{"id":22188,"date":"2025-05-18T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-veteran-drives-3%c2%bd-hours-to-albuquerque-weekly-to-protest-va-job-cuts\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:11:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:11:43","slug":"durango-veteran-drives-3%c2%bd-hours-to-albuquerque-weekly-to-protest-va-job-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-veteran-drives-3%c2%bd-hours-to-albuquerque-weekly-to-protest-va-job-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango veteran drives 3\u00bd hours to Albuquerque weekly to protest VA job cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango veteran and former Veterans Affairs employee Mike Olson stands outside the VA office in Albuquerque on a Tuesday protesting the Trump administration\u2019s plan to cut tens of thousands of VA employees. (Courtesy of Mike Olson)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mike Olson is up before sunrise every Tuesday to make the 3\u00bd-hour drive from Durango to Albuquerque, where he spends the day standing outside the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs office with a sign.<\/p>\n

In bold black letters, his message is simple: \u201cDon\u2019t harm my VA health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI leave at 5:30 in the morning and get there just after 9 a.m.,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a tree there, and I set out chairs for when I get tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

His goal: to draw attention to \u2013 and hopefully stop \u2013 the Trump administration\u2019s plan to cut tens of thousands of Veterans Affairs employees. Olson said the cuts would significantly harm both the agency and the veterans who rely on its services.<\/p>\n

So far, Olson has spent four Tuesdays at the Veterans Affairs office and plans to keep going for the foreseeable future. Just over a month into his weekly protest, several like-minded people have started to join him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say more than 90% of the folks who drive by support it \u2013 they honk and give a thumbs-up,\u201d he said. \u201cLess than 10% are angry or put out, but that\u2019s expected when you let people talk and express themselves. By far and away, people are pleased with the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in early March a plan to terminate about 80,000 employees nationwide. The move is part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump\u2019s newly created Department of Government Efficiency to cut spending.<\/p>\n

Veterans across the country have spoken out against the so-called \u201creorganization,\u201d including Olson. He said the cuts will severely impact the quality and timeliness of care provided to veterans \u2013 a concern echoed by several others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does not make sense,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are already stressed out because they\u2019re overworked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting more staff from an already strained agency, Olson argued, would only make it harder for veterans to access care. Wait times will increase, care will become less efficient, and many may have to seek services elsewhere.<\/p>\n

A Durango native, Olson has close ties to the Albuquerque VA office. After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in civil engineering, he served as a U.S. Navy officer during the Gulf War. Years later, after a private sector career, he worked at the same VA office where he now protests.<\/p>\n

He led the engineering department for several years and witnessed both the agency\u2019s strengths and challenges. The engineering department, he said, was staffed at only 63% capacity; the VA overall hovered around 75%.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the passage of the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act expanded the pool of veterans eligible for VA services, placing even more strain on the organization.<\/p>\n

Now, Olson said, the proposed staff cuts will further reduce the VA\u2019s capacity for care.<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s standing out there for the veterans but also for the staff members whose jobs prohibit them from protesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many things that I don\u2019t agree with. But if I try to think about them all, I can\u2019t do anything. I just get locked up. But if I just focus on one thing and try to do it well then maybe more people will follow,\u201d Olson said. \u201cMaybe there\u2019ll be more VAs with people standing out front.\u201d<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

wants to be a voice for employees who can\u2019t speak up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1409,1347,28,714,2346,1142,2077,184],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-demonstration","tag-government-health-care","tag-headlines","tag-human-interest","tag-people-profiles","tag-profile","tag-profiles","tag-veterans-affairs"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77607,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22188\/revisions\/77607"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22188"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}