Mike Olson is up before sunrise every Tuesday to make the 3½-hour drive from Durango to Albuquerque, where he spends the day standing outside the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs office with a sign.
In bold black letters, his message is simple: “Don’t harm my VA health care.”
“I leave at 5:30 in the morning and get there just after 9 a.m.,” he said. “I’ve got a tree there, and I set out chairs for when I get tired.”
His goal: to draw attention to – and hopefully stop – the Trump administration’s 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.
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.
“I would say more than 90% of the folks who drive by support it – they honk and give a thumbs-up,” he said. “Less than 10% are angry or put out, but that’s expected when you let people talk and express themselves. By far and away, people are pleased with the scene.”
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’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency to cut spending.
Veterans across the country have spoken out against the so-called “reorganization,” including Olson. He said the cuts will severely impact the quality and timeliness of care provided to veterans – a concern echoed by several others.
“That does not make sense,” he said. “People are already stressed out because they’re overworked.”
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.
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.
He led the engineering department for several years and witnessed both the agency’s strengths and challenges. The engineering department, he said, was staffed at only 63% capacity; the VA overall hovered around 75%.
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.
Now, Olson said, the proposed staff cuts will further reduce the VA’s capacity for care.
He said he’s standing out there for the veterans but also for the staff members whose jobs prohibit them from protesting.
“There’s so many things that I don’t agree with. But if I try to think about them all, I can’t 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,” Olson said. “Maybe there’ll be more VAs with people standing out front.”
jbowman@durangoherald.com
