I am writing to share some of my experiences working with members of our nation’s Federal Civil Service during over twenty years of active duty in the U.S. Army. Every assignment at every installation where I served involved working with members of the Federal Civil Service.

If we have been following the national news recently, some prominent voices in the news would have us believe our Federal Civil Service is full of persons enjoying paid vacations at home, rather than doing the remote work they were supposed to be doing. Some would have us believe the Federal Civil Service is full of persons engaged in unspecified fraudulent activity or engaged in duplicative or otherwise unnecessary tasks. Some would have us believe that cutting tens of thousands of members of our Federal Civil Service with little to no prior planning would have little to no adverse impact on our nation.

These prominent voices often refer to members of our Federal Civil Service as “bureaucrats,” using the term as a slur, as though they had no value.

These prominent voices have apparently never worked closely with Federal Civil Service workers like those with whom I served. My colleagues in the Federal Civil Service were proud of their service to the nation. They were patriotic and hard-working Americans. They were professional in their work and in their commitment to the Army team. They were an important source of continuity in a team whose uniformed members were constantly cycling in and out on two or three year assignment rotations.

They were patient teachers to newly-arrived members of the team and valuable liaisons to long-term colleagues in other organizations on the installation.

These Federal Civil Service colleagues were often military veterans themselves or members of our reserve components like the Army National Guard or Air Force Reserve. They believed in our nation and in public service to her and to her people. They were women and men; parents and heads of households; military spouses; young singles; problem solvers at work; active in their communities; and concerned for each other, as well as their communities.

I knew these members of our Federal Civil Service best because I worked with them. Sometimes they were my supervisors. Sometimes they were my peers. Often they were my clients or colleagues, working in other directorates or commands on the installation. And sometimes, especially later in my career, they were subordinates in my organization.

They shared my pride in serving a cause much larger than themselves, service to our nation.

I also regularly encountered other members of our Federal Civil Service during my Army career. I worked with members of the National Forest Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Defense Security Police, and the Internal Revenue Service. I also worked with attorneys and staff from Offices of the United States Attorney in three different federal judicial districts.

Each of these encounters left me with an appreciation for their professionalism; their commitment to problem-solving; and their pride in service.

Some prominent voices in the news these days would have us believe our Federal Civil Service workers are undermining our nation, rather than serving it. Some would have us believe these Americans, who committed themselves to public service, are somehow our enemies and unworthy of our respect, support, or understanding. Some seem to find satisfaction in attempting to summarily dismiss them from their public service careers as poor performers, when their performance evaluations evidence the opposite; locking them out of their workplaces and communications systems; inviting them to clear their offices in fifteen minutes; and otherwise treating them as unworthy of trust, dignity, or common decency.

If we, as a nation, wish to restructure our federal workforce, we are capable of accomplishing that with careful planning and assessment of the far-reaching effects of such a major endeavor. We can do this without resorting to poorly planned, mass dismissals with little attention to the follow-on effects; dismissals that treat the members of our federal workforce as though they were enemies of the state.

We, as a nation committed to freedom, justice, and opportunity, are better than the courses some prominent voices are advocating and following. We are better than this.

— Bill Palmer served in the U.S. Army and is a resident of Marshall