After 20 years in the U.S. military, including tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Luke Graziani was proud to serve his country again by working for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But less than a year after he swore an oath to defend the U.S. constitution as a public servant, Graziani received an email on Feb. 14 informing him that his job had been terminated. 

“I gave 20 years of my life to my country, and in that moment when I saw that termination from my federal job, it really felt like I was just alone,” Graziani told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.

“I think a lot of people don’t understand that as a federal service employee, like I was, it’s less of a job and more of a calling.”

Graziani was part of a first wave of 1,000 job cuts at Veterans Affairs (VA), targeting people who have worked there two years or less. Now, another 82,000 VA workers are expected to lose their jobs under a new wave of cuts. 

An internal memo from the department’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, directed VA staff to work with tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut staffing by 15 per cent to 2019 levels in order to  “eliminate waste” and  “increase workforce efficiency.”

Democrats and veterans’ advocates decried the move. But veterans are divided about cuts to the department that has long been plagued by allegations of poor medical care and excessively long wait times. 

The cuts are part of a wider civil service purge by DOGE, which has eliminated an estimated 100,000 federal jobs through buyouts and mass layoffs already this year.

Veterans divided 

More than nine million U.S. veterans get physical and mental health care from the VA, which manages a $350 billion US budget and oversees nearly 200 medical centres and hospitals.

Graziani, who was a public affairs officer at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in New York City, says that if these layoffs continue, the veterans who depend on those services will suffer.

“Patient wait times may go up. You know, the time it takes to get an appointment, the time it takes to see your doctor for the first time, or get registered, all those things are going to be impacted by losing the people who are behind the scenes, making it happen,” he said.

Daniel Ragsdale Combs, a 45-year-old navy veteran in Mesa, Ariz., is worried about the future. He receives group therapy through the VA for mental illness brought on by a traumatic brain injury sustained in the line of duty.

“I’m deeply concerned because the VA has been nothing but great to me,” Combs said. “I’m angry, upset and frustrated.”

Gregg Bafundo — who served during the first Gulf War and has nerve damage to his feet from carrying loads of weight as a Marine mortarman — says he’s been harmed twice over by the DOGE cuts. 

He lost his job as wilderness ranger and firefighter through the layoffs at the U.S. Forest Service, and he will now have to turn back to VA for his health-care needs. 

“They’re going to put guys like me and my fellow Marines that rely on the VA in the ground,” said Bafundo, 53, who lives in Tonasket, Wash.

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

“We’re no better because we’re veterans,” Watson, 68, said. “We all need to take a step back and realize that everybody’s gonna have to take a little bit on the chin to get these budget matters under control.” 

Richard Lamb, 74, of Waco, Texas —  who was shot down twice in Vietnam as an army helicopter crew chief — said the VA should be “cut to the bone.” 

Lamb says that, for decades, VA doctors failed to diagnose compression fractures in his vertebrae, and he didn’t get the surgery he needed until he saw a private physician.

“I’d be happy to see VA, not torn down, but cleaned up, cleaned out and recast,” said Lamb, who lives in Waco, Texas. “The VA is supposed to be a wonderful thing for veterans. It’s not. It sucks.”

The Trump administration is standing by the move. Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, said the president will preserve veterans’ benefits, but will not stand for the “bureaucracy and bloat ” at the agency.

‘Absolutely crushed’

Graziani, meanwhile, says he’s not against reforming, or even scaling back VA. But he says it’s being done in a careless way that doesn’t take into account who is doing critical work, or show respect to people who have served their country. 

“There are ways of doing things that make sense and that are thoughtful and with care, and the way that I was terminated was not with any of those things in mind,” the father of four said.

“I was absolutely crushed. I raised my right hand and swore an oath when I accepted this position at the federal level. I thought that there was going to be some sense of stability and permanence to it. But it was all gone in just an email.”

With files from Reuters and The Associated Press. Interview with Luke Graziani produced by Chris Trowbridge