The four American soldiers who died in a NATO exercise have returned to the United States. The soldiers were part of the 1^st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3^rd Infantry Division. They were participating in a tactical training exercise. The four soldiers were Sgt. Jose Duenez, Jr from Joliet, Illinois. Sgt. Edwin F. Franco from Glendale, California; Pfc. Dante D. Taitano from Dededo, Guam; and Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins from Battle Creek, Michigan. On Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated at the briefing, “The President, the Secretary of Defense, and the entire White House are praying for the victim, friends, and family during this unimaginable time. This is another stark reminder of the selfless sacrifice of our brave military men and women who risk their lives around the world every day to keep us safe. God bless them”. Those are nice words, but I question whether they are coming from the President. We are talking about a President who didn’t even know that we had lost any soldiers. We are talking about a President that supposably called our fallen soldiers in France “suckers and losers”.

The remains of the four American soldiers who died were honored by the Lithuanian government with a dignified departure before returning the service men to the United States. Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nausefa, and other civic and military leaders paid tribute to the American Soldiers as the vehicles carrying them traveled from the morgue in Vilnius to the airport. At the airport, the bodies of the fallen soldiers were transferred to a U. S. transport plane and flown to Dover Air Force Base. Perhaps I am wrong, but traditionally, the President of the United States would then greet the fallen soldiers. That did not happen. I can understand that a President's time is very valuable, and the needs of the nation may cause the President to designate someone else to meet the fallen soldiers. I don’t think what Trump did had anything to do with the needs of the nation. He blew off greeting those fallen soldiers because he had a dinner to attend to kick off the start of a LIV Golf Tournament and have dinner with the Saudis who are sponsoring the tournament. He didn’t even send the Vice President in his place. I wonder what the Republicans would be saying if Biden had blown off greeting those fallen soldiers for any reason. I wonder what the Republicans would have said if Obama had just blown this off. I can guarantee you they would be going ballistic right along with most of the media. Trump has never had any respect for our military or our veterans, and now the Republican Party doesn’t either.

It has also been a disastrous week for our veterans because of the cuts that are being made by the Trump administration. You can say that those are the cuts caused by Musk, but as Truman would say, “The Buck Stops Here,” meaning it is the President that it all falls onto. Trump is the President, and Trump is responsible. Because of the Veterans Preference Act of 1944, Federal Agencies are encouraged to hire veterans whenever possible. Because of this Act, a large number of veterans hold a number of positions in public service. Yet, during the first 5 weeks of the Trump administration, 38,000 people were laid off about 6000 of them were veterans. Most of the people who work for the Veterans Administration work in healthcare, so making cuts to the VA greatly affects the health of our Veterans. In 2024, the VA had 66,000 vacancies. Cutting 83,000 employees just creates higher cost because of veterans having to seek help outside the VA system and lower quality of service for our veterans. They are also destaffing the emergency hotline, which will directly lead to more deaths by suicide. Data shows that we have an average of 17.6 Veteran suicides per day. Suicide remains the second-leading cause of death among veterans under 45 years old. It has been reported that the staff fields about 60,000 calls a month. The VA reported nearly 3 million calls between 2009 and 2016, which led to 82,000 emergency dispatches to prevent veterans from harming themselves. Destaffing at the emergency hotline should concern everyone. There will also be cuts in the valuable research of the problem that veterans experience and how they can be dealt with. Research is beneficial and greatly needed when it comes to dealing with the problems that our veterans face every day.

As we make cuts to Medicaid and other social programs such as food stamps, though they are not part of the veteran's package, veterans do rely on many of the programs. Nearly 10 percent use at least a partial form of Medicaid, and of that 10 percent, nearly 40 percent of that 10 percent rely exclusively on Medicaid for all their healthcare.  Also, there are about 400,000 veterans who are uninsured. Approximately 1.2 million veterans receive aid through the federally funded SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Veterans are still overrepresented among the homeless population.  Many just don’t have the financial flexibility to make up for these cuts.

Because of the Veterans Preference Act of 1944, all Government agencies have been giving our veterans preferential treatment, so whenever any government agency, from NOAA to the Post Office, cuts back, there are going to be veterans who are losing their jobs. I know we have to run our government as efficiently as possible, but when we do cutbacks, we have to do those as thoughtfully as possible.  We have to know who and how they are going to be affected. For every action, there will be a reaction. Did they think about the reaction that cutting the emergency hotline would cause? I just feel like they are just axing programs without thinking of the consequences that they are going to have, let alone what effect that they are going to have on our veterans.

Our veterans stood up and were counted when our nation needed them. They did it not because they expected to be made rich by it; they did it for their love of the country. I think there are certain expectations our country must meet with our veterans, and those expectations do not stop when they get discharged. If we truly are a grateful nation, then when need to show it when they are living and not at a funeral when they die.