A Changing of the Guard at VAWatchdog.org, as Larry Scott Steps Aside

Until Larry Scott of Vancouver conceived the notion of becoming an online watchdog, military veterans who were struggling to navigate their claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs had few places to turn.

The agency generally gets high marks for the quality of the medical care it provides, but veterans say it is notoriously difficult to get appointments, prove their disabilities or get the full range of benefits to which they are entitled.

So Scott, an Army veteran, launchedVAWatchdog.org in 2005, and the site quickly grew to the most visited of its kind. Now, with Scott facing health challenges of his own, the site is changing hands and shifting its online address.

VAWatchdog.org has collected and published third-party coverage of the agency and dug up some scoops, including a withering 2008 exposé of the cavalier way the Detroit VA treated some veterans' claims, stashing them in their desks and dropping them in shredding bins.