The following is also being distributed as a press release to contact points outside the BVA Happenings readership. Its inclusion here is for the information of BVA members, their families, and the Association’s supporters and friends.

The Blinded Veterans Association (BVA), the only congressionally chartered Veterans Service Organization exclusively dedicated to serving the needs of our Nation’s blind and low vision veterans, commends the nomination of Air Force Reserve Chaplain and former United States Congressman from Georgia Doug Collins as the next Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“Through his extensive military service and an effective tenure in Congress, Doug Collins has demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the challenges confronting our nation’s injured and ill veterans, and the skills to successfully navigate those challenges and resolve them,” said National Executive Director Donald D. Overton, Jr. “We look forward to now working with a Post-9/11 veteran in the top position at VA who will be sensitive to and anxious to learn about the unique needs of our blind and low vision members and their families.”

The Collins nomination, which requires confirmation by the U.S. Senate, was announced on November 14 by President-Elect Donald J. Trump. Collins served in Congress from 2013 to 2021, voting in favor of major veterans’ bills on the House Floor that included the 2014 Choice Act, the 2017 VA Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act, and the 2018 Mission Act.  

Collins served two years as a Navy Chaplain before joining the Air Force as a Chaplain after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Media reports following his nomination revealed a deployment to Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2008 with the 94th Airlift Wing, based in Dobbins, Georgia, where he served as an individual mobile augmentee to the Command Chaplain. He has most recently served as a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.

VA provides disability compensation and pensions to 6.7 million veterans and family members while some 9 million veterans are enrolled in VA health care, the nation’s largest integrated medical system.

“The sheer magnitude of the workings of VA and the issues currently facing the Department require an expeditious confirmation process for nominee Collins so that he can immediately hit the ground running,” Don said. “BVA strongly recommends that the Senate VA Committee and the full Senate give his nomination a high priority among the dozens of others on their agenda.”