OTTAWA - Two military watchdogs are opening a joint investigation into how ill and injured soldiers are treated during their transition to civilian life.

Veterans ombudsman Guy Parent and Canadian Forces ombudsman Gary Walbourne say they will join forces to look at a system that has been the subject of thousands of complaints, both formal and informal.

Walbourne says over half of the 1,500 complaints his office received last year relate to end-of-career issues, including transition.

The two will focus their investigation on the duplication that exists between National Defence and Veterans Affairs.

Many soldiers, wounded in Afghanistan and too ill to continue serving, have found upon release that the veterans bureaucracy requires them to validate their condition through a separate process that sometimes requires months to complete.

In some instances, they have been denied benefits for injuries that cost them their careers and Walbourne says this is one of the inequities that will be covered in the investigation.