Vets Bemoan Diminished VA Facilities

San Fernando Valley veterans say the recent closure of a quake-damaged gymnasium at the Sepulveda Ambulatory Care and Nursing Home Facility in North Hills is symbolic of a systematic erosion of services promised to the nation’s military personnel.

Veterans say North Hills’ shuttered gymnasium, diminished chemical dependency and library services programs and discontinued emergency and surgical services are an affront to the sacrifices service men and women made for their country.

Department of Veterans Affairs officials contend that although some services have been slashed, others will be expanded in the future.

KARIMA A. HAYNES asked military veterans to reflect on how they have been affected by the reduced services.

STEVEN T. PALMER

76; Navy Air Corps, World War II;

Panorama City

What the gym has done for me, and hundreds of others like me, is that it has kept me out of a bed in a nursing home.

The gym is not just a place for exercise, but the jousting, kidding and friendship is necessary for our psychological well-being. We need a place that we can call home and [that] gives us a sense of belonging.

By closing the gym, they are especially depriving wheelchair veterans from their basketball and volleyball games and other activities. There is a claustrophobic workout room, but that can never give them the space and the ability to move around.

The benefits are eroding rapidly, and the gym is only one example. What is so disastrous is that we have a new building here with state-of-the-art equipment in its operating room and it’s not being used. We now have to go to the Veterans Administration medical center in West Los Angeles for surgery.

Promises were made to us when we went into the service--that we would never lose our medical care and other benefits, but they are being stripped away one by one, and that’s the truth.

DON WILLIAMS

52; Army, Vietnam War; Tujunga

*

Most of the ‘Nam vets come into the chemical dependency unit. We didn’t interact in society, and we were all isolated. Volleyball gave us interactive skills. There were the beginnings of learning to trust because you have to trust your teammates. It helped us to begin to integrate back into society. It is hard to trust people when you were betrayed over there and betrayed back here.

The chemical dependency unit has also lost its dietitian. She ran a kitchen where the guys learned to plan weekly menus, shop, prepare food and clean up. A lot of guys went to ‘Nam at 19 years old. A lot of them didn’t have those skills. When you have interaction problems, you need those skills so that you are able to live on your own until you are integrated into society.

CHARLES SYRACUSE

91; Army, World War II; Sylmar

*

I used the gym and the swimming pool for exercise and therapy. That’s what keeps me alive. I don’t understand why they want to close them.

A veteran fights to keep the world safe. A lot of promises have not been kept, and I feel like I have been cheated. The government gives all this money to other countries, and the veterans get nothing.

SEYMOUR MESTMAN

74; Navy, World War II; Canoga Park

*

A few years ago I was hit by a car and I had to go to the VA hospital in West Los Angeles. They told me that they were unsure if they could keep me, but eventually they took me in and they treated me well. But the initial fright of having to go there and then not being sure whether they could take me was very scary.

West Los Angeles [facility] is packed with patients. When you go into the lobby, it’s like a department store during the Christmas holidays. They tell us that West Los Angeles is only 20 minutes from here, but it seems like a million miles away when you’re in terrible traffic.

We are all getting older and we need this care even more than before. The way they are cutting down is very wrong.