Florida Marine Veterinarians among Federal Government Employees have been wiped out

Doug Jackson loved working for the federal government.

The US Marine Corps veteran who worked in the Iraq War stretched at NASA and got a job in January at the Internal Revenue Service Orlando office. The federal government, which encouraged veterans to apply, provided stable, familiar workplaces and four years of military service counted for retirement benefits.

There’s no more. Jackson, 40, of Orlando, discovered this week that one of an estimated 30,000 federal employees suddenly lost his job amid a massive firing of federal agencies.

“It pulled the carpet from under a lot of people,” Jackson said.

Jackson, a now married homeowner, is unexpectedly worried about his finances and wonders why his work history included his lobbying duties as a veteran advocate for laws to benefit military retirees.

“This is a slap in the face when I served in government or worked for the public good,” he said.

Billionaire Elon Musk and the ad hoc group Doge have been targeting new trials like Jackson since President Donald Trump took office last month.

When Jackson learned that he had been fired by email from the employment of a recent fellow veteran of the Disabled Army, he still worked for the IRS, but he thought that his survival could have been just a supervisor. He was right.

“Hey, who is Doug Jackson?” he said his supervisor was asked by her boss. “I was just new. I wasn’t on the roster like the one they used to edit all probation recruitment.”

The letter he received this week, he said his work at the agency “is no longer in the public interest.”

“It’s completely impersonal,” Jackson said. “It’s not based on merits, someone’s credentials, or even performance reports. It’s just, “Oh, you’re on probation, or you’re a new hire. Well, you’re gone.”

The layoffs would weaken federal agencies, Jackson said. “It certainly only makes their recruitment efforts more difficult, their retention efforts more difficult, and creates instability overall,” he said. “I think this is all based on design.”

The Trump administration has terminated employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Park Service and the Weather Service among many others, claiming it was trying to end waste and fraud. Additionally, another 75,000 federal employees took what they called “acquisitions,” but their legal status remains unknown.

The court’s injunction on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order in the office, management and budget, finding that dismissal of probation employees was illegal, but the lawsuit would not affect Jackson and IRS employees, he said.

It seems the massive layoffs have just begun. OMB Director Russell Vert told the agency by March 13 to prepare for additional “massive cuts.”

However, the American people do not share these views. According to a YouGov poll released this week, Musk has cut “useful programs” and only 38% have approved the work he was doing. Doge is also the most hated federal office in the survey, with 37% of Americans saying they want to reduce or eliminate groups from 34% last week.

“They’re playing on fire right now,” said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “I don’t think most Americans who voted for Trump were expecting a massive, indiscriminate cut in people’s work as part of the bargain for his vote.”

Such mass shootings seem “really rude” and can also hurt the economy.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped to 242,000 last week, a three-month high.

“That’s all potential issues for the president,” Jewett added.

Florida ranks fifth out of 50 states in the largest number of private federal employees with more than 94,000 as of March 2024, according to Congressional Research Services. Of these employees, 26,000 live in and around Orlando.

The districts with the highest number of these employees are primarily represented by Congressional Republicans. This includes more than 12,000 districts 7 and 11 held by Republican representatives Corey Mills and Dan Webster.

Veterans make up almost 30% of all civilian federal employees. Mills, who served in the 82nd Army Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan, did not reply to requests for comment on the layoffs that remained in his office.

Jackson said the termination has created “disproportionate” effects among his fellow former service members.

Jackson, who is originally from Alabama, said many of the country seem to know how federal government operations will affect their lives.

“I’ve spoken with friends and family who don’t fully understand the work I’ve been doing in the past few years,” he said. “They look from the outside and just agree. “Okay, yes, the budget is getting bloated. The government is getting too big. We need to make a bold move.”

He said that continuing to destroy federal workers will only make up about 4% of the total, so there will be a “negligible, almost immeasurable effect” on the overall budget.

After leaving the military, Jackson earned his master’s degree from Rollins University. Jackson worked at NASA Communications as part of the Pathways program, which allowed the government to recruit talent among those still pursuing degrees.

After he graduated, his permanent position was unavailable, so he worked as a government contractor for two years before beginning the months of being hired in the IRS.

He was assigned to the downtown Orlando office, but his internal communications team worked mostly remotely. His team duties included writing speech writing for executives and writing guidance to employees.

“The IRS is already struggling with the goodwill of the people,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine their abilities being unaffected when it’s broken.”

Now he is eager to find a new job soon. “I’m not really looking at the federal government,” Jackson said. “That’s what I like, but I’m looking to the private sector.”

He also plans to write about his experiences and share the work publicly, hoping to educate others.

“I’m trying to think of ways I can contribute in small ways to explain to people who don’t understand that there are concrete consequences for what’s going on,” he said. “Despite the enthusiasm of people to see a more efficient federal government, this is not a way to do it, and it hurts people.”