The screw-ups I've seen are almost invariably the fault of the person requesting the marker, the result of sloppy research. With all the resources available on the internet these days, you'd think that researchers would be much more accurate than in the past. However, I've noticed that basic research methods are too often ignored, and people see what they want to see in the records. The VA doesn't have the people or the resources to verify the information sent to them. They have to rely on the certification of the person making the request. The result is that there are now so many erroneous markers in the field, that VA markers cannot be relied on, and must be re-researched to verify their accuracy. It's a sad perversion of a wonderful program.