Me and the Veteran's Administration Part Deux

Last week I got a letter from the VA telling me that I'd been approved for vocational rehabilitation. That was the first paragraph. The rest of the letter went to tell me about my right to appeal the VA's decision to give me what I'd asked for.

Here's the thing, I still have hoops to jump through for the qualification process. So a "yes" isn't possible, only a "no" is possible. I did 26 years in the military and I know how bureaucracies work. You have a bunch of steps where you can get disqualified and if, after dutifully completing all those steps you aren't disqualified then you're approved.

Since I'm only partway through the process and the letter went on and on about my appeal rights, I figured I misunderstood the letter and I had been denied. So I reread the letter over and over and the first paragraph really said "you have been approved" and the rest of the letter really said "you can appeal this decision." I finally put the letter in the "this may be important someday" box and moved on.

Today I got a call from the counselor that's supposed to administer a bunch of tests as part of the approval process. She said: 1) I have been approved and 2) I have to finish the screening process. I wasn't going to argue with her. If the VA's really going to pick up the tab for finishing my degree I will jump through, over or around any hoops they want jumped in the order they want them jumped.

But yeah, it's a little strange.