I’ve told you before about my friend Maj. Jim Miller, a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot, and some of his experiences keeping America’s aircraft fueled and fighting. Miller is a great man, passionate about his family and the cause of freedom. Recently, he shocked me, saying, “I’m leaving the Air Force.”
This was a surprise, coming from an Air Force Academy graduate who could probably sing the entire Air Force song. Like all service members, Miller sacrificed much throughout his career. He missed a lot while away on several deployments, but he loves America and has always been proud to be an Air Force officer.
“I served because I remember Sept. 11, and I always wanted to make sure something like that never happened again,” he said.
But now, Miller’s reached his limit. Like all of us, he longed for the U.S. military to leave Afghanistan with hope for peace. However, he said, “The real heartbreak, and the real betrayal, was in the execution.” He lamented the way President Joe Biden and senior military officials allowed the Taliban to control our military movement.
“A global superpower does not start to quit,” he said. “The [Biden] administration created an emergency that never needed to be an emergency.”
Miller talked of his pain from “watching my entire generation’s sacrifice basically thrown aside because an administration didn’t want to push back after it said it would be out by a political date.”
But the problem is deeper than Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan and the Americans who served there. As soon as Biden took over, he initiated a mask mandate. Miller could be punished if his 2-year-old played in the backyard without a mask. In May of 2021, he was required to obtain squadron commander permission just to be allowed a visit from his parents.
“We were told this was for our safety,” Miller said. “They need to restrict who can be on base and who visitors can interact with for their safety and the safety of the mission.”
August brought Biden’s disastrous attempt to save Americans and Afghan allies from a deadly Taliban rampage.
“Biden boasts about evacuating so many people, but we have no idea who we evacuated,” Miller said. “We turned something that we were in control of to something we no longer controlled.”
Less than three months after being subjected to Biden’s ridiculously strict control of nearly every aspect of his life, over 10,000 Afghan refugees were given free range of Miller’s base. He and I both support our Afghan allies, but like many others, including my Afghan friends who served alongside Americans in Afghanistan and remain in hiding from the Taliban, we condemn the random nature of the Afghan evacuation.
“For 20 years, airmen were told anyone can be a terrorist, and that’s why we need gates and guards around our bases,” Miller said. But if anyone questions the policy of allowing thousands of randomly selected Afghans free run of the base, “they will be labeled xenophobes and will be punished. If you speak up, contrary to what the [Biden] administration says, now you’re under investigation as an extremist.”
Miller pointed out how, during Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan, a U.S. drone strike murdered 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children, under the pretense of stopping another bomb like the one that killed 12 Marines and a Navy corpsman. “I watched that happen, and I said, ‘I’m done. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.’”
Unfair restrictions and mandates, the disastrous way Biden destroyed our Afghanistan mission, and other issues are forcing Miller, a great Air Force pilot, out of the service, and he is not alone. Of course, there are still thousands of great people in the military. I hope something changes to prevent the loss of more good service members.
If it doesn’t, Americans will be in big trouble if we ever face a war we’re actually determined to win.
*Some names and call signs in this story may have been changed due to operational security or privacy concerns.
Trent Reedy served as a combat engineer in the Iowa National Guard from 1999 to 2005, including a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
