The Lexington advertiser., 1946-02-21
OF Interest To World
|Wur II Veterans

|Wor II Veterans
Colonel w. S. Shipman, Manager,
Veterans Administration, states that
one OF the great difficulties facing
employees of the Veterans Admins
tration in rendering service to vet
erans is the lack of accurate infor-
nation from veterans. One of the
toughest problems which the Vet
Grams Administration has to handle
Is the rising flood of mail pouring
into the Regional Office in jackson.
More than four million veterans all
over the country-and it viii even-
tually be 10 million--are turning to
the Veterans Administration for
education, loans, vocational guild
ance, disability pensions and insur-
ance. Each case requires individual,
often immediate attention, but there
just isn't the trained personnel avail
able to give this attention. It is hard
to say, BE patient and wait your
turn" to men and women who have
for years looked forward to their
return to the freedom of civilian
life.
Much Of the delay in helping the
individual veteran with his recon-
version plans is caused by the lack
of sufficient information. If veteran
fails to give his full name and write
it legible, or if he doesn't identity
himself by claim number, it may
be weeks before the over-rushed
clerks can do enough detective work
to find his file among the 72,320
names in the Veterans Administra-
ton index in Jackson.
Veterans and their families deserve
prompt service from the Veterans
Administration in matters as vital as
insurance, pensions, and loans. It is
the duty of all groups to see that no
veteran or his family suffers need
lessly through ignorance of these
rights or carelessness in requesting
them.
The Veterans Administration is
striving to overcome delays, misun-
derstandings, and legal tangles. Mis-.
informed or careless veterans create
trouble for themselves by not giving
full details as to identity, home ad-
dress, legal status or service expert.
ence. The amount of extra work in
volved in clearing up these cases
places great burden on all divisions
of the Veterans Administration. Yes
so-called "red tape" is absolutely
necessary to protect the veteran a,
gainst frauds.
Here are some figures from tht
Regional Office in jackson which
will show the bigness of the job
There are 1920 pieces of mail re
ceived and handled per day ant
more than $500 telephone calls ar,
made each day. There were over 4,
600 applications for pensions and Z,
600 applications for vocational train
ing received in January. During eacl
month an average Of 2400 case file!
| are transferred in from other state.
and 800 case files are transferred ou
Of this state. There were 22,839 dis
ability claims and 3,791 death claim.
approved and 16,726 claims disallow
ed as Of January 81, 1916. These
claims involved 3l,454 checks mail
ed to Mississippi veterans and theil
families in January, representing
l$1,419,2 ,258.03.
| II these figures seem unusual, list
en- to some facts and figures from
the Central Office in Washington
The mail room is the largest mail
order" unit in the world. There ar,
125, 900 pieces Of mail received PEI
day. OF these. 10000 per day are in
surance premium payments. Man,
OF these consist only of money
order or check with no identification
OF the veterans sending them. More
than 100000 insurance premiums arr
and-a-haf models. Truck transmits