VA workers get bonuses, deny veterans

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Congressional hearing held on VA bonuses - September 23, 2009

They all fought for our country.

Paul McDaniel came home from Iraq.

"I was kicked aside.", says McDaniel.

At the height of the Cold War, Flo Harper was a Russian linguist.

"If I went back to work, I would jeopardize a lot of people's lives.", says Harper.

Ira Cumbee received a commendation for his service on a ship during Vietnam.

"Somebody who has went and done their duty to their country they shouldn't, you shouldn't be having to fight at home.", says Cumbee.

The fought as far back as Howard Caldwell firing mortars in World War II.

"Seems like they don't want to give you what you've got coming to you.", says Caldwell. "That they ought to to get it ."

Workers at the Veterans Affairs Roanoke Regional Office have been getting paid, while at the same time either denying these veterans claims or making them wait.

Through the Freedom of Information Act, WSLS has learned where nearly $250,000 given by congress to the Department of Veterans Affairs went last year.

That money was paid in bonuses in amounts as high as $3,000. They were paid to VA employees who work inside the Poff Federal Building in Downtown Roanoke, not to veterans who've had to fight for every dime since fighting in foreign wars.

"If somebody is making money on our soldiers dying today as they died before, there's no place in heaven for 'em.", says Cumbee.

It's not like these veterans haven't kept meticulous records, documenting what they say are service connected injuries and illnesses.

The Chief of Neurosurgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center wrote a letter in 1991 on Flo Harper's behalf. The chief at Salem's VA Medical Center followed up with a report in 2003. Both Chiefs of Neurosurgery concluded Harper's seizures are so unpredictable she can't hold down a job.

"There's no way to tell when." says Harper. She's had the seizures since being hit by a car on a military base on her way to work in the late 1980s. "I'm still having 2 to 3 a day.", says Harper.

Howard Caldwell kept the Western Union telegram his mother received more than six decades ago, telling her Caldwell had been wounded in action.

Caldwell says the VA blames his hearing loss on his 92 years of age, not those mortars fired right beside his ear. At night, Caldwell still sometimes dives for cover under his bed.

"In them dreams I'll hear things like a shell exploding.", says Caldwell.

Caldwell is still waiting on a post traumatic stress hearing.

Paul McDaniel told the VA in a letter, his post traumatic stress has him still seeing images of small Iraqi children missing arms and legs. He wrote it's making him think twice about having a family one day. He says the VA has yet to respond, almost making him question why he joined the Air Force in the first place.

"When something does happen and it's all over and said and done with, you find out that the promises aren't really there.", says McDaniel.

Cumbee asks that we not ask about what he saw during the war he fought. On top of PTSD, Cumbee now has leukemia, he believes from exposure to agent orange. He's still got the paperwork from his trips to the sick bay, more than 40 years ago.

"Deny, deny." says Cumbee. "Even though you've got the proof they still deny."

While working on this story, we were also denied by the VA.

We received a letter from William Nicholas, the director of the VA Roanoke Regional Office. The letter reads, "Based on the fact that we have complied with your FOIA requests, we are respectfully declining your request for an interview".

Since we couldn't ask the VA if the bonuses are justified, we asked Congressman Tom Perriello what he thinks about that money not going to Virginia veterans. Perriello serves on the house veterans affairs committee,

"There are people in our VA system who work incredibly hard." says Perriello."It's a mission for them to serve our veterans and there are others frankly who are dead weight and we need to make sure that we're getting rid of that dead weight."

Perriello took the list we gave him of bonuses paid in Roanoke back to Washington. When the subcommittee on oversight and investigations holds a hearing Wednesday morning on VA bonuses handed out nationwide, that information WSLS provided to Perriello will become part of the congressional record. Those results are faster than anything these vets have seen from the VA.

"I get the feeling they hope we die before we finish the fight.", says Cumbee. "But I ain't gonna die and I'm not gonna quit fighting."

The cases of all four veterans were at standstills when we did our interviews back in June and filed our Freedom of Information Act request with the VA.

Just Tuesday morning, Flo Harper was granted a new medical exam for her seizures. They're asking her for employment history all the way back to the day she was hit by a car on a military base in the late 1980s.

Howard Caldwell and Paul McDaniel have both had new medical exams. Neither have heard back from the VA since those exams.

Ira Cumbee recently got a letter from the VA giving him a temporary 100% rating for the agent orange leukemia case. Cumbee's cancer is only in stage one. He'll have another medical exam in six months and if the disease hasn't gotten worse, they may take some of his money back.