[Daily Caller] Despite a long-running government-wide push to hire veterans, only 13 percent of the top officials managing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system medical facilities are veterans and only two of those facilities are run by doctors who served in the military, according to an analysis by The Daily Caller News Foundation.The DCNF analysis examined the biographies of the 300 top employees who run VA's 75 medical centers and regional offices, including directors, chiefs of staff and associate and assistant directors. (See interactive database below and here.) The original Veterans Preference Act in federal employment became law in 1944.
Viewing the 13 percent figure, it's almost as if the VA wants to ensure that, if veterans do work for the agency, they don't have the power to make changes.
Retired Navy Seal officer Gilberto Serrano, for example, told TheDCNF he applied for "at least 20" jobs at the VA. He has two master's degrees, a background in finance at major corporations, and spent three years volunteering doing financial analyses for the Puerto Rico VA.