In the US army he served for 20 years, only to be discharged from veteran jobs e

After 20 years in the US army, including trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, Luke Graziani has proudly served his country by working for the Veterans’ Department.

But less than a year after he swore to the oath that he would defend the American Constitution as a public official, Graziani received the E -Star on February 14, informing him that his job had been terminated.

“I gave 20 years of my life to my country, and in the moment I saw that breakup from my federal job, it really felt like I was just alone,” Graziani said As it happens Host Nil Köxal.

“I don’t think many people understand it as an employee of the Federal Service, as I was, there is less work and more calls.”

Graziani was part of the first wave of 1,000 job reduction in veterans’ jobs (va), targeting people who worked there for two years or less. Now another 82,000 workers are expected to lose their job under the new cut wave.

The internal memorandum from the head of the Department of Department, Christopher Syrek, instructed the VA staff to cooperate with the billionaire of billionaire Elon Musk, the Government Efficiency Department (Doge), to reduce staff by 15 percent, in 2019 to “remove waste” and “increase the effectiveness of labor”.

Democrats and the advocates of veterans broke into the move. But veterans are divided around the cut into a department that has long been tormented by accusations of bad medical care and Excessive long waiting time.

The cuts are part of the wider cleansing of the Doge -Dog state service, which eliminated the estimated 100,000 federal jobs through the purchase and mass release this year.

Veterans divided

More than nine million US veterans receive care for physical and mental health from your VA, which manages the US budget of $ 350 billion and monitors almost 200 medical centers and hospitals.

Graziani, who was a public relations officer at the James J. Peters Va Medical Center in New York, says that if these dismissals are continued, veterans who depend on these services will suffer.

“Waiting time on the patient can increase. You know, the time you need to get a meeting, the time you need to visit your doctor for the first time or to register, all these things will affect the loss of the people behind the scenes, doing it,” he said.

Daniel Ragsdale Combs, a 45-year-old Navy Veteran in Mesa, Ariz, is worried about the future. The group therapy receives through your mental illness brought by a traumatic brain injury sustained on a line of duties.

“I am deeply worried because Va was nothing but big for me,” Combs said. “I’m angry, upset and frustrated.”

Gregg Bafundo – who served during the first bay of the war and damage to the nerves on his feet from carrying cargo as a sea mortar – says he was twice harmed by Doge cuts.

He lost the work of wilderness and firefighters through the release of the US forest service, and now he will have to return to your health needs.

“He’ll put boys like me and my colleagues Marine who rely on your country,” said Bafundo, 53, who lives in a tonasket, wash.

But Stephen Watson of Jesup, Ga., – who served in the marinas for 22 years and receives care via VA for a traumatic brain injury – welcomed the cuts.

“We are not better because we are veterans,” Watson, 68, said. “We all have to take a step back and realize that everyone will have to take a little to the beard to make these budget issues under control.”

Richard Lamb, 74, of Waco, Texas – who was knocked twice in Vietnam as a military chief of helicopter crews – said Va should be “cut on the bone”.

Lamb says that for decades, your doctors have failed to diagnose compression fractures in the spine, and he did not get the surgery he needed until he saw a private doctor.

“I would be happy if I could see Va, not demolished, but cleaned, cleaned and reconsidering,” said Lamb, who lives in Wacou in Texas. “Your should be a wonderful thing for veterans. It’s not. It is shit.”

Trump’s administration stands in that move. Anna Kelly, Deputy Secretary of the White House print, said the president would preserve the benefits of veterans, but she would not be advocated by the “bureaucracy and run” at the Agency.

‘Absolutely demolished’

Graziani, meanwhile, says he is not against reform or even reduces VA. But he says that this is done in a careless way that does not take into account who is doing a critical job or shows respect for the people who served their country.

“There are ways to work that make sense and are thoughtful and carefully, and the way I have abolished is not any of these things in mind,” said the father of the four -member.

“I was absolutely demolished. I raised my right hand and swore an oath when I accepted this place at the federal level. I thought it would be some sense of stability and persistence.

With files from Reuters and Associated Press. Interview with the Port of Graziani produced by Chris Trowbridge