04/13/2025
Veterans are crucial to Saving our Military.
Where are my fellow Veterans? During my many years of service, I was trained to collaborate with my fellow Veterans and have my Buddy’s Six, ensuring each person’s unique skills contributed to accomplishing the mission. We learned together and worked together, building a strong united team as we did during service, especially in challenging times under the current administration.
It’s no different now that we are out of active duty and have become Veterans, but we still count on each other, especially during tough times under this current administration. They have just passed the highest military budget ever! Still, under the DOGE: Department of Government Efficacy, program, they cut funding to Veterans' benefits, cut probationary jobs for young Veterans and their spouses, who are just trying to adapt to civilian life. They fired over 6000 employees from the Veterans Administration and seek to fire 80,000 healthcare workers by this summer. That’s thousands of doctors and nurses who keep our veterans alive! They cut health care staff, researchers, scientists, technicians, administrative jobs, and su***de crisis counselors during the highest rate of su***de in the history of the military. They removed the stories of our heroes, eliminated the highest-ranking Joint Command Officers, and removed the JAG: Judge Advocate General's Corps Officers who maintain Military Justice. The JAG Corps is the military justice branch or specialty of the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy. Judge advocates are responsible for administrative law, government contracting, civilian and military personnel law, the law of war and international relations, environmental law, etc. DOGE have fired the cyber security experts to prevent the Russian and Chinese hacking of our Pentagon secrets, reduced the libraries of our military academies under their absurd DEI: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, programs are destroying our history, honor, and valor of our United States Military Veterans, causing waste, fraud and abuse by the unelected head of an unauthorized agency! The current administration has wiped out "99.9%" of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEI) from the military. They have stolen the valiant honor of our history by eliminating any reference on Department of Defense websites to eliminate any mention of racial minorities, females, sexual status, and heroism.
I’m dismayed to see the current administration callously and carelessly cut expertise from our Veteran Administration, including terminating federal workers. In the longer term, the United States will lose out! When former federal staff leave, they often take decades of experience in specific areas with them. If our democracy remains, it could take decades to rebuild that expertise.
The removal of key military leaders, such as Gen. Timothy Haugh, is portrayed as part of a troubling trend to undermine military command and control, raising concerns about political motivations. He was removed from his dual roles as director of the NSA: National Security Agency and commander of CYBERCOM: United States Cyber Command. The enormous power of these two positions cannot be overstated. Gen. Timothy Haugh isn't just another senior military officer; he held one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America. He lost his job due to an unsecure and compromised War Plan discussion that was blamed on him.
These abrupt changes in leadership are yet another manifestation of how the current administration is moving to seize control over critical Military institutions, both inside and outside government. The removal of Gen. Haugh is wrong and disturbing on so many levels that it's difficult to know where to start. Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert their agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense. Turning control of the NSA and CYBERCOM over to their loyalists should be of concern to every American. Who else will be purged, fired, and deemed insufficiently loyal to the administration?
It's important that veterans not only express their grievances but also work together to seek solutions. Engaging in dialogue with lawmakers, participating in veteran organizations, and raising public awareness could further strengthen this mission. In solidarity, veterans can make their voices heard and push for the changes necessary to ensure that all who have served receive the honor and support they deserve.
When they divert our Military from protecting our Republic, and start to round up and imprison our own citizens for political ideology, then will we stand up?
All Veterans should boycott an upcoming military parade scheduled for June 14, 2025, expressing dissatisfaction with the administration's lack of military service and its treatment of Veterans.
Don’t ever leave a Veteran behind, as I will stand up and have your back!
R/Tom Watson
