to write again.
It ought to be a crime for government officials who are slow to provide answers when loved ones die in service to their country. These men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice and their loved ones have the right to ask questions and get answers so they can have some type of closure, if that is even really possible in these cases.
Government officials, like VA employees, really don't want to do any real work to help veterans and soldiers that need alot back from their government. Two weeks ago at the VA, i needed my phone number changed. It's a simple thing to change a phone number. However, the ordeal i went through just to get a phone number changed was ridiculous.
I was told to go to elibility desk number 3. Well, i went there and the sign said they were out to lunch. I went over to the counter where the woman admits you to the emergency room and she was busy. I waited and waited. Another woman at the desk was just passing the time,actually wasting time. So the woman on the right passed me over to the woman killing time. She told me to go to transportation. I went to transportation and the clerk said she was too busy to change the number right then. I went to my primary care team and waited and waited until someone asked me if i need help. I said i had just gotten a big run around and that my cell phone number was wrong in the computer. That took at least an hour going around and around for a phone number change. Can you imagine what happens when someone is asking for information or details about the way their son, husband, daughter, father, mother, sister, brother, husband, wife died in Iraq or Afghanistan or Djbouti or Pakistan?
I mean, seriously, do you see my point? This is all, in one word, shameful.
Shame on you , DOD,VA,Blackwater. I don't even know why Blackwater is still working for the US Government. Like i said, all of it, is downright shameful.