I wonder if part of the story is confusing the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) with Disabled American Veterans (DAV). When I retired, DAV had a field service rep in the VA office who helped process disability applications through the DVA hoops. This guy came out to do retirement prep outbriefs as well. Could it be they are now in Retirement Service Offices at Posts, camps, and stations?

BTW, last fall my US Rep sent me (and all the other vets in his district I'm sure) a letter using his Congressional mail franking privileges that was blatant partisan politics. In it he provided a Veterans Affairs update tooting the horn of the Democratic Party for getting a lot more folks authorized for hire at DVA to speed the processing of disability claims paperwork. I sent him a reply suggesting that this was a short term fix to a problem and the fix will become a long term "entitlement" problem in its own right as the new hires get tenure in Civil Service. The money spent on their salaries and benefits could probably find much better uses in funding direct services for disabled vets both now and in the future.