Tbird's Quiet Fight

Investigative essays · Theresa “Tbird” Aldrich, founder of HadIt.com

The HadIt founder’s own long-form investigations into VA policy and contractor accountability — slower cadence, deeper dives, same evidence discipline.

Why we carry them. HadIt is the newsroom; this is the column. The essays here are where her biggest findings get their full length.

Start here — their essential work

• F#!k You for Your Service: Doug Collins (2026-10-21) — A Ballcap Caucus essay aimed squarely at Secretary Collins and what his tenure has meant for the veterans the VA serves.
• Optum Kept the Difference. VA Gave It the Network. (2026-10-06) — The OIG found VA paid Optum and TriWest about $910.7 million more than the dentists who did the work received — and VA then handed Optum a new $30 billion dental contract.
• VA Cut Contracts “Regardless of Incomplete Reviews” (2026-09-26) — Per the OIG, VA reviewed 1,049 contracts in under 11 hours in February 2025 and told Congress it had cut $120.9 billion when the real figure was about $1.1 billion.
• Nine Deadlines, No Rule (2026-09-21) — VA’s mental-health rating rule, proposed in 2022, burned through nine promised deadlines; its medication clause was the rule rescinded in February 2026.
• The War Department Gets a Blank Check. Veterans Get a Bill. (2026-07-17) — Contrasts the stalled Major Richard Star Act with proposed tinnitus and sleep-apnea rating cuts in H.R. 9237.
• VA’s $600M Press Release, Autopsied (2026-05-14) — Fact-checks VA’s $596 million infrastructure claim against 29 primary documents, including an Oracle EHR program with 16 of 18 GAO recommendations still unimplemented.

Summaries are ours. The work is theirs — we link to it, we don’t lift it. Visit Tbird’s Quiet Fight →