Letter from Chip Northrup

We Did Not Vote for Nonsense

My high school class sent more graduating seniors to Vietnam than it did to the Ivy League. Louis Grisaffi came home from Vietnam in one piece. His brother Billy didn’t. Jay Neathery served in the Marines, came back, and promptly disappeared into a bottle and an early grave. David Maxfield and Dick Clampitt served and survived, but Clampitt, who had been an officer in the ROTC with me, became a recluse. Like most Vietnam veterans, they are retired now, some dependent on Social Security and Veterans Affairs benefits. Some do social work, like Grisaffi, who returns to Vietnam regularly to support a school. They are all beneficiaries of the PACT Act, which expanded benefits and services to Vietnam veterans as well as to burn-pit victims. DOGE just cut 83,000 jobs at the VA, including all the hires for the PACT Act, which directly impacts my classmates who risked their lives for Uncle Sam.