[Cybermat47]

For Veterans Fired by Trump, the Sense of Betrayal Runs Deep

“I feel very betrayed. All I’ve done my whole life since getting out of high school was serve this country,” says Bushno, 40, who worked in the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. “I feel like, who's fighting for me, you know?”

The impact of the Trump Administration's job cuts has reverberated across the federal workforce, where veterans make up nearly 30 percent of civilian employees. The Department of Veterans Affairs has not been spared, with over 1,000 employees—including staff at the Veterans Crisis Line—dismissed. While some have since been rehired, many remain in administrative limbo, left wondering whether they will ever be reinstated.

“I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country,”

Tony Ruiz, a veteran from Orange County, Calif., was proud to be hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs last year as a Veteran Service Representative. Then he was fired last month, 10 days before his probation period was set to end. He says he was especially shocked to see the phrase “unacceptable performance” in his termination letter, after becoming the first employee in his division to win an employee of the quarter award in August. The firing left Ruiz feeling abandoned: “I feel like I got a big F-you from the American people, and I feel betrayed.”

Unlike other probationary employees, Ruiz has not been offered reinstatement and believes it’s because he failed the Administration’s unofficial “loyalty test.” “As an American soldier, as a veteran, we value the oath. And so for me, I didn't take an oath to a king, or take an oath to the Administration.”

https://time.com/7270148/trump-veterans-va-fired/