On Hagel: “might be expected to toe the company line"

And not on his nomination to be Secretary of Defense in 2013.

Vets see promise in Hagel and his short VA tenure

And who's leading the Hagel Witch Hunt especially in the Senate, and the press are not only giving him a free pass but highlighting his attacks, the norm, but a chickenhawk flag waving super patriot, named Cruz, who just aged out of volunteering for active military service at 42 and is the newest member to the Senate from Texas!

After the decade plus of being of age after 9/11 and two long occupations, doubt he even ever attempted to enlist, one still ongoing that was abandoned years back as the war drums, and ginned up intelligence, grew louder and pointed at Iraq, thus making the main missions and long occupation of Afghanistan nothing about why the country sent our military into that region after 9/11!

February 7 2013 - When Chuck Hagel was appointed deputy administrator of the Veterans Administration by the Reagan administration in September 1981, few expected he would make waves.

Hagel, who had worked on Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign and served as vice chairman of the presidential inauguration committee, “might be expected to toe the company line,” The Washington Post wrote in reporting his appointment.

snip

Hagel’s actions at the VA 30 years ago, together with his experience as a combat-wounded Army sergeant in Vietnam, would give him unusual credibility at the Pentagon, according to veterans advocates, something they say could help him tackle some of the military’s biggest problems, including military suicide and long-standing turf battles between two of Washington’s largest bureaucracies: the Defense Department and the Veterans Affairs Department.

At what was then the Veterans Administration, Hagel soon had run-ins with his boss, VA Administrator Robert P. Nimmo, who had described Vietnam veterans as “crybabies” and likened the health effects of the herbicide Agent Orange to “teenage acne.” Nimmo imposed tight budget restrictions limiting psychiatric counseling available at veterans’ centers, yet he spent more than $54,000 to refurbish his office.

Hagel raised concerns with the Reagan administration, but the White House backed Nimmo, according to accounts at the time and interviews with associates. In response, Hagel resigned in June 1982. Later that year, Nimmo resigned in advance of a General Accounting Office report criticizing him for the renovation spending, which violated a presidential directive. read more>>>

The difference between a political appointee, most especially at the VA and Defense, to run a government agency and an a-political appointee, the letter after the name means little as to the job at hand for the Country. As to Military and Veterans of think retired Gen Shinseki presently at the VA and staying for now, think also of the Defense Secretaries and Joint Chiefs, from those held over from the bush administration even and forward, who quickly came on board in helping the First and Second ladies initiatives, along with the other Administrations Cabinet Secretaries, related to the Military personal, their Families and the Military Veterans community, not just the recent. Started before President Obama even took the first Oath of Office, in the campaign leading to, throughout the first four years and continues into this second term.

These wars are still unpaid for, as are the long term results of!

A decade plus added to the previous decades and wars of , DeJa-Vu all over again!

Not one dime has been Sacrificed for nor Demanded to be by those served, the rubber stamping of those congresses and the rapid rise of the countries deficit started before 9/11, then the wars and no bid private contracts were rapidly implemented and continued, on the countries easy credit card!

Oh there were and are plenty of feel good flag waving and welcome homes, why they even welcomed us Vietnam vets home forty plus years after!

How does a Country HONOR it's fallen, by their own Sacrifice in taking care of the brothers and sisters they served with, Fully funding the peoples responsibility the Veterans Administration as they fund Defense, no questions asked, Especially when they cheer on Wars of Choice!

Vets On FLOTUS and SLOTUS, Administration and it's Cabinet, "Best - Ever": "We haven't had this kind of visibility from the White House—ever." Joyce Raezer - Dec. 30, 2011", and plenty more of similar since and also will continue. And at the Veterans Administration Gen Shinseki can depend on any help needed from Defense with Hagel but also from the State Department from Kerry with Shinseki offering help if asked in Military related issues!

I refer you to an earlier post on Chuck Hagel and 'The Wall'

In which that second link takes you to what was written by:

Brother and 'The Wall' lead organizer Jan C. Scruggs: "Chuck Hagel was a prime target for the opposition. He was the talented second-in-command at the Veterans Administration, a decorated Vietnam War veteran and a highly respected appointee in the Reagan Administration. He was told that he should join the team opposing Lin's design. If he did not join the opposition, he would be out of work. Friends at the White House would see to it that he would be fired. Most people would have caved. Hagel did not.

There are a few examples of stunning courage in Washington. Most are unheralded, this was one. Hagel said, "I serve at the pleasure of the President. If he fires me for supporting a design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, so be it." read more>>>

Who not only went against the reagan administration, many in congress then, but especially the many Vietnam brothers who also opposed the design. Some of whom organized and rode in the first 'Rolling Thunder' and went on to establish that into another veterans group that grew and grew while the leadership of showed their political leanings by praising republican administration hawkish appointee's to defense and the political to the veterans administration while condemning those a-political in democratic administrations, like brother Cleland and do so now to Shinseki!!