Reader views on COVID-19, aviation and Veterans Affairs
In challenging times, aviation provides vital service and needs vital help
A column in Paste BN mischaracterized a charter company, and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on many companies like it ("Trump didn't drain the swamp. Now Biden may drown him in it," May 21, USATODAY.com).
Customers rely on these aircraft to boost employee efficiency and productivity. But, with travel at a standstill, flights have fallen to a trickle. Air-taxi providers therefore requested aid for the same reason countless other small businesses did: to keep employees on the job.
So it is with Clay Lacy Aviation. Founded more than 50 years ago by distinguished military pilot Clay Lacy, this family-owned business is a cornerstone of the local community and provides jobs for more than 500 line workers, technicians, customer-service representatives, facility managers and other professionals, in the local area and beyond. This organization also supports aviation scholarships for countless students.
Clay Lacy Aviation — and the community-based companies like it, spread across all 50 states — are a critical part of business aviation, which supports more than one million jobs and $247 billion in economic activity. As our country grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, airplanes are flying medicines, specimens and testing supplies to patients in need and other critical missions.
The failure of any of these businesses will deal a serious blow to the ability of American companies and communities to connect with one another, to foster business success and to provide critically needed transport in times of crisis.
Tim Obitts; Arlington, Va.
President and CEO, National Air Transportation Association
Ed Bolen; Bethesda, Md.
President and CEO, National Business Aviation Association
VA hears its employees 'loud and clear'
It was unfortunate to see Paste BN's June 3 column sweep aside the teamwork the Department of Veterans Affairs displayed while protecting thousands of Veterans and hundreds of non-Veterans from the Coronavirus in some of the hardest hit states ("Coronavirus: As America reopens, Veterans Affairs must not make the same mistakes twice," USATODAY.com).
The authors’ chief complaint seems to be that VA leadership isn’t listening to its employees. But we heard them loud and clear.
We heard a VA nurse practitioner in Wisconsin, who worried about carrying the virus back to his family but went to work anyway because, “we rise up to the occasion. We fulfill our duty.”
We heard an elevator operator at our Brooklyn VA hospital, who insisted on coming to work each day because the elevators “have to be working to ensure people feel safe.”
And we heard a woman who volunteered to work 12-hour days at the hard-hit Detroit VA hospital because, “I didn’t become a nurse to sit around and do paperwork. I became a nurse to answer a call when people needed me.”
That’s the sort of dedication to serving Veterans who pulled us through the pandemic, and every VA leader I work with is in awe of.
Perhaps union bosses are upset at VA leaders because we’ve worked to reduce the amount of time employees can spend on union business instead of caring for Veterans.
But returning to our core mission doesn’t make VA leadership an enemy of its staff. It’s part of our effort to turn the page from the scandals that erupted at VA in 2014, and to make sure that Mission No. 1 at this department is serving Veterans who served this nation.
Contrary to the column that Paste BN ran, the pandemic showed the incredible strides we’ve made. The pandemic tested America’s health care infrastructure like few events have in anyone’s living memory, and VA passed that test because we worked together.
Union bosses should be praising this teamwork rather than trying to sow division.
Robert Wilkie; Washington, D.C.
Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs