The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department is scrambling to keep up with a growing number of new military veterans, many with serious medical difficulties. But VA Secretary Eric Shinseki is reassuring veterans the department is up to the challenge.

In a speech Wednesday to veterans at the annual AMVETS national convention underway this week in St. Louis, Secretary Shinseki said, "As troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan an additional one million service members are expected to leave the military service between 2011 and 2016."