From Army wife to veterans’ advocate: Dawn Longie
Having your husband deployed for seven years, seeing combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) bureaucratic machine in Montana. For years, Dawn and Loren Longie had to deal with it all.
For Dawn, however, the VA’s neglectful treatment of her husband was one of the toughest challenges she faced:
“Having my husband on deployment or dealing with the VA? Hands down, going through deployment is way easier than dealing with the VA,”
When Loren came back home, he had many physical and mental wounds that needed healing. Yet, while Loren needed health care, the VA wasn’t there for him.
For years, Loren endured neglect, incompetence, and misdiagnosis from his local VA in Montana. To make matters worse, the VA denied him the opportunity to find care outside of the VA’s bureaucratic and inefficient system.
This disgraceful treatment of Loren moved Dawn to action. Her husband needed quality health care, and she wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer.
This is the story of how Dawn took on the VA bureaucracy and joined Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) to fight for thousands of veterans like her husband to have control over their health care.
Dawn Longie joined CVA after the VA neglected her husband for years.
Loren’s VA experience: A story of neglect
Afghanistan and Iraq took Loren’s body and mind to the absolute limit.
The long patrols and tough conditions in the arid Iraqi and Afghani countryside left him with traumatic brain injuries and joint, neck, and elbow pain.
The trauma of seeing brothers-in-arms killed, children getting their hands cut off for stealing food, and women beaten in the street left Loren, like many veterans, with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
When he moved to Montana, Loren went to the VA in hopes of getting the help he needed.
Regretfully, the VA failed him.
The VA overlooked his wrist pain and said it was caused by old age — Loren was only 28 years old.
After it became clear he needed an MRI, the VA took nine years to schedule an appointment. To make matters worse, every time Loren asked for a referral to use his health benefits at a non-VA health care provider in his community, the agency denied it.
When he finally got the MRI nine years later, doctors told Loren that his pain was not because of “old age,” but tumors.
The VA not only misdiagnosed Loren, they also disregarded his mental health concerns.
Loren Longie faced a bureaucratic nightmare when he tried to get health care through the VA.
As part of Loren’s PTSD claim, the VA forced him to relive his worst memories and document every single death he saw during his deployment — in just three lines of a mundane VA government form.
Loren started to write, but after a few moments, he stopped.
“Too many to list,” Loren wrote.
Eventually, the VA assigned a counselor for Loren, but he didn’t help.
The VA kept switching Loren from one counselor to another. Every time Loren saw a new therapist, it was like starting from zero. Eventually, the VA simply stopped scheduling new appointments for Loren.
Dawn decided enough was enough.
She vowed to get the health care her husband needed.
“My husband, who fought so hard for this country, was not getting even the most basic things. It just didn’t seem fair,” Dawn said.
That’s when she learned about CVA. She heard Chris Enget, CVA’s strategic director for Montana, talking on the radio about CVA’s #VAFail campaign.
Veterans have the right to community care – but they’re often kept in the dark
When Dawn met Chris, he told her Loren had the right to be referred to community care, thanks to the VA MISSION Act, a bill signed into law by President Trump in 2018 that gave veterans more choices over their health care by expanding access to community care.
Dawn couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
For years, the VA refused to give Loren a referral for care outside of the VA. She couldn’t believe the VA would go out their way to suppress care options for veterans.
Loren’s case was not an isolated one. It’s a systemic issue.
Together, Dawn and Loren Longie overcame the barriers the VA put in their way.
VA staff routinely dissuades veterans from getting community care in order to keep them at VA facilities, regardless of whether it’s in the veteran’s best interest.
The VA is more focused on protecting its own bureaucratic interests than serving veterans. They don’t see community care as a way to help veterans but as a threat to the VA’s dominance over veterans’ health care.
That’s why Dawn joined CVA — to give veterans and their families the health care they earned.
Today, Dawn is a grassroots engagement director who helps thousands of veterans in Montana regain control over their health care.
Hundreds of people like Dawn are fighting to hold the VA accountable and ensure that the interests of veterans, not bureaucrats, are at the heart of it.
If you are outraged by the way the VA treats veterans like Loren, it’s time to take action — sign this pledge, and join the movement.
