Past Secretaries of the Veterans Administration have often been veterans, though not Active Duty officers. The current Secretary came from the commercial executive world.
Active General and Flag Officers have deminstrated that they are foremost dedicated to mission accomplishment; in this case, the mission is the adequate care of our wounded and sick veterans. They understand as principle that their most important asset are their people.
Business professionals, career government civilian officials, etc., apply fundamentally different measures in their work: how best to utilize a dollar - NOT how best to care for people but rather how to manage at the satisfaction of shareholders or stakeholders.
The Veterans Administration is fundamentally broken, measurably failing in its mission.