Forgive the American people if they think their government should be the last thing to put them at risk for identity theft. But it's happened twice already under the Department of Veterans Affairs.

On Monday the VA revealed that a desktop computer was reported missing last week from the Reston, Va., office of a subcontractor, Unisys Corp., that had been assisting the government with insurance collections. The computer may have contained data on 38,000 veterans who were treated at VA medical centers in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia over the last four years.

The information in the computer included patients' names, addresses, Social Security numbers and birth dates -- the very details that people should safeguard from identity thieves. Unfortunately, it's not the first time.

Veterans have been left vulnerable by other security lapses, most notably the theft in May of data on 26.5 million ex-servicemen and -women. The information was held in a laptop computer and external drive, which were stolen from a VA employee's home in Maryland and have since been recovered. Two teen-agers were arrested Saturday in the case and apparently obtained the laptop in a routine burglary.

That may come as a relief, but it's little comfort if the personal data from either of the computers found its way into the hands of those who would use it for financial gain. VA Secretary James Nicholson said this week his department "is making progress to reform its information technology and cyber security procedures." Tell that to the 11,000 veterans treated in the Pittsburgh region and the 5,000 treated at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia, whose personal data were stored in the Unisys computer that disappeared last week.

How many more thousands of Americans will see their financial identities put at risk before the VA gets it right? If the Veterans Administration can't properly secure the records of people who have served their country in the military, Congress should get militant and investigate why.