VA taps veteran bloggers for outreach effort

The Veterans Affairs Department on Monday launched its first official blog, which taps the talents and insights of two former Army grunts and experienced bloggers to personalize the relationship veterans have with a bureaucracy they often view as impersonal and unresponsive.

Brandon Friedman, VA's director of new media and editor of the new VAntage Point blog, sees it as a platform to reach veterans and develop a two-way conversation with them and their families.

That fits in with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki's take on the new blog, which will help the department "interact with veterans, their families and the public in ways we've never done before," Shinseki said. "Instead of waiting for veterans to find us, we're going to seek them out where they already are -- which is, increasingly, online."

After serving as an infantry officer in the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2002 and 2003, Friedman said he viewed the blog as a way to "get the right information to the right veteran at the right time."

Friedman, who developed his blogging skills while serving as vice chairman of the nonprofit VoteVets.org from 2007 to 2009, said he wants VAntage Point to serve as a direct path from veterans to the department, with ample opportunity for them to share their experiences in posts and guest columns.

Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, said the new blog means "Communication between VA, veterans and their families is no longer a one-way street." She said the blog will allow the department to hear directly from veterans about their concerns.

Alex Horton, a staff writer for the blog who served with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, said he wants to bring as much personal experience as possible to his postings, as that experience resonates with veterans.

Horton, who started the popular Army of Dude blog while deployed to Iraq, took the personal approach in VA's inaugural post in which he detailed his painful experience with the slow processing of post-Sept. 11 GI bill claims last year.

In order to relate to the average veteran's experience with the VA health care system, Horton said he did not sign up for any federal health plan, and instead will rely on the department for his care.

Lauren Bailey, special assistant to Chief Technology Officer Peter Levin, will serve as the other staff writer for the VA blog. While her role might seem focused on technology, Friedman said it really centers on customer service. When veterans experience a problem with a VA system, that becomes a customer service issue, which Friedman says the blog might help resolve.

The blog will serve as a bridge between veterans and the bureaucracy, according to Friedman. He intends to collect and collate posts on a variety of issues, such as health care or benefits, and then forward them to the appropriate person for action.

Horton wants to develop the guest columns part of the blog into a powerful communications tool. In his first post, he said, "We welcome everything from stories about a compassionate VA surgeon to how long your disability claim is taking. Veterans and their family members, employees, policy experts, members of Congress, everyone who has a say about veterans issues of the day, we'd like to hear from you."

In just two days of operation, this open invitation has resulted in some unanticipated twists, including a poem the wife of a veteran submitted, which Horton said he intended to post.

The guest columns and blog posts already have veterans talking to each other, and Horton said he would like to establish a range of discussion forums.

Friedman said VA has provided Horton, Bailey and himself with a powerful new tool, "and it's now up to us to deliver the goods."