Apr 13, 2015 3 min read

Notwithstanding the dubious premise on which it was launched and its questionable strategic value, the Iraq war left behind about 5,000 American fatalities, 500,000 Iraqi fatalities, and thousands more wounded on both sides. It, along with our Afghanistan engagement, which yielded fewer casualties and was buttressed by a stronger rationale in the wake of 9/11, has also left in its wake thousands of U.S. troops who are still grappling with wounds to body and spirit in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder, lost limbs or even homelessness.

And some veterans are merely finding it hard to adjust to civilian life after multiple deployments.

As revealed in articles that appeared in the Observer-Reporter Thursday as part of a yearlong series of stories on veterans, the two wars have also helped contribute to a backlog at medical facilities operated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was around this time one year ago that news stories first emerged about veterans wanting for care simply because they couldn’t be fit into overloaded schedules at VA clinics and hospitals, and schedulers who were engaged in varieties of hocus-pocus to make it look like wait times were shorter. The story has largely shuffled out of the collective consciousness over the last 12 months, replaced by everything from the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., to Bruce Jenner’s gender-transition travails, but it’s a problem that has not evaporated.

Following last year’s headlines, Congress appropriated $16 billion for the VA to hire more doctors, open more clinics and give patients the means to seek care from private providers. But the number of medical appointments that have been delayed from 30 days to 90 days has remained flat over the last year, while the number of appointments that take longer than 90 days has nearly doubled. According to an Associated Press story, nearly 894,000 appointments that were fulfilled at VA facilities failed to meet timeliness goals, which call for patients to be seen within 30 days.

It’s a mixed bag for residents of this region. The overall number of appointments exceeding the 30-day target are at 1.8 percent at VA facilities in Pennsylvania, 1 percent less than the national average; meanwhile, Greene County residents who use Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, W.Va., which is about a one-hour drive from Waynesburg, could well be cooling their heels when they make an appointment – 7.1 percent of those making appointments have been facing delays of more than 30 days, the fifth-highest in the country.

The newspaper’s digital news coordinator, Alyssa Choiniere, talked to a Canonsburg veteran and his wife who have had firsthand experience in dealing with the woes of the VA’s health system. Frank Kancir, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, is still rattled by post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering an injury in a mortar attack. He has a hard time leaving his house, and traveling more than an hour to fulfill an appointment at a VA facility is a journey too far for him. He has medication for high blood pressure sent to him by mail, but his wife, Jacquelyne, believes the VA should do more to accommodate him, since his condition is directly related to his service.

“It’s like asking a veteran that’s an amputee to walk to the nearest VA,” she said. “He just can’t do it.”

Clearly, the VA still has a way to go before it can give veterans like Kancir the treatment they deserve.