Military Objective

I’ll never forget the shudder in my bones as I stepped into the elevator the first time, descending into the most dangerous and heavily guarded top secret Air Force facility on Earth. This was in 1991, when I was an Airman at age 18.

The “capsule” that housed our Nuclear Launch Facility is buried 70 feet below ground in a farmer’s field in North Dakota, hidden from Russian spy satellites and able to withstand a direct hit from a warhead equivalent to 44 tons of TNT. This place where our nukes were pointed at the Kremlin is where all humanity ends. I happened to be one of the cogs in the wheel of the end of the world, part of a team that supported the last line of defense at the very end of the Cold War.

Before I left Minot Air Force Base in 1995, I can’t forget that my commanding officer (a true patriot) said to keep an eye on ex-KGB chief Vladimir Putin’s rising star, because it’ll never be over for some and the Soviet Union collapsing will have an effect on us years later. My God, how he was right.

Can you imagine what it’s like for me to see our president, cozying up to Putin? In a few short days, Trump will meet the most dangerous human alive to our democracy, after all our intelligence agencies have advised of Russian meddling in our election. Being a Puerto Rican American who grew up in New York City during an era when Trump was investigated for rental discrimination by the FBI, now seeing Neo Nazis chant “Russia is our friend” in Charlottesville makes sense.

Through 20 years of military service, I can see our country is in serious danger. Trump’s not a patriot and neither are you if you support him.