2024-10-04 IAVA Cavalry Update
Blog
Support Cameron Zbikowski's Efforts
We can’t do this alone, we need your support to ensure that VA provides service to veterans who gave everything for this country.
Our Team
Cameron Zbikowski
Branch: United States Navy
Years Served: 2005-2013 (8 years)
Rank: Petty Officer Second Class (E-5)
Military Occupation: Personnel Specialist
Twitter Handle: TBD
Tell us a little about you outside of the military:
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- Veteran advocate, currently pursuing a Master of Information Technology, majoring in Business Process Management.
Why are you joining the IAVA Cavalry?
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- Being a part of the IAVA Cavalry will provide me with the training I need to take my advocacy to the next level, further enhancing my ability to advocate for positive legislative change for veterans.
How did your military experience shape you to be the person you are today?
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- The people I served with and the experiences I had both positive and negative, played an integral part in shaping me into the person I am today. My passion for service-improving processes continues to drive me toward advocacy and ensuring that fewer veterans face the same struggles in the future as those who have gone before them.
Which one of IAVA’s policy priorities do you believe is the most pressing? Why?
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- We need to have the backs of our Afghan allies. I was serving as President of the Student Veterans Organization for my University when America withdrew from Afghanistan. We had several veterans on my campus who had worked alongside Afghan interpreters and allies during their time in the theater. It was evident to me at the time, as it still is now, that America MUST uphold its promises to our allies and partners. The dismay felt by my colleagues during our transition out of Afghanistan and the worry they felt for the Afghans and their families was real, and I felt their pain. It is not the American way to ask for help, and then to turn our back on those that support us during their deepest hour of need. We must do more to ensure that we uphold our promises to partners and allies to ensure that our word means something, that we continue building on our global partnerships, and that we do our best to have their six.
- We need to have the backs of our Afghan allies. I was serving as President of the Student Veterans Organization for my University when America withdrew from Afghanistan. We had several veterans on my campus who had worked alongside Afghan interpreters and allies during their time in the theater. It was evident to me at the time, as it still is now, that America MUST uphold its promises to our allies and partners. The dismay felt by my colleagues during our transition out of Afghanistan and the worry they felt for the Afghans and their families was real, and I felt their pain. It is not the American way to ask for help, and then to turn our back on those that support us during their deepest hour of need. We must do more to ensure that we uphold our promises to partners and allies to ensure that our word means something, that we continue building on our global partnerships, and that we do our best to have their six.
Which one of IAVA’s policy priorities do you have the strongest personal connection to? Why?
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- We’re ready to see more from America’s democracy: I can say from personal experience, having run for public office previously, that the state of American politics is concerning. The divisiveness that has been simmering, has fermented, and made the current version of democracy within America unpalatable for many Americans. Democracy involves compromise, and meeting in the middle, something that is sorely missing from American politics currently. It involves working across the aisle to ensure the common good and to expand our democratic institutions, not dismantle them. We must do better and should expect better as a Nation.
