Introduction and Why I’m Writing.
I swore a solemn oath, twenty-four years ago, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Unlike the current President, I have never been confused about that oath, nor felt that I had the need to refer the question of its meaning, or whether I am obligated to keep that oath, to an attorney for interpretation. I remember the words as clearly now as when I commissioned as a 2nd Lt in the USAF.
My time in uniform is over. As careers go, it was probably not exceptional. I did some exceptional things, the most noteworthy being the thing that defined me and my career, which was flying fighter jets and later, for the bulk of my career, training our next generation of combat pilots. I left as a LtCol, with all developmental education commensurate with grade complete, to include Air War College, in addition to numerous other schools. I had a combat deployment, a brief tour instructing with the Army, and a deployment to HQ USCENTCOM. Perhaps I could have, and should have, done more, but it is what it is.
I made the decision to leave uniformed service after the 2024 Presidential election, and specifically the day the cabinet picks were announced, notably Tulsi Gabbard for DNI, and Pete Hegseth as SECDEF. The former being a conspiracy-addled windsock who has carried far too much rhetorical water for the enemies of our nation and of freedom itself, and the latter nothing more than a well-coifed yet grossly unqualified sycophant and ideologue. To frame it as a comparison, I am entirely unqualified to be SECDEF, and yet I am more qualified than Mr. Hegseth. And in that role, I would be a pale shadow of, for example, Gen. James Mattis, a man of tremendous competence, intellect, and character. That, by extension, makes Mr. Hegseth a shadow of a shadow, albeit one with far superior stage management and a much larger and better illuminated dressing room mirror. As if there were any doubts how this would start going after the election, and after Jan. 6, 2021, the cabinet picks definitively swept those away.
It’s difficult to convey how much more significant this decision was than when a civilian simply leaves a job because he or she doesn’t like the new boss. I’ve served during Democratic and Republican Administrations. Whether I agreed or disagreed with any of them did not shake my faith that they were all dedicated to our Constitution. All of our oaths held, though we might differ on ideas as to the means of creating a more perfect Union, and engaging in global leadership. The overall tenor of service did not change. We were all, in effect, adherents of the same faith, even if our denominations might differ on some ecclesiastical matters. The first Trump administration damaged that faith, as it damaged many things, but the presence of principled and competent people — Gen. Mattis, Gen. Milley, Gen. Esper, John Bolton — provided the steady hand of reassurance. No longer.
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One might be inclined to say that now that I am no longer a uniformed officer, that my oath doesn’t really bind anymore. I’m a civilian, free to do as I choose. To an extent, that is correct, but I said the Words, and they still mean something. However, in this perilous moment, I don’t know how to uphold the Words…all I can think of is to write, in the hope that maybe I’ll reach someone, or spark dialogue or thought. It means that, sadly, I have to write a lot about our current President and the actions of his Administration, because the Words I swore demand I do something.
Writing about Mr. Trump, even speaking about him, is something I’ve studiously avoided. (Partially because, while in uniform, there are issues with doing so.) For the longest time, it seemed almost undignified to devote time, thought, and page space to a crass flim-flam artist, a carnival barker, a serial failure who had incomprehensibly failed upward time and again to find himself at the crest of a wave of anger and idiocy that deposited him in the White House. But we all need to take him seriously now. We are six months into a four-year term, and the rule of law is under vicious assault.
There were two events in my adult life that were psychically seismic and clarified my oath of office in the starkest of terms. The first was the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. I was a young 2Lt, awaiting my pilot training date. The next day I was on the phone with a contact at AFPC asking how quickly I could get that date moved up. The second was the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. I watched in horror as the signal greatness of American democracy — the peaceful Constitutional transfer of power — devolved into the kind of third-world violent power grab that I had long derided in other countries.
Those events were the proverbial bookends of a career in service to this nation. The first, Sept. 11, was tragic and heartbreaking, but also filled me with purpose and hope. I could do something…and I would do something. My nation called and I would answer. The second, Jan 6th, was equally tragic and heartbreaking, and I felt nothing but fear. I watched, aghast and helpless. But it seemed in the end that the battered institutions held, and a bloodied American democracy would return to stability.
Yet here I am, in 2025, aghast and helpless, with no ideas other than to witness and write. I will endeavor to witness and write analytically and rationally, avoiding the often-baseless extremes that dominate our zeitgeist. However, these writings will be a critique that also come from personal principles and a belief in oaths sworn, and those are more matters of the heart than academic abstractions.
