While much of the liberal media has fixated on President Donald Trump’s 250th anniversary military parade in Washington, D.C. — portraying it as little more than a vanity project or campaign spectacle — they’ve missed the larger truth.
This event wasn’t for Trump. It was for honoring the enduring legacy of the United States Armed Forces. What the media continues to overlook is President Trump’s deep, consistent commitment to America’s veterans — and how that commitment is driving meaningful policy change.
On May 9, Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the National Center for Warrior Independence, a federal initiative to be located on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles. The order sets a clear and ambitious goal: to house 6,000 homeless veterans by 2028.
But it goes further than that. The order also implements reforms to reduce wait times at VA hospitals, expands access to telehealth services, and reintroduces accountability within the Department of Veterans Affairs by permitting the removal of employees guilty of misconduct.
This Executive Order represents the most comprehensive federal approach to veteran homelessness in more than a decade. It directly confronts one of the most persistent and overlooked failures of the American government: its repeated inability to properly care for those who have served.
That failure spans generations. One of the most tragic examples of institutional neglect dates back to the final months of World War II.
In July 1945, U.S. Navy Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Doyle W. Waggoner died at the Narumi POW Camp — officially known as Nagoya No. 2-B — after enduring months of extreme brutality. Captured earlier in the war, Waggoner was imprisoned alongside hundreds of Allied soldiers — American, British, Dutch, and Canadian — forced into slave labor at a munitions plant owned by Nippon Sharyo, a company that supplied Japan’s military.
These men were compelled to manufacture suicide torpedo boats under inhumane conditions. There was no medical care, starvation was routine, and physical beatings were inflicted for minor infractions, including speaking without permission.
Collective punishment was regularly imposed. Prisoners endured freezing winters in inadequate clothing and oppressive summers without relief. Waggoner, after an attempted escape, was recaptured, brutally beaten, and left to die slowly from his injuries.
Cpl. Manuel Avila Cruz, a U.S. Army soldier who had survived the Bataan Death March, witnessed Waggoner’s final days. Transferred to Narumi in 1944, Cruz later submitted a sworn affidavit documenting the conditions. He described the forced labor, frequent physical assaults by Japanese officers, and the specific cruelty inflicted on Waggoner.
Despite credible documentation and eyewitness testimony, most of the perpetrators were never brought to justice. Some were never identified by full name. Others disappeared into postwar Japanese society as U.S. foreign policy prioritized geopolitical strategy over accountability.
Like many atrocities involving American POWs in the Pacific, the events at Narumi were quietly forgotten.
Today, organizations such as Pacific Atrocities Education are working to reverse that historical erasure. Through digitization of archives, publication of survivor testimony, and the production of educational material, the group aims to preserve these accounts and ensure that the mistreatment of American servicemembers is neither ignored nor repeated.
Their work serves as a warning: when veterans are forgotten, the consequences are both moral and strategic.
Waggoner’s death is not simply a story of wartime brutality. It reflects a broader failure: the systemic neglect of those who served. Whether on foreign soil or at home, the United States has often treated its veterans as expendable. Promises of care and honor have too often given way to indifference.
This is what makes Trump’s Executive Order especially significant. The West Los Angeles VA campus was originally given to the federal government in 1888 with the express condition that it be used to serve America’s veterans. Over time, that mission was abandoned.
Large portions of the land were leased to private companies, a prep school, and even a university baseball team — while thousands of homeless veterans camped outside, unable to access the very land intended for their care.
The Executive Order halts this misuse. It returns the land to its original purpose and outlines a comprehensive plan to support veterans beyond housing. The National Center for Warrior Independence will offer mental health services, addiction treatment, and workforce rehabilitation programs designed to help veterans transition successfully into civilian life.
It is not a symbolic gesture—it is structural change.
The United States has long depended on its servicemembers to uphold liberty, protect democracy, and defend national sovereignty. But too often, the nation has failed to return that loyalty. Veterans returning home are met with long waitlists, limited resources, and bureaucratic obstacles.
Some, like Waggoner, never made it home at all. Others arrived back in the country only to be forgotten.
President Trump’s Executive Order does not erase the past — it acknowledges it. Trump’s order represents a long-overdue effort to correct historic wrongs and fulfill the nation’s obligations to those who served.
It affirms, through direct action, that veterans are not a political afterthought. They are not to be cast aside once their service ends.
They are the foundation of the country’s security and values — and they finally have a commander-in-chief who recognizes that obligation.
Gregory Lyakhov is a young advocate for Israel. His work has been published in the New York Post, The Jerusalem Post, and several other Jewish media outlets. He's also appeared on "Fox & Friends" to discuss key issues. Read More of Gregory Lyakhov's Reports — Here.
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