"Mickey D'heron is one of hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for disability claims to be addressed by the Veterans Administration, an unfortunate legacy for those who served in uniform....
"He filed his disability claim March 7, 2012. President Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki say veterans should wait no more than 125 days for a resolution. As of Wednesday, D'heron will have waited 463 days....
"Groups such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America call these delays a national disgrace, particularly in a time of war....
"The mountain of claims continued to grow even after the VA launched an overhaul last year designed to automate and fast-track cases and improve the skills of those who handle them. The backlog of cases taking longer than 125 days tripled in size after Obama took office, and the number of cases such as D'heron's dragging on longer than a year mushroomed from 13,000 in 2009 to 245,000 in December 2012...."
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