It would be a shame to have a veteran who lives literally right there to be forced to go to another place because we don't have arrangements with IHS.

Is there anything else I need to know as a student, as a disabled veteran going to UAF, is there anything else I need to know that can help me be successful?

I can tell you I can only imagine what that's like when the load gets heavy.

Very good. This is much better than the Anchorage assembly room, I want you to know.

It just seems that there's an opportunity here.

I was very intrigued by your comments about the Federal Government and that we could be doing more with our mid-level management regarding education on the importance of the program.

There is no reason, given the agreement between the veteran and VSO with the power of attorney, that the VA cannot notify that VSO to help this veteran get to a meeting.

The VA clinic here is one of the best in the country.

I agree with you on the efforts of--on the issue of the Congress and how they can really mess things up

Do you have a high turnover rate that is caused by some factor that's explainable?

Thank you both very much for being here and I will have some questions. I won't make it Groundhog Day where it's the same questions as yesterday.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony.

That's great. I mean, you told me about it a little bit and that's why I wanted you to kind of expand a little bit here.

This hearing will focus on the state of services for veterans in Alaska.

Are you going to try to be the lead convenor of that?

But those small businesses continue to make sacrifice after sacrifice.

Thank you very much. I have to tell you, when you mentioned that Power Point yesterday, I could not imagine sitting in a training program, seeing 240 Power Point slides and thinking that's going to get me excited.

I want to do a lot more with it.

I appreciate your review of your 268-page PowerPoint.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our Veterans and for committing yourself to helping those who dedicated their service to this country.

I'd be very interested in that.

There's always room for improvement.

There is no disagreement to fix those problems; you agreed with the recommendations.

Thank you very much, Mr. Owens. Thanks to all the panel for the diverse views on some of the work of the VA.

I'll just start first with Ray.