NACVSO President’s Response to Washington Post Article Series

To the editors and writers of The Washington Post who approved a series accusing a handful of American warfighters of exploiting the system meant to care for them: you are wrong.

At a time when Americans are struggling, your newsroom chose to take aim at the very people who swore to defend your right to publish freely. You misrepresented the intent of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability system and scapegoated veterans who depend on it.

War is hard. The training that prepares Americans for service is hard. The bodies and minds of those who took the oath to defend this nation bear that cost for life.

Fraud, of course, is unacceptable and must be prosecuted. But your reporting ignores the facts: confirmed cases of veteran fraud are statistically insignificant compared to the millions of legitimate claims processed each year. Every VA claim passes through layers of verification—accredited representation, medical evidence collection, Compensation and Pension exams, internal quality review, and multiple levels of appeal. This is not a “trust-based” system, as your series implied. It is a documentation-based system overseen by the VA Office of Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and Congress itself.

Painting millions of veterans as potential fraudsters because of a few bad actors stigmatizes an entire community—many of whom waited decades for recognition of their injuries.

You also ignored the role of Governmental Veteran Service Officers, or GVSOs—county, tribal, and township officials who receive rigorous VA-accredited training and adhere to the highest ethical standards. They work for local governments or nonprofit agencies, not for profit. Their mission is to help veterans navigate the VA system with integrity while protecting taxpayers by preventing frivolous or fraudulent claims. GVSOs are the first line of defense against waste, ensuring accuracy, accountability, and trust between veterans and the federal government.

In other words, you attacked the very system that works. While your reporters hunted for clicks, the GVSOs you overlooked are back home sitting with veterans at kitchen tables, explaining paperwork, gathering evidence, and keeping the promises this nation made to its warfighters.

Let’s be clear: delays in veterans’ claims are not evidence of corruption. They result from chronic understaffing, rising workloads following the PACT Act, and decades of sustained conflict. While modernization has made filing easier, adjudication standards remain rigorous. The VA’s biggest challenge is capacity, not integrity. Investing in trained personnel, technology, and especially GVSOs—trusted community advocates who ensure claims are accurate and complete—will reduce backlogs and strengthen confidence in the process.

“Compensation” is not charity, and “disability” does not mean unemployable. These are compensatory determinations grounded in law and evidence—promises made when every service member took their oath. Once an injury or illness is medically verified, it is deserving of compensation under federal regulation. Your series painted these veterans as opportunists. That’s not journalism. That’s betrayal.

Where fraud truly exists, the answer is not restriction but resourcing—training adjudicators, modernizing systems, and eliminating unethical, for-profit claims companies that exploit veterans for financial gain. Where for-profit systems invite abuse, GVSOs prevent it.

Sadly, your narrative is not new. America’s warfighters have too often been used, discarded, and scapegoated—from the Revolution to Vietnam to today. Your article is just the latest chapter in that cycle—where media cynicism replaces gratitude.

To every veteran reading this: NACVSO and your local GVSOs have your six. We will continue to serve with integrity, protect the system from exploitation, and make sure the promises made to you are promises kept.

Happy Veterans Day—and to our nation’s defenders, thank you for standing the post so others could speak freely, even when they get it wrong.

Very Respectfully,

Andrew Tangen

President, NACVSO