Many Americans have had encouraging and rewarding experiences with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. The agency has done a lot of good things for many years. Yet others can tell tales of frustration and unfulfilled expectations because of periodic shoddy and downright incompetent behavior by personnel with the VA.

The VA covered itself with shame in recent weeks. As many as 26.5 million veterans from about 1975 up to now were put at risk of identity theft when an intruder stole an electronic data file from the Aspen Hill, Md., home of a VA data analyst on May 3. He was not authorized to remove the data from his office. But it turns out he had done this before, over several years, and either had not been caught or was never warned about the dangers.

What in the world was such a person doing with that kind of data at home? Was the employee working with somebody in a crooked operation? What cascades of damage to individuals will result down the line?

It gets worse.

VA officials waited two weeks, that’s two weeks, after May 3 to call in the FBI to investigate the theft, the Associated Press reports, citing two law enforcement sources.

“To the best of my knowledge, the loss of 26 million records by the VA is the largest by a federal agency to date,” says Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee. “Perhaps if the department improved its compliance with the existing information protection laws, this breach would not have happened. There seem to be two problems here: a department that inadequately protected, and an employee who acted incredibly irresponsibly.”

That, it turns out, is horribly faint criticism for what happened.

We are told it will cost at least $10 million just to inform veterans their personal information could be in the hands of criminals, who certainly realize what a bonanza they have regarding identify theft and abuse. Letters are to be sent to the veterans whose names, birth dates and, often, Social Security numbers were stolen. The department also is considering providing veterans with a credit monitoring or counseling service at a free or reduced charge. Asked for a quick estimate for all this, a VA official tossed out the figure of $100 million, or even more.

Yet there can be no price tag to measure the fear and anxiety more than 26 million citizens are likely to encounter as they wait to see how their information may be used.

Our veterans and all the citizenry deserve far more than they apparently have been getting from the Veterans Affairs department in recent times. How many other governmental agencies, and people in them, are as careless and mindless as we see in this inexcusable VA mess?