Kara Bond, who has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer in North Texas, was devastated to receive an email on Valentine’s Day notifying her of her termination from the U.S. Forest Service, just weeks before the end of her probationary period, amid mass firings by the Trump administration aimed at reducing federal government size.  

Then on Valentine’s Day, she said she got an email that changed her life again. 

“It was my dream job,” Bond said.

Bond was an archeologist and supervisor in Montana. It’s a job she describes as her calling.

“Just being able to protect the land and work with the tribes, work with all the different artifacts and different states and the land they manage,”  said Bond.

While she had worked there for nearly two years, she went full-time last year and was about to become a permanent employee. 

“I had three weeks left until I was done with that probationary period,” Bond said. “This was a firing for political reasons and to copy and paste this termination letter and email it out to thousands of employees, there’s a code of federal regulations against that.”

She is among the thousands of federal employees who lost their jobs as part of the mass firings by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump has said the federal government needs to slash spending. In an executive order last week, he said, “It is the policy of my Administration to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government while increasing its accountability to the American people.” 

Haley Densler, an employee at the EPA in Dallas, was also fired on Valentine’s Day. 

“My immediate reaction was just kind of a state of shock,” said Densler. “I immediately called my supervisor, and she expressed that she had no clue why it was happening. She did not agree with it.”

Densler though believes it was all a mistake. 

“Ironically, my probationary period had concluded five days prior on February 9,” Densler said. “Officially, I had received an updated HR file as well stating that I was eligible for continued employment.” 

She’s hoping to be reinstated.

For now, Bond is considering her legal options and what to do about her health insurance. 

“I’ll lose my healthcare in 31 days within my date of hire,” said Bond. “So that’s an additional stressor I could have not used right now.” 

Both women showed CBS News Texas they received good performance reviews recently. Unions have filed various lawsuits against the Trump administration. A judge has allowed the firings to move forward. 

Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming 

Jack Fink

Jack Fink covers politics for KTVT-TV CBS 11 and has been with the station since September 2003.