|
|
|
(Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
|
President Bush chose retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake to direct the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs, which is strained by the influx of wounded troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Peake, 63, is a physician who spent 40 years in military medicine and was decorated for his service in Vietnam. He retired from the Army in 2004 after being lead commander in several medical posts, including four years as the U.S. Army surgeon general.
He takes over as the administration and Congress struggle to find clear answers to some of the worst problems afflicting wounded warriors, such as adequate mental health treatment and timely payment of disability benefits. Disclosures emerged in February of shoddy outpatient treatment at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Peake leads the government's second-largest agency with 235,000 employees in the waning months of the Bush administration.
He replaced James Nicholson who resigned in July, effective Oct. 1.
The VA's backlog is between 400,000 and 600,000 claims, with delays of 177 days. Nicholson in May pledged to cut that time to 145 days, but he has made little headway with thousands of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan returning home.
Peake, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was awarded the silver star and purple heart for his service in Vietnam as a platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division. He was wounded twice in battle and received his acceptance letter to Cornell University Medical College while in the hospital recovering from injury.
As surgeon general of the U.S. Army, he commanded 50,000 medical personnel and 187 army medical facilities across the world. He also was commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School.
From 2004 to 2006, Peake was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Project HOPE, a nonprofit international health foundation. While at HOPE, he helped organize civilian volunteers aboard the Navy hospital ship Mercy as it responded to the tsunami in Indonesia and aboard the hospital ship Comfort which responded to Hurricane Katrina.
Nicholson, a decorated Vietnam veteran, succeeded Anthony Principi in President Bush's second-term cabinet. Nicholson was previously U.S. ambassador to the Vatican and is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Principi became the ninth member of Mr. Bush's 15-person Cabinet to leave ahead of the president's second term. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran. He served as first deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs in 1989 after being appointed by President George H.W. Bush, who named him the department's acting secretary in 1992. He also served as the Republican chief counsel and staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
|
