I love Navy federal, but they've kinda bummed me out...

[Colby Easterling]

Going through the process of buying my first home. Plan to live there for 6 months or so, then move and rent the residence out. I am doing a Va loan through Navy Federal Credit Union. Let me start with this, I absolutely love nfcu. 3am and you need someone to talk to? Call navy fed and they'll tuck you in. BUT....oh boy, as soon as I take out a loan and am assigned a loan officer, I was shaken to find out that communication wasn't going to happen. I was assigned Jessica (not her real name). I can tell you, over this month long process(so far), I have never heard Jessica's voice. At first I cut her some slack because her online business card said she answered emails faster. I quickly realized this wasn't "fast" either. She never answered or returned any calls when I or my real estate agent left voicemails. Thank the heavens my real estate agent is awesome and helped me through. After 10 or so days of her emails not being answered she bombarded there call centers raising cane and our questions were "answered". Now we find out that I may not make our close date because the va appraisal wasn't scheduled, it was requested. Which could take 2-3 weeks. I feel like some of this could've been avoided if I had experience, but I simply didn't. 

2 questions:

1. Is this typical behavior of a loan officer? I ask because I honestly don't know. I'm sure she's loaded with other clients, and I was always nice. Maybe I was to understanding? Ps: she also took a week vacation during(I only found out from an robot email) and although they said i'd receive a replacement agent, I didn't.

2. Because my (freshly assigned) processing agent can't control the VA side of the house as far as time, is there a way I can contact the VA and check the status of appraisals?