WEST SPRINGFIELD — About a decade ago when Michael Slater came back from four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he struggled with his mental health and returning to civilian life.
Slater had been an Army combat engineer, spending his time clearing routes of explosive devices.
Back in Western Massachusetts, where he grew up, Slater found help in group therapy and other programs at the Springfield Vet Center.
“It helped me reconnect to people who I felt like could understand the issues I was having,” he said.
So last year, when Slater was offered a job as a program support assistant at the center in West Springfield, he decided to leave his higher-paid position as director of Veterans' Services for the town of South Hadley and join the VA’s Vet Center.
“To go back there was like full circle to me,” he said. “I know the power of the Vet Center.”
But on Feb. 13, about seven months into his job while still a probationary employee, Slater was notified in an email that his position was being terminated.
The 42-year-old Granby man was one of more than 1,000 VA employees fired that day as part of President Donald Trump’s ousting of probationary employees. At first, Slater hoped he might get his job back, and then that dream was smashed on Monday when the VA announced it was cutting another 1,400 jobs.
“I believed in the mission,” Slater said. “I wanted to be part of improving the VA. ... To be terminated the way I was, was a slap in the face.”
The Trump administration has laid off thousands of federal workers across different departments, according to The Associated Press. The Department of Veterans Affairs has said the layoffs will save $180 million that will be redirected to veterans.
“To be perfectly clear: These moves will not negatively impact VA health care, benefits or beneficiaries,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a statement. “In the coming weeks and months, VA will be announcing plans to put these resources to work helping veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.”
That message doesn’t make sense to Slater.
“You can’t terminate 2,400 people ... and expect it will have zero effect on veterans' health care or benefits. That’s not a reasonable thing to say,“ he said. ”I have a lot of fear for where the VA will be in the next couple of years, unfortunately.”
Jon Santiago, secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans' Services, which is a separate entity from the federal VA, said he was “deeply concerned” about the cuts and worried about what he called a well-documented backlog of claims.
“I have tremendous respect for the VA, and I get my care there,” he said. ”To hear a decision has been made to cut employees, which could result in a cut to services, it’s quite concerning, and what’s particularly disturbing is that while it might be some esoteric exercise to discuss this budget, this has real-world implications for the commonwealth of Massachusetts and a place like Springfield and Western Massachusetts."
Speaking of Slater, Santiago said, “To think that he is unable to do his job, to provide services to veterans that need support, it’s deeply concerning.”
“In a system that’s already undermanned and the demand for services exceeds what we can provide, you’re making that situation worse by terminating people,” Slater said.
Slater medically retired from the military in 2015. Returning to civilian life was like being in a foreign country, even in Western Massachusetts, where he grew up, he said.
The center offers a variety of counseling services and supports, and it gave Slater a sense of belonging.
“It felt like being a part of a bigger family again, like in the military,” he said. It also helped him move forward.
He was surprised when he opened his email on the evening of Feb. 13, after he took his child to dance class and saw the termination letter. He was told it was for “subpar performance.”
But his last review was good, he said. “There’s not any real cause,” he said.
He also had vacation time saved up, which he’s not sure he will be compensated for, and he hasn’t gotten the documentation he needs to apply for unemployment, he said.
“Nobody knows anything,” he said.
He’s applying for other jobs serving veterans, but not with the federal government.
“In the VA right now, it’s just chaos. No one knows what’s going to happen. Everyone is afraid of losing their job and the uncertainty that comes with that.“
At the Vet Center, he did administrative work. “I basically ran the front of house,” he said.
A sign on the door says that staff can’t greet people now “due to abrupt and unplanned staff shortages.” A counselor will come get those with appointments, and anyone else can leave a phone message, which will be returned.
“I would answer the phone 100 times a day,” Slater said. Now if a vet comes to the door in crisis, and no one is there to help, he said. “God knows what happens when they walk away.”
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