First of two parts
From a West Point cadet to chief of staff of the United States Army, Eric K. Shinseki was promoted to the top of his profession and retired with revered accolades. He was appointed Secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the VA failing greater than any of his six predecessors.
How could that happen?
Just because you’re a basketball superstar in the NBA doesn’t guarantee you willll be a baseball superstar in MLB. Ask Michael Jordan.
In 1969, Dr. Laurence J. Peter co-authored a best-selling book, “The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong.” His central theme was about competent people being promoted or reaching their level of incompetence. It explains that everyone in a hierarchy — from the office intern to the CEO, inevitably will rise to his or her level of incompetence.
The Peter Principle offers an insightful management theory revealing how the normal selection of a candidate for a certain job is based solely on his or her abilities in a current position rather than on the skills required for the proposed position.
As a primary example, an individual can rise to become a company’s top salesperson. When promoted to sales manager, it is not unusual for the person to fail, having been elevated to a position for which he or she was unqualified.
So it is with Mr. Shinseki, who reached his own level of incompetence at the VA, the second largest bureaucracy in the federal government.
A competent head nurse does not mean she will make an equally competent hospital administrator.
So it is with Donna M. Beiter, Associate Director for Nursing and Patient Care Services at the VA before being promoted to Executive Director of the Los Angeles VA, where she reached her level of incompetence. She failed at managing the largest VA in the nation, with nearly 400 acres of land and facilities to oversee while managing 5,000 employees and a billion-dollar a year budget.
It was no coincidence that Gen. Shinseki and Ms. Beiter became co-defendants in a landmark ACLU lawsuit accusing them of misappropriating federal VA property with non-Veteran entities for non-Veteran use.
Nor was it a coincidence that last Aug. 29, district judge S. James Otero entered a judgment against the co-defendants for nine separate real estate deals under their authority at the Los Angeles VA that were adjudicated in federal court as “unauthorized by law and therefore void.”
This is the personification of two seemingly competent individuals rising to their level of incompetence.
In spite of the ruling, the co-defendants continue to maintain the same top-level federal government jobs they are unqualified to hold.
You would have to be living under a rock not to know about the alleged mismanagement and misconduct at more than 25 VA hospitals across the nation under the stewardship of Gen. Shinseki.
On May 15, the Secretary testified before a Senate hearing. “I take any allegations about patient safety or employee misconduct very seriously,” he said.
Really?
What about his own misconduct that is not an “allegation” but an “adjudication” in federal court with the judgment for illegal use of VA property? What about Ms. Beiter, an entrusted federal employee?
Who Is Serious?
Gen. Shinseki does not take his own misconduct seriously even though the illegal use of the VA property entrusted under his fiduciary duty was exclusively deeded in 1888 to be permanently maintained as a National Home for war-injured and homeless Veterans.
Today, Los Angeles is our nation’s capital for homeless Veterans while this is the largest VA property in the nation.
In November 2009, Gen. Shinseki promised to end all Veteran homelessness within five years.
He has six months to fulfill his promise.
Instead of settling the court case t and building new housing that would greatly reduce Veteran homelessness in Los Angeles, he appealed the verdict..
Regarding the current allegations of misconduct at numerous other VA’s, the Secretary proclaimed: “If any allegations under review are substantiated, we will act.”
Really?
Does he mean “act” by shamelessly appealing the ruling at the added expense of the American taxpayer and prolonged misery of tens of thousands of disabled and destitute Veterans who are homeless and need to be safely housed.
Gen. Shinseki is in a full state of denial when it comes to accepting responsibility.
His denial should not come as any surprise. Denial is the watchword for the second largest bureaucracy in the federal government.
Denial Is an Old Friend
Denial is the VA’s modus operandi that created alleged “wait lists” of abuse and neglect that were perpetrated against disabled war Veterans and subsequently became known as “death lists” at numerous VA’s across America, all under Gen. Shinseki’s command.
Denial is the modus operandi at the Los Angeles VA under Ms. Beiter’s misconduct when Vietnam Veterans of America Region 9 was recently put on a three-month “wait list” for a land-use permit to hold its annual Veterans Summer Celebration and Picnic on VA grounds. Meanwhile U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was granted immediate permission to hold an illegal fundraiser and political speaking engagement at the VA Wadsworth Theater
How disgraceful for a West Point graduate and retired four-star commanding general to have no control over the men and women employed under his authority.
Where Is the Mirror?
Gen. Shinseki has nobody to blame but himself since he defiantly refuses to accept responsibility and resign. Smugly he boasts that he “serves at the pleasure of the President.”
No, General, you “serve at the respect of our nation’s military Veterans,” and you failed.
Failure to admit failure is the greatest failure of all.
How scandalous for a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy who failed to uphold West Point’s noble creed of “Duty, Honor, Country” even after being honored as a “Distinguished Graduate” for being an exemplar of “those three hallowed words” as Gen. MacArthur so reverently referred to in his famed “Duty, Honor, Country” speech in 1962. Gen. Shinseki was one of the few privileged West Point cadets to witness of the general’s famed oration.
In 2009, after being appointed Secretary of the VA, General Eric Shinseki was honored as a Distinguished Graduate of West Point:
“Throughout a lifetime of dedication to our nation, as a Soldier and civilian, General Eric Ken Shinseki has exemplified the ideals of West Point: Duty, Honor, Country. His military career spanned over 38 years, and his service to our nation continues still. He is a visionary and humble leader who has proven again and again that he deserves the title “Distinguished Graduate.”
How could things go so wrong?
On Dec. 7, 2008, Gen. Shinseki accepted President-elect Obama’s nomination as the seventh Secretary of the VA.
Ah, the Symbolism
This nomination was made on the 67th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor as the newly elected President stressed the importance of the new position Gen. Shinseki would hold.
John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America called the Shinseki selection “a promising choice.”
Paul Reickhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America proclaimed “This is a big name and it shows that [Obama] is not going to treat the Veterans Affairs Secretary as a low priority.”
A vast majority of Veterans held high expectations that Gen. Shinseki would be the person who would turn the VA around.
On Jan. 29, 2009, I also joined the chorus of fellow Veterans who held high expectations for the decorated, disabled Vietnam War Veteran.
Just eight days after Gen. Shinseki took over, I sent him a congratulatory email regarding his distinguished military career while simultaneously forewarning him about the mismanagement and misconduct at the Los Angeles VA, the largest under his new command.
It’s important to point out that this email was sent 11 months after the establishment of the peaceful and non-violent “Veterans Revolution” to bring an end to the rampant mismanagement, malfeasance and misappropriation of Veterans property at the Los Angeles National Veterans Home, aka the VA Greater West Los Angeles Healthcare System, and to stop the abuse and maltreatment of our fellow Veterans who are disabled, disadvantaged and homeless.
Excerpts from my email to newly appointed Secretary Shinseki with the Subject titled “Duty, Honor, Country”:
“General, thank you for your Honorable Duty to our Country with such a distinguished Military career. And thank you for undertaking the enormous responsibility as the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This is certainly a very great challenge and I can assure that Veterans are very optimistic that you will bring about the real “change” that President Obama promised during his campaigning.”
(To be continued)
Mr. Rosebrock may be contacted at rrosebrock1@aol.com
