“Our vets deserve better, no DOGE coward cuts,” Tracie Martin, co-founder of NWI Takes Action, chanted Friday along the Highway of Flags memorial in Highland.
As Martin chanted, about two dozen people chanted back “fund VA benefits.”
The Trump Administration plans to reorganize the Department of Veterans Affairs, which includes cutting 80,000 jobs from the agency that provides health care for retired military members.
The VA’s chief of staff, Christopher Syrek, told top-level officials at the agency that it had an objective to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000 employees. That would require terminating tens of thousands of employees after the VA expanded during the Biden administration, as well as to cover veterans impacted by burn pits under the 2022 PACT Act.
In an internal memo, it also calls for agency officials to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to “more out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach” to the Trump administration’s goals.
NWI Takes Action organized the rally to show support for veterans who fought for this country, Martin said.
“If there’s any group that deserves the promises they were given, it’s the vets. They didn’t run; why should we?” Martin said.
Robert Racine, a Marine veteran, attended the Highland protest because he’s upset with the proposed Veteran Affairs cuts, particularly the PACT Act, which he receives support from after working in burn pits.
“(The department) helped me combat injury and disease,” Racine said. “It’s important that we fight.”
Racine, of Crown Point, said he served for 4 years as an aviation electrician. Despite the public’s perception, Veterans Affairs does a good job providing healthcare to veterans, he said.
In the veteran community, Racine said there has been “anger and sadness” about the cuts to the department.
“It affects me. It’s made my life better, so to lose that,” Racine said, his voice drifting in sadness.
Telpri Piccirilli, of Hebron, said he attended the rally with Racine to support his best friend.
Piccirilli held the original Betsey Ross American flag with the 13 colonies represented hung upside down to signal that the U.S. is “in distress.”
Without veterans, Piccirilli said Americans wouldn’t have the rights they have grown accustomed to.
“What’s going on in this country is disgraceful. We need to stand up and push back,” Piccirilli said. “Guys I work with and my best friend depend on the VA.”
Georgia Fox Hatfield, of Hobart, said many of her family members have served in the armed forces, including her grandfather, who fought to liberate those held in Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz and against fascism.
“My grandfather would roll over in his grave if he saw the fascism in this country and being led by a dictator,” Hatfield said.
Becky Hanscom, of Gary, brought a framed, black and white photograph of her father, Richard, who served as a medic in the 37th Infantry Division of the Army during World War II. Other members of her family also served in the armed forces, she said.
“They all would be so angry to see what’s going on,” Hanscom said.
Lorri O’Donnell, of St. John, said she works in healthcare, and knows first hand that the Department of Veterans Affairs provides critical healthcare services to veterans.
“They sacrificed for us, they deserve better,” O’Donnell said.
The Associated Press contributed.
akukulka@post-trib.com
