Anonymous Veteran Federal Worker

Like I knew I belonged here my first day when I walked through the doors and like, there was a Vietnam vet that like saw a Marine Corps key chain, slapped my back, called me a jar head. It's a place where you fit, you know, once you leave the military, you do kind of feel like you're alone, but then once you're here, everybody's your family. And then.

I was at home and this new nerdy thing I've gotten into is I make scale model replicas of military figures from the war on terrorism. I don't know. A buddy at my old job told me it was fun. And he gave me a little marine mortar set for a six pack of beer. And so I started making those in my evenings for fun since it's cold out in Michigan. But yeah,

I was painting a tiny Afghan carpet store and my wife said her agency is getting a bunch of weird emails. I go to grab my work phone because I knew it died and I plug it in. I was like, well, let's see if I got fired. And I was joking. And then when it turned on, I opened my email and I said, I got fired.

And then I immediately texted my direct supervisor. I had no idea this was happening.

They're cowards. That's literally it. They're cowards. They sent it in an email. And nobody in this building, nobody in this building, nobody in our headquarters throughout the entire region will say that to me. They're going to send it through an email. And like, it's, yeah, they're like, they're cowards.

I mean, like, I've had people who've already, like, been asking me, send me your resume. You know, I don't care. I don't care. I don't want another job. I want people to know about what's happening here.

100% this place can run without me. I'm not the linchpin that holds us together. They can work without me. We wouldn't be an efficient organization if we didn't have those backup plans. But it's one of those things where it's going to get harder for everybody else here. You're going to squeeze every little last ounce of energy and experience out of them, and they're going to leave.

They're going to make life so miserable that they will drive everybody out of these institutions. They're going to break something they can't fix, and it's going to have ripple effects for generations.

I have worked as a federal employee for over 23 years. This is the first administration transition that I've ever been so uncertain about what I'm being asked to do. Having worked for the last Trump administration, I didn't really anticipate anything this severe. And we all were a little caught off guard initially.

I think I just got deactivated on my government computer. I can try one more time. It just kicked me out of Teams. Let's see if I can open my Outlook. Yep, I no longer have access. Okay. Yeah, I don't even know. Yeah, like, I'm looking at my office. I have, again, pictures of me and my buddies in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have, like, a Marine Corps flag behind me.

There's, like, a pit in my stomach. I'm a little combat vet going to work at the VA. Like, I was like, you know, no one's really coming after us. And then, like, I thought the VA would be fine. No. Like, I'm totally fired now. So, like, I just... If I'm getting fired, like, who's next, you know? Like, I... I thought I'd be the safest, and I was one of the first to go.

Everybody first thought it was like a phishing email.

I'm going to be completely honest. I'm a combat vet going to work at the VA. I was like, no one's really coming after us. My wife is a federal employee, too, at one of the agencies that he does not like. I thought I'd be safe so long as I just got in before, you know, there was any for the inauguration.

Yeah, I am. There's no there's no turning back now. Like, I really don't care. My name is Andrew Lennox, 35 years old. What I work for is the Veterans Health Administration. Our job is to provide medical service to either veterans or like family members of veterans. And I love it. I love everything about it.