Veterans Affairs recently issued a challenge to it's employees, to design a coin. I couldn't resist a challenge like this. So here it is...including the images of two VA employee veterans. The final outcome of the contest was that even though I won, I was asked to alter my design drastically. It was still great to be involved in this project to honor our veterans. Special thanks go to Larry Moran, who created the lovely arced text for the design. (I've never been able to do that.)
What alterations did they ask you to make? Since the VA is a nationwide governmental agency, is it appropriate to have Winston-Salem, North Carolina on it? What do the 5 stars above the eagle represent? "TO CARE FOR HIM WHO SHALL HAVE BORNE THE BATTLE AND HIS WIDOW, AND HIS ORPHAN"..........I doubt that the VA would want this on a coin. Please, I don't mean to be offensive, but this is a very sore subject for me. My Dad was screwed out of 100% disability for 50 years following WWII and wasn't finally awarded 100% (non-retroactive, of course!) until a little more than a year before he died in 1997. At one of his numerous appeal hearings, my Mom also witnessed a VA employee throwing his paperwork into a trash can. I wonder how many times this happened before this and to others as well! If it is a concept coin, it should have "IN GOD WE TRUST", "E PLURIBUS UNUM", the date/mm and the denomination on it. If it is supposed to be a medal, it's a different story. I like the eagle, too! Chris
The eagle is the official seal of Veterans Affairs, so I cannot take credit for that. The quote you mentioned was part of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, and it is the VA mission statement. It would more appropriately be called a medal, and not a coin. I am sorry your father did not receive the benefits for which he felt he was entitled, but it is also unfair to use this thread as a forum to attack me personally and that's what it feels like. I help many, many veterans every single day. The design was placed here for the enjoyment of coin collectors, and nothing more.
Got Hot Over this. This does not happen often, but I Got Hot Over this. Having retired from the same system and even spent decades helping claims get precessed, plus direct patient care, feel a need to vent on this thread. So I know the image, quote and mission. If 9Balls mother really saw documentation being thrown into the trash the agent should have been arrested. I know I would have been if I had done so and it would be just. Now as to the design? When I first pondered the item it made me think of a "Challenge Coin" to be prized by a select few. Just my riled opinion.
Great challenge coin design for an excellent organization (that has greatly improved its compliance with its mission statement over the past decade or so). The Long Beach, CA center is among the very top medical service providers in Southern California! It's electronic medical records system is simply outstanding. I am a little surprised that a single clinic would issue a challenge coin, instead of a regional medical center or even the entire system.
Thanks for the nice comments. I suppose this will be a challenge coin or medal to be given as an award at some point in the future. It represents the regional office in Winston-Salem, which is a large facility with somewhere around 1,000 employees. Instead of using the images of employee veterans, I was asked to draw a map of North Carolina, with a lighthouse. I have not posted that drawing on this thread, because I much prefer my original idea.
I can appreciate how you feel being an employee of the VA, but my comments were not intended to single you out or put you on the spot, but you should also realize that not everyone working within the VA or the Federal Government for that matter, shares your dedication. If it hadn't been for the efforts of a Veterans Affairs Officer employed by the State of Florida, my Dad would probably never have received the disability benefits in 1996 either. Chris
Why do you say "If"? If you doubt that it happened, let me explain that I was there at Bay Pines in St. Petersburg. I took care of my parents for 25 years, and I drove them to that hearing. While I didn't personally see the clerk (not an officer) throw the paperwork in the trash, my Mom did. While we were waiting outside the hearing room, my Mom noticed the clerk take the paperwork with her down the hall in the OPPOSITE direction away from the hearing room. Mom didn't say anything to me, but she got up and followed her. Mom rounded a corner in time to see her dispose of the paperwork, and she retrieved it herself. When she returned to where Dad and I were sitting, she had the paperwork in her hand and she was fuming. When Dad was called into the hearing room, Mom went with him and she told them what happened. I could hear everything from outside the room. To me, it wasn't just coincidence that Dad then received his 100% disability. If you want to get mad about what I have just related, be my guest, but you can't assume that everyone is as dedicated to their job. I don't know if you have ever read the publication AXPOW (yes, Dad was a POW, too!), but every month it was filled with letters from ex-POW's who were not treated fairly by the VA and if it hadn't been for some outside organization like AXPOW or Florida Veterans Affairs, many of them would have been shortchanged, too. Chris
You forgot the DAV I do not miss the daze of dealing with Beau~Rons. I had to explain why the St. Louis Records Despot burned down........while I was 10,000 miles away. I wish we had all the old records. But did you ever have to deal with a hospital that may only have existed a month? And sometimes you just have to deal with the alligator instead of the swap. I'm liking the Eagle, too. And I like why it's there. But perhaps we should have followed Ben Franklin's ideal and used the turkey. He really wanted the turkey to as our government seal/logo, Proving again How much that man knew! And anyone willfully hiding records must be made accountable.
AXPOW is published by the DAV. The St. Louis fire was about 1973, wasn't it? If that wasn't bad enough, the VA records center in the DC area had two fires within ten years. Makes you wonder! Chris
It's a great design, Moonshadow. Congratulations on winning the design contest. I know how hard you work, how much you care, and am very surprised that anybody would subvert this particular thread with insulting comments, selfishly placing their own ego ahead of sharing anything constructive or worthwhile.
mORE sWAP "wE have met the enemy and it is us." ~Pogo (if anybody here is old enough to remember) I hope this design makes it onto a Challenge Coin. That way we can tell us from THEM.:devil:
Obviously, you didn't read everything. The problem is that some people have a coin that is MS68 on the obverse, so they just ignore the damage on the reverse. I'm entitled to my opinion just like everyone else, but I didn't have to resort to name-calling to make my point. Chris
Now back to the subject in hand I would love to add this to my medal collection if it is ever produced :thumb:
