OAKLAND -- Whenever Vietnam veteran Don Cooper asked about his request for an in-home aide, the Oakland VA regional benefit office told him the same thing: A decision would take 14 months.
"Well, I'm going to be dead in 14 months," said Cooper, 72, of Livermore, who has stage 4 colon cancer. "But I couldn't get anybody to listen to me."
A year ago, amid outrage that VA bureaucracy was failing America's veterans, the agency promised to move quicker to help vets such as Cooper.
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While significant progress initially was made in reducing the national benefits backlog, the momentum has slowed. And scrutiny on Oakland has intensified because the center, which serves all Northern California veterans, has been operating without a permanent executive director.
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