Vets Honor D-Day Vowing to Resist DOGE VA Invasion

SAN RAFAEL (06-06) – Veterans, their families and others rallied across the nation on June 6 to honor the 81st Anniversary of D-Day, the largest seaborn invasion in history when Allied troops stormed the beaches in France to begin the overthrow of Fascists in Nazi Germany.

Marin Veterans for Democracy rallied in solidarity with Unite for Veterans, Unite for America Rally and 50501 who also demonstrated during this National Day of Action in drawing attention to the Trump administration’s desire to eviscerate the VA (Veterans Administration) and its vital health care system. This along with the elimination of jobs held by veterans and family members and many thousands of others in the federal workforce. The VA could lose as many as 38,000 workers who serves 9 million vets who rely on the services under the already implemented DOGE plan.

The veterans’ organizations collectively are specifically calling to:

--Defend veteran and military family member employment in the federal workforce.
--Stop the privatization and weakening of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
--Hold political leaders accountable for policies that harm veterans & their families.
--And to maintain veteran jobs, healthcare, and essential VA services that are under attack.

Saying collectively, “We will not stand by” as this attack against veterans’ benefits is being undertaken by the Trump administration. In Washington, DC over 20,000 veterans and their supporters rallied on the National Mall in support of their goals.

In San Rafael, California outside of the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, US Navy veteran Ernie Bergman spoke of his personal battle with Agent Orange that he was exposed to during his service in Vietnam and the importance of medical research. As an 18-year-old, the San Francisco native decided to join the US Navy “to see the world and have a big adventure.” During his three years and nine months of service he was deployed for 22 months in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam in a support role for the Ninth Infantry. He said that during his service “We used to see these airplanes fly over the top spraying some weird stuff” several times each week. The troops were told that the spray would “eliminate all the jungle and hiding places of the enemy” and were told it was “Agent Orange, but we didn’t care because we didn’t know what it was.”

He felt lucky when his tour of duty was up as he had “no visible impact from the war” only to be diagnosed seven years after leaving Vietnam with late stage four cancer due to his exposure to the powerful chemical herbicide and defoliant spray. Once diagnosed, his UCSF doctors told him he had he had six weeks to live. As his case seemed hopeless, he was given three newly developed chemo therapies that after two and a half years caused his cancer to go into remission.

Bergman credits his survival with medical research done by major hospitals and universities, saying, “The current government is trying to take the funding away” and that he is a living example of the importance of such funding. He credits the VA hospital system with keeping him alive although now “people complain about it, it’s not perfect, but it’s the best place I have ever been” where he has had weekly treatments for his ongoing chronic medical issues leaving him 100 percent disabled.

Dr Ginger Schechter, former Chief Medical Officer (CMO) at the VA in Santa Rosa, California spoke of the impact that the DOGE cuts are having on veterans’ care and the damage that is already taking place. With “veterans feeling they are under attack while those working for the VA are being traumatized. This is the goal of this administration, and it is already working in causing increased trauma.” She went on to quote from a Washington Post article in which an Iraqi veteran said, “Iraq felt safer than being a VA employee. My leadership in Iraq cared about me as a human not just a number.”

Colin Prell, VA Case Worker for local Congressman Jared Huffman (D-CA), read a statement from the Congressman on D-Day warning that “This heroic battlefield victory was also a lesson for future generations about the terrible costs of not pushing back against Fascism and Authoritarianism wherever it arises,” saying the troops that died 81-years-ago “died to protect democracy.” He warned further that the war might have been avoided “if the Fascist threat had been taken more seriously from the start.” He further reflected in his comments that “Americans today are forgetting that vital lesson from D-Day. And there is far too much complacency about our own homegrown Fascist, the one in the White House who is trying to align America with some of the worst dictators in the world instead of freedom-loving democracies. I don’t want our country and the rest of the world to once again pay the terrible price of ignoring Fascist threats. I don’t want our nation aligning with Fascists. And I certainly don’t want us to turn into a Fascist state.” He said to do so dishonors the sacrifice and the legacy of the D-Day heros and is deeply un-American.”

He described as another “deep betrayal” of American values our failure to keep our commitments with veterans and their families. Prell quoted Rep. Huffman in describing Trump’s cuts to the VA as a “scorched Earth” approach regarding its serious impact on the department and its employees labeling them as “unacceptable.” In closing, Huffman stated that we should be increasing mental health services and not cutting them and that “Fighting this administration’s attack on veterans is a necessary and entirely patriotic way to honor the legacy of D-Day. Eighty-one years ago, all gave some and some gave all. Let’s make sure our country is worthy of their sacrifices.”

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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