Swearing In for VA’s Annapolis Grads

WASHINGTON — Three of the incoming leaders of the Department of Veterans Affairs are graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy.  They will be sworn in by a fourth – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi.

Taking the oath of office from Principi (Class of ’67) will be VA’s Deputy Secretary Dr. Leo S. Mackay, Jr. (Class of ’83); General Counsel Tim S. McClain (Class of ’70); Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Maureen P. Cragin (Class of ’85); and Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Robin L. Higgins (State University of New York), a 20-year Marine Corps veteran.

The swearing-in ceremony will be held July 6 at 10 a.m. in Memorial Hall at the U.S. Naval Academy.  Memorial Hall is the center of activities at the Academy and is dedicated to the memory of all Academy graduates who have been killed in action while serving the United States. 

As VA’s second in command, Dr. Mackay is the chief operating officer of the federal government’s second largest agency.  With an annual budget of $48 billion, VA employs more than 219,000 people at hundreds of medical centers, clinics, benefits offices and national cemeteries throughout the country.  VA provides health care services and benefits programs for the nation’s 25 million veterans and their families.  Mackay entered the Naval Academy on July 6, 1979, 22 years before his swearing-in ceremony.

As Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, Higgins will be responsible for directing the operation of VA’s 119 national cemeteries, administering a federal grants program for state veterans cemeteries and issuing Presidential Memorial Certificates to survivors of honorably discharged veterans.  More than 8 million people visit VA’s national cemeteries each year.  Higgins is the widow of the late Col. William R. (Rich) Higgins, a Marine Corps officer taken captive by terrorists in Lebanon in 1988.  He was officially declared dead on July 6, 1990 — 11 years to the day of his wife’s ceremony.

General Counsel McClain is the chief legal adviser to VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi.  He leads a staff of 400 attorneys assigned throughout the United States.  While on active duty, McClain served as a surface warfare officer and later joined the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, serving as a defense counsel, staff judge advocate and general court-martial judge.  Following his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1990, he entered private practice with a litigation law firm, specializing in defense of professional negligence cases, especially medical and legal malpractice.  In 1996, he joined an international management-consulting firm, and later formed a law partnership specializing in medical licensing issues, government administrative hearings and military law.

Assistant Secretary Cragin directs VA’s public and internal communication programs, as well as intergovernmental and consumer affairs activities.  From May 1995 to January 2001, she was Director of Communications for the Committee on Armed Services at the U.S. House of Representatives.  In that position, she served as the Committee’s spokesperson and developed communication strategies for advancing Committee goals, including passage of the annual $300 billion defense authorization bill.  Cragin spent seven years on active duty and currently is a commander in the Naval Reserves.  She performs her reserve duty in the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

#   #   #