General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 7 Facts About Our Veterans That Will Shock The Hell Out Of You [View all]Milliesmom
(493 posts)WASHINGTON -- After Eric Shinseki took over a sleepy Department of Veterans Affairs four years ago, he decided some change was due. For one thing, those 154,000 homeless veterans living as beggars on the streets.
After some study, Shinseki, a decorated Vietnam veteran wounded twice in battle, ordered that the VA would not just reduce veteran homelessness -- it would end it. And end it by 2015.
The bureaucrats of the VA, a sprawling $140 billion empire that operates the nation's largest integrated health care system, sends veterans to college, insures their lives, guarantees their home mortgages and manages their burials, werent used to having someone over their heads barking orders. They certainly werent used to publicly announced deadlines.
"When I put that out, there was a lot of wind being sucked through teeth," Shinseki told The Huffington Post during a rare interview.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/11/eric-shinseki-veterans-affairs_n_2110080.html