By Richard L. Gaw
Staff Writer

In a scene similar to that which is being played out in small towns and big cities across the United States, a crowd of nearly 200 U.S. veterans, elected officials and supporters gathered outside of the Old Courthouse in West Chester on March 14 to protest the proposed reorganization of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which plans to cut 83,000 jobs and eliminate veterans’ services that include health care, short- and long-term housing options, life insurance, pensions, education stipends and public health research.

Wielding signs and banners at the courthouse entrance, the protestors encouraged drivers along High Street to honk their horns in support as a series of speakers shared their stories at the podium, each of them vowing to accelerate their opposition in the coming weeks and months. 

Whether etched on signs or by their voices, those in attendance at the rally centered their focus chiefly on President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the appointed head of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), for their sweeping effort to downsize the federal government including the VA, an agency that provides health services for more than nine million veterans, manages a $35 billion-plus annual budget and oversees nearly 200 medical centers and hospitals, including the Coatesville VA Medical Center.

In a memo recently circulated by the VA’s Chief of Staff, Christopher Syrek, top-level officials at the agency were given an objective to cut enough employees to return to 2019 staffing levels of just under 400,000, a process that would involve letting go 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. The memo also calls for agency officials to work with DOGE to “move out aggressively, while taking a pragmatic and disciplined approach” to the Trump administration’s goals.

Less than two months into Trump’s second term, there have already been two rounds of layoffs at the VA that has left more than 2,000 staffers without jobs.

John Walsh of Drexel Hill said that he attended the rally in support of U.S. veterans, whom he said, “have given us our freedom,” and include several friends of Walsh’s who were killed in the line of duty as combat veterans in the Vietnam War.

“Trump and Musk have fired hundreds if not thousands of [VA employees] already,” he said. “They are ruining the Department of Veterans Affairs along with many other departments in the U.S. My ultimate fear is that we are going to lose our democracy, because that’s where it seems to be headed right now. He’s destroying every semblance of the American government.”

Alan Olson, a resident of Garnet Valley, slammed the Trump administration for their lack of compassion for veterans. Olson said that he returned to the U.S. in 1971 after serving as a pilot in Vietnam, and in 2001, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and re-diagnosed in 2009 that required him to receive a stem cell transplant that was supported by the VA.

“That’s an example of the what the VA does, and we absolutely need it,” Olson said. “Without the VA, it will be a disaster for tens of thousands of people. We need the medical attention in order to get through life.”

‘We earned those benefits with our blood, sweat and tears’

Addressing the rally from a podium, U.S. Marine veteran Christopher Kowerdovich of the Pa. Democratic Veterans Committee said that for many veterans, transitioning back to civilian life is filled with challenges “that most people do not see,” that includes finding a stable job and receiving necessary healthcare.

“Many of us end up finding work in the very system that is there to serve us – the VA, and in other services and programs that helps our veterans succeed, but when 80,000 jobs are taken away, these are not just numbers on a page,” he said. “These are veterans like me, like my brothers and sisters in the armed forces who are suddenly without assistance to help their families and themselves. When veterans lose their jobs, the consequences ripple through all our communities. Unemployment leads to financial instabilities and stress and for some, it leads to a downward spiral that ends up leading to homelessness, or God forbid, worse. 

“We don’t need empty words,” Kowerdovich added. “We need action, to have our leaders stand up for us and fight for our jobs and ensure that the system we fought for will not abandon us. We earned those benefits with our blood, sweat and tears.”

Dan Williams, a state representative of the 74th District, spoke directly to the veterans in the audience.

“You went, because you were committed to the truth, and some of you went, even though you were lied to,” he said. “Because you went, we’re here. There is a collective of people standing here and saying to you, ‘We will not just honor you with our words. We will honor you with our efforts as we stand and fight with you.

“That is why this group is standing up and saying, ‘No more.’ You are declared to be the most trusted and the most tested, but in reality, lip service will no longer serve you. You fought for us, and now we intend to fight for you.”

Deb Ciamacca, a former teacher and U.S. Marine captain, said that veterans “deserve the best our country can offer,” and excoriated Musk and DOGE for seeking to eliminate essential jobs and services.

“When Elon Musk stands there with his chain saw and gleefully proclaims his happiness at destroying the federal government, I take it personally, and so should you,” said Ciamacca, who also directed her ire toward Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick.

“This is the same Dave McCormick who went to West Point and bragged about its motto during his campaign commercials: Duty, Honor, Country. Where is your honor to these veterans, Senator? Where is your reverence for their sacrifice toward our country?”

Rep. Kristine Howard of the167th District, who praised her daughter for her service in the U.S. Marine Corps, warned that the closing of the VA Hospital in Coatesville would have a devastating effect on the lives of the 19,000 veterans from Delaware and Pennsylvania.

‘Welcome to the revolution’

State Rep. Paul Friel, a Democrat representing the 26th District in Chester County, said that his father – a Vietnam Marine veteran – relies on the VA Hospital in Coatesville for crucial medical services.

“Our budget in my view is a statement of our values, and when we cut budgets to the VA or to Medicaid or Medicare, we are saying that we don’t value our veterans and the folks who need our help, and that is unacceptable to me,” he said. “Not only are these cuts arbitrary and being done without proper planning, but they are also going to hurt real people, and that’s not who we are as a community.”

Friel, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said that the uncertainty of the state’s budget is exacerbated by not knowing whether the committed funds from the federal government will eventually find their way to Pennsylvania. The solution, he said, will be one of across-the-board cooperation bipartisanship who can pass legislation.

“As legislators, we have to say that if the federal government falls down, what can we do to pick up our most vulnerable citizens?” he said. “What can we put in place in Pennsylvania for those vulnerable citizens to help them? It’s not just our veterans. It’s our disabled who rely on Medicaid. It’s our children who rely on food at schools. We have to put support systems in place and partner with some of our private and charitable organizations.”

State Rep. Chris Pielli of the 156th District, who is a veteran of the U.S. Army Airborne and a member of the Pennsylvania House Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee, said that planned VA cuts are “unacceptable” and “dangerous.”

“We’re not suckers and losers,” Pielli said. “We are true Americans. This is not a business. This is not a profit-margin scenario. This is about people, true American patriots who are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and who now need our help.

“I say to you, ‘Welcome to the revolution,” a refreshing revolution for the hard-working people of America, not millionaires and billionaires, a revolution for the for fairness, decency and equality, a revolution for Main Street and not Wall Street, a revolution for the continuation of the free and the unconquerable United States of America, not for Russian dictators.”  

To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email [email protected].