Disabled Military veteran Luke Graziani, pictured right here in Seoul, South Korea in 2014, was abruptly fired by the Trump administration on Feb. 13, 2025.
Photograph courtesy Luke Graziani
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A 20-year Military veteran who served 4 excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan was just lately fired from his communications job on the Bronx Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital underneath the Trump administration’s drastic cuts to the federal workforce.
“My first thought was, ‘This can’t be real. This is not happening,’” he mentioned.
He mentioned by midday he was locked out of his e-mail account. By 3 p.m., he was leaving the constructing together with his private objects in a cart in what he known as “a walk of shame.” He had been working for the division, situated at 130 W Kingsbridge Rd., for lower than a 12 months.
Graziani was removed from the one one: the Division of Veterans Affairs introduced that day that greater than 1,000 staff who had served lower than two years had been dismissed.
The VA mentioned in a press launch that the mass firings “will save the department more than $98 million per year, and VA will redirect all of those resources back toward health care, benefits and services for VA beneficiaries.”
Graziani was 5 weeks away from finishing his probationary 12 months. He mentioned he believes a small variety of staffers on the Bronx VA had been additionally terminated however doesn’t know who or what number of.
A spokesperson for the Bronx VA couldn’t be reached for touch upon three separate dates, which was no shock to Graziani, who mentioned he was the one worker in that position.
“I’m essential personnel,” Graziani mentioned. “Someone has to be in this seat doing this job.”
Whereas official numbers of whole cuts underneath Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) haven’t been launched, the quantity reportedly totals many 1000’s and have affected practically each sector, together with the Division of Housing and City Improvement (HUD), Nationwide Institutes of Well being, Division of Power, Nationwide Park Service, Small Enterprise Administration and extra.
Graziani known as the cuts “far-reaching” with “likely pretty devastating effects.” He mentioned that whereas veterans can nonetheless count on excellent care on the Bronx VA, it appears no federal staff are shielded from cuts regionally and elsewhere.
“Is anybody even really safe from this? I don’t know,” mentioned Graziani. “I have to assume the system, in all its checks and balances, will right itself.”
Referred to as to serve
Graziani, who lives in Woodside, Queens, together with his spouse and 4 youngsters, served 20 years within the Military as a provide specialist and in public affairs. He was deployed for 2 excursions in Iraq and two in Afghanistan and have become disabled throughout his course of service. After retiring from the navy in 2023, Graziani began at Tempo College, and, after working a public relations stint as a authorities contractor, utilized for the job on the Bronx VA, which concerned dealing with inside and exterior communications for the Kingsbridge Heights facility.
After his second job interview, Graziani mentioned he was all in, satisfied that he was “called to give back to [his] fellow veterans.”
Not solely did he view the VA as a steady office with good advantages and the chance to avoid wasting in direction of “a real retirement,” he additionally felt a larger sense of goal.
Many are unaware that individuals who be a part of the federal civilian workforce should increase their proper hand and swear an oath to guard the Structure “just like a soldier would,” he mentioned. “I fully understood what it meant.”
He known as the DOGE firings “heartless” and “thoughtless” and mentioned he and others appear to have acquired the “boilerplate [firing] memo” solely due to their quick employment period.
Graziani mentioned he had by no means been disciplined for poor efficiency and that his interactions with supervisors, together with the VA director, garnered solely optimistic suggestions.
‘I’m simply ready’
As extra cuts loom and the political fallout stays unsure, Graziani declined to say whether or not or not he voted for President Trump. However both manner, after Trump was declared the winner, Graziani mentioned he had just one thought: “I just want and need him to do a good job for our country.”
A minimum of one lawmaker, a fellow veteran, has publicly supported Graziani and known as for Musk to reply to Congress for the firing.
U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan, who served two fight excursions in Iraq and represents Orange and Dutchess Counties within the Hudson Valley, known as Graziani’s dismissal “outrageous” in a Feb. 19 submit on X.
“These are American heroes serving the American people, not political pawns,” Ryan wrote.
As the continuing mass layoffs have sparked concern concerning the authorities’s capacity to proceed important companies and features, Graziani has spoken to a number of media retailers, including his story to the various others.
Graziani and his household stay on edge hoping that his supervisor will help him get his job again. Financially, “We’ll be okay for a little while, but not a long while,” he mentioned.
Though he expressed confidence about his employability, particularly since he’s near ending an MBA diploma, he hopes that he can get his job again, wherein case Graziani mentioned he would instantly return to the Bronx VA.
With regards to the job, he feels he was known as to do, “I have not wavered or faltered in that dedication,” he mentioned.
“I’m hopeful,” mentioned Graziani. “I am waiting. Just waiting.”
