To Roy Cano, In response to your letter a recent Valley Morning Star, let me answer you about the travel pay.
Fred Lane is in charge of Travel pay. You don’t run out, it is continuously replenished. This should be the easiest job at the VA. Travel Pay voucher is filled out then submitted. There is usually a threemonth waiting period – your address the address of the facility and food or lodging.
Lane has a boss named Cerda. He too helps and they have assistants. So, if Fred is making it sound like a hard job, he is kidding. I have a claim where I went to Brook Army Medical center in San Antonio, in November of last year. I have one from April of this year for the same trip but different surgery. I had to travel to Dallas for a cochlear implant in my right ear.
I will not go to San Antonio any more because Fred or Cerda will not pay me because they do not want to. I have been contacted by Fred and he said he was going to send me the paperwork and all I had to do was sign it. He sent it and I signed it and my wife took it to the travel pay place, never got my money. I had knee surgery on May the 7th and I could not get around yet.
You are making a one-time observation — I have been helping veterans for years. The noise you hear all over the country about the “mess the VA is in” well this little Clinic has been rated one of the worst.
Alfonso Orosco of San Benito called me and thanked me for the letters I write. He then explained he is a Korean War veteran. He is 80 years old living in a trailer and I am going to see who I can get to help him. I will do what I can. So there are always two sides to every story. We have a new Director in Houston the Regional office I sent him the vouchers to see if they can step it up.
Fred Rendon Jr., Harlingen
