While fellow soldiers and I brought the fight to America’s enemies in eastern Afghanistan, our missions relied on one constant: operational security. We flew hundreds of combat missions across thousands of square kilometers. Every one of these missions depended on classified information remain ing protected —not just by our soldiers, but by our commanders, our generals, and our most senior civilian leaders. This trust was mandatory. Without it, the probability of us getting shot down exponentially increased. That’s why the now-infamous Signal chat that included a large proportion of President Trump’s cabinet is so indisputably unacceptable. The mission information shared included target timing, weapons systems, and operational objectives. And do not be confused by the spin. This information was highly classified and its careless distribution on a texting app could have cost American lives. They got lucky. While deployed to Afghanistan, one of my soldiers —an incredibly capable helicopter maintainer— inadvertently plugged a flash drive into a computer that was connected to NIPR, the military’s unclassified network. The drive only contained routine maintenance files. It contained no mission information whatsoever. But inserting this flash drive into a networked computer is a cardinal sin in the Army. Per Army disciplinary policy, with President Donald Trump at the helm, that soldier was pulled from our deployment and sent back to the U.S. It was a well-intentioned technical error and he was nonetheless “fired” from combat. Now compare that to Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz —our most senior national security officials entrusted with the highest levels of access— texting real-time military plans in a Signal chat like it’s fantasy football. What they did wasn’t just more serious. It was orders of magnitude worse. But we all know what will happen next. Nothing. Because in Trump’s orbit, “supporting the troops” is about optics —not obligation. If they truly respected the military, they wouldn’t propose cutting 80,000 workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs. This translates to a cut of 17% of the VA workforce and will, without a shadow of a doubt, adversely impact veteran healthcare. They also wouldn’t purge highly qualified veterans from the federal workforce just because they failed some arbitrary loyalty test or a 20-year old DOGE staffer couldn’t comprehend the complexities of their role. When I commanded nearly 100 soldiers in combat, we all mutually enforced standards —because our lives depended on it. Leadership must go both ways. We follow orders, we keep secret information secret, and we risk our lives. The very least we should expect in return is that senior officials treat operational security with the seriousness they demand of their subordinates. Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz endangered lives. They won’t face consequences. But they’ve made one thing painfully clear: when it comes to protecting troops, they simply do not care. Brandon Moore of Stamford is a former Apache helicopter pilot, combat veteran of the War on Terror, and Bronze Star recipient. ...read more read less