Nov. 11 is the day U.S. veterans should be remembering their military service, or swapping stories with fellow brothers and sisters in arms.
This week, though, they’re more worried about cuts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and keeping the benefits they earned and were promised while in uniform. As the longest federal shutdown in history continues apace, it has so far forced nearly 37,000 VA workers to be either furloughed or to continue working without pay, the VA said last month.
Despite that, the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago is operating under normal hours and continuing services, the VA says. More than 25% of the VA’s 482,000-strong workforce is comprised of veterans, according to The Associated Press.
The VA last year experienced its highest-ever service levels, reaching more than 9 million enrollees and delivering more than 127.5 million health care appointments, according to the agency’s figures. Ironically, many veterans voted for Donald Trump in last year’s presidential election.
During the first Trump administration, the president was committed to expanding services for veterans. The same was true during the administration of President Joe Biden.
Now, however, veterans have been speaking out against cuts at the VA, part of the administration’s aim to trim government spending, which has included letting several thousand employees go and canceling hundreds of health care contracts. They are also protesting ongoing anti-immigrant actions by the Trump administration, which grates on many who served their country.
Major U.S. cities, including Chicago, are hosting non-violent protests against the Trump administration on Veterans Day. In Chicago, one is planned in the Loop from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at 24 E. Wacker Drive.
“Stand with veterans as we march, rally and refuse to allow growing fascism to be normalized,” the group About Face, a movement of post-9/11 veterans, stated in urging vets to turn out for the anti-Trump rally. “Together we say no this Veterans Day — no to ICE, no to occupation, no to fascism and no to cuts stripping away life-saving services our communities need.”
Veterans Day has been a federal holiday honoring veterans and their service since 1919. It was first commemorated, marking the end of World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th month in 1918. That was followed by the founding of the American Legion, one of a number of groups that speak for veterans nationwide, in 1919.
There are an estimated 30,000 veterans living in Lake County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The most expected from the Baby Boomer cohort are those who served during the Vietnam War — 8,347.
That number is followed by veterans of the Gulf War, 7,877, and the Iraq War, 3,909. After that come dwindling numbers of World War II, Korean War and Cold War veterans.
Statewide, 459,569 military veterans live in Illinois, according to census data, about 4.7% of the adult population. Nationwide, there are about 18 million veterans, 7% of the population. Of those, some 6.2 million receive disability benefits from the VA.
During the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency purges in the early days of Trump’s second four-year term, billionaire Elon Musk sought to slash 83,000 VA jobs, 17% of the agency’s employees, the AP reported. The VA provides health care services, especially for veterans who sustained injuries during active military service.
Burials and housing for veterans also are covered through a network of 170 locations and 1,200 outpatient clinics, several in Chicagoland. Health research into illnesses linked to veterans and their service, too, is a mission of the VA.
Illinois U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, the Republican chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, had been fairly quiet over the shutdown, along with plans to gut the VA, noting in a recent interview that disruptions to VA care and benefits have been minimal. However, risks increase the longer the shutdown continues, which appears to be ending this week.
“But now, we’re beginning to worry big-time,” said Bost, a Marine Corps veteran from far Downstate Murphysboro. The city is just south of the Marion VA Medical Center, which serves veterans across the Little Egypt region of southern Illinois.
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The impact now includes shutting down the GI Bill Hotline, furloughing employees in the Veteran Readiness and Employment program, closing 56 VA regional benefits offices, canceling VA transition briefings for service members preparing to leave the military, and stopping grounds maintenance or placing permanent headstones at 157 VA cemeteries.
That’s just in the first two months of the shutdown, and doesn’t include losses during the short-lived DOGE era. There’s a reason the VA exists to serve military veterans, which many Americans don’t understand.
It acknowledges the government’s obligation to those who have served the nation in uniform and need assistance, especially disabled veterans. On Veterans Day 2025, it’s time for the nation’s political leadership to reinforce what has been done for veterans since the Revolutionary War: Remember their service and what is owed to them.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
X @sellenews