NC's top veterans affairs leader stepping down after criticism from GOP lawmakers
The embattled head of the North Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs is stepping down following recent criticism by Republican state lawmakers over his department’s closure of a Fayetteville retirement home for veterans.
Walter Gaskin, a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general who has led the department under Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's administration since 2021, will step down April 1. Former state lawmaker Grier Martin will replace him, Cooper announced Thursday.
Gaskin had a lengthy and decorated military career before going into public service, serving as the commanding general of Camp Lejeune in the early 2000s and later rising to become acting commander of the international NATO Military Committee.
But in recent months a fight within state government over the State Veterans Home — which housed 85 people before closing in February — led to Republican state lawmakers holding several oversight hearings in which they grilled department leaders who served under Gaskin. They also questioned why Gaskin himself wasn't coming to answer their questions in person.
The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs declined an interview request with Gaskin Thursday.
"I have been privileged to serve our country at the highest levels in national and international military affairs and to serve as the third secretary of the North Carolina Department of Military and Veteran Affairs,” Gaskin said in a written statement. "I appreciate the opportunity to serve this great state, our veterans, their families, our military bases and installations and the Department."
Martin, the incoming secretary, is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who deployed to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Wake County Democrat served in the state legislature from 2004 until 2022, when he resigned to take a job at the Pentagon. He’s the son of D.G. Martin, a former UNC System vice president and longtime newspaper columnist who came in second place to John Edwards in the 1998 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. Edwards ultimately won the seat in the general election that year.
"I am honored to serve the people of North Carolina as the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Secretary and look forward to building on the strong work done by Secretary Gaskin and his team," Martin said in a statement. "I am grateful and excited for this opportunity to support North Carolina's veterans and military families."
