Veteran Affairs Official Who Tried to Ban V-J Photo Has Controversial Past

In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a sailor and a nurse kiss passionately in Manhatt
Department of Veterans Affairs, AP Photo/U.S. Navy/Victor Jorgensen
Olivia Rondeau

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official who attempted to ban the iconic photograph of a U.S. Navy sailor kissing a nurse on V-J Day from VA hospitals has a controversial history of hospital mismanagement, reports have revealed.

Assistant Under Secretary for Health Operations RimaAnn Nelson became the center of a national controversy for sending out a memo to VA health providers demanding the “removal and replacement of ‘V-J in Times Square’ photographs” on February 29.

The letter leaked to social media earlier this week, prompting backlash from thousands who don’t agree with Nelson’s assertion that the nearly 80-year-old image violates “the VA’s no-tolerance policy towards domestic violence, sexual harassment, and assault.”

Nelson’s censorship bid caused such a firestorm that VA Secretary Denis McDonough made a statement rescinding the rule change.

“Let me be clear: This image is not banned from VA facilities — and we will keep it in VA facilities,” he wrote on X Tuesday.

It didn’t take long for people to begin digging into Nelson’s past, revealing that this was far from the first time she had faced scrutiny for her job performance in her VA career.

When she was appointed as the head of Phoenix, Arizona’s VA medical center in 2016, a bipartisan group of Arizona representatives pleaded with then-President Barack Obama to reconsider giving her the job due to her disgraced tenure at a previous hospital.

In a September 30, 2016, letter, Rep. (now Sen.) Kyrsten Sinema (D), former Rep. Matt Salmon (R), former Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D), and Rep. Paul Gosar (R) pointed out that the John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, closed twice for “unsafe and unsanitary conditions” under Nelson’s leadership. 

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During Nelson’s time as St. Louis’s acting director from 2009 to 2013, more than 1,800 veterans were “potentially infected” with HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C, the representatives complained.

It took a whistleblower coming forward for the public to find out that medical equipment in the facility was not being properly cleaned and was exposing patients to disease, the St. Louis American reported in 2010.

The letter to Obama also pointed out that the St. Louis hospital had been ranked “last in the country for patient satisfaction out of 126 medical centers.”

“To think that Ms. Nelson, with her less-than-impressive past, is the best possible candidate to provide crucial leadership for the facility equated to ‘ground zero’ of the VA scandal is unequivocally offensive to us and each of the veterans we represent,” the congressmen and women wrote.

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Employees of the St. Louis hospital under Nelson also reported there were instances of patients being left sitting in their own feces for days, according to the Daily Caller.

Despite these glaring issues, Nelson received over $25,000 in bonuses, Fox News reported.

The joint letter did not convince the Obama administration to remove Nelson, leading to the Phoenix facility being “ranked as one of the worst in the country in 2017,” the outlet stated.

A VA spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that Nelson’s memo was sent out but should not have been, and it has been rescinded. 

Even after McDonough overrode Nelson’s photo ban, he refused to heed calls to fire her.

“Rima has dedicated her career to serving Veterans. We are fortunate to have her at VA, and she will remain at VA,” the secretary wrote in a statement to Fox News.

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