Dan Ramey Jr. was just starting his senior year of high school in September 2001. He watched the Twin Towers fall during lunch.
“That's really what was the deciding factor of selflessness for country,” he said. “That really struck me as a call to arms.”
The decision to serve in the U.S. Air Force was easy, he said. Coming home as a veteran six years later was not.
“I did a lot of struggling outside of the government work that I did in the military,” Ramey said. “A lot of dark thoughts, a lot of problems in and out of jobs, which is extremely common for us. We don't have the structure anywhere you go anymore.”
The Chillicothe VA Medical Center helped him get his feet back on the ground. He even worked there for a while.
But now, Ramey and other veterans are concerned that cuts to that VA could impact their care and their community.
Planned cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs
The Trump Administration plans to cut more than 70,000 workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs — reducing staffing to 2019 levels, before the federal PACT Act expanded benefits for many veterans.
In February, it fired around 2,400 probationary employees, including seven in Chillicothe. Since then, a federal court ordered those employees to be reinstated. In Chillicothe a few have returned, but others chose not to come back.
In a video statement, President Trump’s newly confirmed VA Secretary Doug Collins said the cuts won’t come at a cost to veteran care, but rather will reduce inefficiencies and bureaucracy at the VA.
“The days of kicking the can down the road and measuring the VA’s progress by how much money it spends and how many people it employs rather than how many veterans it helps are over,” Collins said.
The Chillicothe VA declined an interview. In a written statement, it agreed with that sentiment, adding that mission-critical positions are exempt from cuts, and they continue to hire for essential positions.
But Ramey questions the decision to cut so many employees. He voted for Trump in the last election, but said he doesn’t think political points of view should come into play here.
“It should be what's morally right,” he said. “And morally, it's not cool to cut [tens of thousands of] jobs out of some department that is actually taking care of people.”
Although only a few people have been fired from the Chillicothe VA so far, he says he’s already feeling the impact.
The impact of cuts on veterans
One of the people fired in Chillicothe was a recreational therapist. Without them, the Chillicothe VA is no longer offering open hours for vets to use its pool and gym. That might seem like a small sacrifice to some, Ramey said.
“I have a 6-year-old daughter that I need to think about for the future. I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't try to get back in shape to chase her around and enjoy life with her as much as I possibly can. And these [cuts] have kind of taken that away from all of us.”Dan Ramey Jr.
“But as a veteran, for me, I had reconstructive ankle surgery two years ago, and that pool physically helps me get that flexibility and mobility back,” he said. “[It] also helps me mentally because I am service connected for anxiety and depression and being able to go under the water and not having to worry about kids screaming or anything like that [helps].”
Now, Ramey is worried the specialist treating his ankle could get cut too.
If that happens, he could seek care at the local hospital, but he worries about insurance covering the procedures he needs.
“And there's a lot of us that don't have a lot of faith in that current hospital that we have,” he said.
He prefers to get treatment from the VA, where many employees are also veterans: Ramey feels they better understand what he’s going through.
But, the next closest VAs — in Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus or Huntington, West Virginia — are all more than an hour away.
“It is the Black Hole of southern Ohio,” Ramey said. “I mean, there’s nothing here.”
Working at the Chillicothe VA
The Chillicothe VA isn’t just a major health care facility in the region, serving more than 22,000 vets annually. It’s one of the city’s biggest employers, with around 1,600 workers.
Carissa Gregory, president of the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, says the cuts — and the uncertainty around them — have had a chilling effect.
“Employees are scared,” she said. “They don't know day to day if they're going to have a job when they come in tomorrow. And so they're quitting. People are just going ahead and quitting to get ahead of the game because they don't want to be fired.”
This isn’t the first time the Chillicothe VA has faced significant cuts. In 2022, the Department of Veterans Affairs recommended closing the local medical center, following a report that found decreasing demand for its services.
At that time, locals rallied to save the facility, and Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman threw bipartisan support behind them.
This time though, Gregory doesn’t have as much confidence the VA will survive.
“I'm afraid this is a 2.0, but I think it's going to be worse than then,” she said. “What I feel is happening is [the government] is scaring people so they’ll quit. And if we don't have the staff to take care of the veterans then there you go: We have to shut down.”
Ramey says that hurts. The Chillicothe VA hasn’t just provided him with medical care, it’s given him a path to participate more fully in his life again.
“I have a 6-year-old daughter that I need to think about for the future,” he said. “I would be doing a disservice to myself if I didn't try to get back in shape to chase her around and enjoy life with her as much as I possibly can. And these [cuts] have kind of taken that away from all of us.”
