BY DEREK DEVOS

While Washington bickers and postures, veterans wait.

This month, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins tried to hit pause on nearly every veteran appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, claiming his office didn’t have the funds or “excepted employees” to meet deadlines during the shutdown.

The court, nine judges led by Chief Judge Michael Allen, all told him no. They called the request “significant and extreme.” In plain English: You don’t get to shut down justice because Congress can’t pass a budget.

The Wrong Battle

If you lead the VA, your fight isn’t with the court, it’s with Congress.

You don’t ask permission to stop veterans’ cases. You demand that lawmakers fund the people who defend those cases. You walk into hearings and call it what it is: negligence at the top, not the bottom.

Instead, the secretary tried to sidestep accountability by freezing the system itself.

That’s cowardice, not leadership.

The Human Cost Behind the Numbers

The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims sees roughly 15,000 cases a year. The median time for a decision is 222 days. Some 429 of those cases lasted longer than 18 months.

Each one of those numbers is a veteran or a survivor, waiting for compensation, medication, or care for PTSD, burn pit exposure, or spinal injuries.

A “pause” means missed rent, untreated symptoms, and another month explaining to your kids why you can’t buy groceries.

Let’s be clear: These aren’t lazy people looking for handouts. They’re the same men and women who raised their hands and swore to protect this country, including many right here in Iredell County.

Seeing Sides

I’ve also been a veteran sitting in the lobby, waiting for someone to call my name.

I’ve had great providers, people who genuinely care, doctors, nurses, claims specialists, most of them overworked, underpaid, and doing everything they can to hold a broken machine together.

The problem isn’t them. It’s leadership.

When executives get comfortable, when shutdowns hit, when funding dries up, the front-line workers keep showing up. The suits start filing motions. That’s the gap we keep seeing in America — those who feel the pain and those who just talk about it. The non-consequential nature of politics has no place in veteran healthcare.

Do Your Job, or Get Out of the Way

Doug Collins should have been petitioning Congress, not asking judges to look away.

He should have classified his own attorneys as “essential,” or requested temporary relief on specific cases, not tried to freeze the entire system.

This move tells every veteran: “We’re optional.”

And that’s exactly how we lose faith in the very department built to serve us.

A Message from the Ground

We’re tired of being patient.

We’re tired of hearing “it’s complicated.”

We’re tired of watching politicians get paid during shutdowns while veterans wait for the benefits we earned decades ago.

To every elected official: You don’t get to use us as photo ops and then shrug off the hard parts of your job.

You don’t get to blame “funding” while sending billions overseas.

Either fix this system or stop pretending you care.

To My Fellow Veterans

Don’t let this discourage you. Be vocal and let your “representatives” do their job. Or vote them out as well.

Keep your records, stay on your claim, and don’t let anyone tell you that your case isn’t essential.

You earned that right the day you swore your oath.

And if you’re struggling, reach out — not to the system but to each other.

That’s why we built The PTSD here in Statesville: to provide peer support, family readiness, and connection. Because when bureaucracy fails, community has to step in.

The Bottom Line

Leadership is simple: when it gets hard, you don’t hide behind lawyers, you show up for your people.

The VA’s motto is: “To care for those who have borne the battle.”

That’s not just a line carved into marble. It’s a promise. And right now, the people running the show are breaking it.

Derek DeVos is a retired Air Force technical sergeant and founder of The PTSD, a veteran-led nonprofit based in Statesville. The organization provides trauma-informed peer support and family readiness programs for veterans and their families. Learn more at www.ThePTSD.info.