There’s a misguided perception among civilians that soldiers are good at only one thing: Following orders. We know three words, the myth goes – “Yes,” “No,” and “Sir.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. When I deployed to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division, I didn’t just learn how to follow in times of crisis — I learned how to lead in times of crisis. The same went for the brave soldiers I fought alongside.
In the Army, you learn what it means to serve — and serve with distinction. You figure out how to adapt to new challenges. You start forgetting about ideological or political distractions. That education lasts a lifetime.
When our soldiers return home, they want to keep serving. Many choose the path of federal employment. About one in four federal workers is a veteran. They inspect our food, discover cures for disease, keep planes from crashing, and protect communities from violent crime.
But under President Trump, many of these veterans are now being shoved from the office chair to the unemployment line. If we want to be a nation that makes “thank you for your service” mean something again, we need to pump the brakes on widespread firings of federal employees.
When our soldiers return home, they want to keep serving. Many choose the path of federal employment. About one in four federal workers is a veteran.
It’s hard to overstate the havoc wreaked by the Trump-Vance Administration’s workforce reductions. In February, a report out of the House Appropriations Committee indicated that mass firings under Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE Initiative eliminated nearly 6,000 veterans from their positions in the federal government. In July, the V.A. reported that the agency was on pace to reduce staff by 30,000 this fall.
Draconian cuts jeopardize the livelihoods of our veterans while diminishing the efficacy of federal supports for patriots in need. Over the summer, reporting from The Guardian underscored that “the number of medical staff on hand to treat veterans has fallen every month since Donald Trump took office.”
I am the governor of a diverse state that is home to over 260,000 federal workers and over 300,000 veterans. We feel these cuts deeply — in the wounded warrior suffering who can no longer access essential care, or the military family now in need of unemployment insurance after the family breadwinner got fired from their federal job. It is sickening to live in a country where we look at those who wear the flag on their shoulders and say to them: “You’re on your own.”
In Maryland, we are proving there is a better way. Our Government Modernization Initiative is helping to cut government waste in a way that is responsible, not reckless. We are being disciplined and intentional in delivering commonsense savings that preserve essential services, such as reducing the state car fleet and purchasing laptops and other devices more strategically.
In this moment of profound uncertainty, we need to make it easier for our veterans to serve our country — not harder.
At the same time, we have enacted legislation that elevates our service members, veterans, and military families. Maryland is the first state in the nation to establish a pathway for free health care and dental care to members of the National Guard. We expanded Paid Leave for men and women in uniform who also have positions in State Government. I signed the largest tax break for young veterans in recent Maryland history. And we are just getting started.
In this moment of profound uncertainty, we need to make it easier for our veterans to serve our country — not harder. Honoring that mission to the fullest extent will require a reversal in the White House’s current strategy of cutting federal agencies and firing veterans with impunity.
I joined the United States Army when I was seventeen years old. I was so young that my mother had to sign the paperwork. And my experience in the armed forces would lay the foundation for everything that came after: My ability to start and run my own small business; a successful tenure as the CEO of one of the largest poverty-fighting organizations in the country; being elected the 63rd Governor of Maryland and the first Black governor in our state’s history. It all started with lessons learned in the Army.
We need to nurture those lessons in others–with policies that honor our veterans’ hunger to serve. This Veterans Day, President Trump and his advisors would be wise to follow what we’ve done in Maryland–taking a surgical approach to fiscal responsibility that protects the job market, encourages service, and uplifts our veteran community.
Wes Moore is the 63rd Governor of the State of Maryland. Governor Moore enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 17 while at Valley Forge Military Academy and College. He deployed overseas to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division from 2005 to 2006, where he achieved the rank of captain.