History repeats itself

As Delon Trusk continues to assail our public servants, I noticed something.  

Did you know that nearly 30% of all people in government service are former members of our military? And 70% of all federal jobs are defense and security- related businesses?

By volume of federal workers, here are the biggest departments:

Veterans Affairs ~19%

Army ~12%

Navy ~11%

Homeland Security ~10%

Air Force ~ 8%

Justice ~6%

Defense ~5%

So, in effect, by "trimming the workforce" (and seeing Musk holding a chainsaw is the absolute height of absurdity), they are both adversely impacting veterans AND essentially weakening our defensive capabilities.

And for some retired military personnel, there is a general fear that their pensions or other benefits may wind up being cut or delayed either directly or indirectly because of these cuts.

Now, the title of this post is about history repeating itself.  

Let me start by saying that I am a "citizen archivist" for the National Archives (and will keep doing it as long as that remains available - who knows what might happen there?).  I am helping to transcribe hand-written, cursive letters regarding Revolutionary War Veterans.

The thing about the Revolutionary War is that people, ordinary citizens, took up the cause to fight against the British.  They did it because it was right.  But it was understood they would get pensions and land grants for their service.

The war ended, and the new government sought to make good on this, and set up a program to give back to these soldiers.  Except that being newly formed, it was complicated to figure out just how to do that.  And once they started taking applications there was a fire that destroyed most of the documents.

So the soldiers had to wait longer still.  Then, in 1818 - 35 years after the end of the war - they officially started taking information again, but it was based on testimony of the soldiers who were still alive and their families.  Some were paid out, and some had to wait longer still.

The records I'm going through are from shortly before the civil war - in the late 1850s, another 40 years later - so now these pensions that were worth far less since it was almost 75 years later were going to children and grandchildren.

History repeats itself insomuch as the soldiers we have defending us are not really given their due.  The VA setup we have now is inadequate, and in some ways not so different than it was after the Revolutionary War; soldiers suffered injuries that weren't treated properly and they weren't compensated for their injuries.

And yes, I am painting with a fairly broad brush. I just found it interesting that we put so much emphasis on our military, but the actual people in these jobs are mere commodities that are cast aside once their service is done.