For years, Veterans Affairs facilities across the U.S. have gotten away with retaliating against those who expose their wrongdoings. Amongst many of these brave whistleblowers is Brandon Coleman, a Marine Corps veteran and Addiction Therapist at the Phoenix VA. As an employee, during his time at the Phoenix VA, Coleman has witnessed a plethora of improper and possibly unlawful practices within the facility. Suicidal veterans have been neglected, and left to walk out of the hospital without proper care. In 2014, he learned of the unauthorized accessing of his medical records by a VA Social Worker. After confiding in the OSC with his complaints about this, they were soon aired on ABC. His supervisor, essentially searching for a way to get rid of Coleman, threatened to suspend his employment for being on television and discussing concerns with the media. He was later escorted out of his workplace by police. After returning to The VA for his own treatment as a patient, police embarrassingly followed him everywhere he went.
This is the real issue at hand. The one exposing the gross mismanagement, attempting to make good for our veterans, is now treated like the criminal himself. This was the start of a long battle that Coleman would soon endure, against brutal retaliation by the VA administration. Instead of posing a plan to resolve these pressing issues, The VA has seemingly been spending more of its time trying to defend its public image in the media and to Congress, while their former employees-turned-whistleblowers, who have exposed many of the VA’s horrifying wrongdoings, have been hung out to dry.
There is no more time to waste. Justice must be served for our wrongfully neglected U.S. veterans, and the past and present whistleblowers; in light of their service to our country, how can we ask them to sacrifice anymore?