I am a veteran of the Cold War, in which I was a mechanic on a missile launch crew on Okinawa, and then in Montana as support staff in shops which serviced a large Minuteman Missile complex.

I feel like I, and three generations of other veterans, have been thrown under the bus by Donald Trump’s capitulation to Vladimir Putin, which has undone 45 years of the Cold War and erased 80 years of a peacemaking alliance.

The “Friday Night Massacre” at the Pentagon is another Trump disaster, likely to be followed by a purge of general staff who are unwilling to break their oath of allegiance to the Constitution.

They will be replaced by mid-level officers who have risen to their level of incompetence, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, officers who are running scared and command by yelling and screaming. Most veterans know the type.

Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs is being gutted, even as its facilities are understaffed. 

Trump’s disdain for veterans is well-known, calling us suckers and losers. He called the late Sen. John McCain a “loser” because his Navy fighter plane was shot down over North Vietnam. While visiting Arlington National Cemetery with Gen. John Kelly, his chief of staff, he asked “what was in it” for the general’s son, who was killed in action in Afghanistan.

Sorry, Trump. I’m neither a sucker nor a loser. Nor are millions of other veterans.

FREDERICK WHITE

Astoria