Current and former fighter pilots are telling the New York Times that they are not happy with the way that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has handled the aftermath of revelations that he inadvertently leaked classified war plans to the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic earlier this month.
Specifically, these current and former pilots tell the Times that they were particularly unnerved by Hegseth's defiant insistence that he did nothing wrong despite sending the exact times of planned airstrikes to a chatroom in which a journalist was present.
The lack of contrition, these pilots said, made them worry that the administration is not looking out for the safety of military personnel.
“The whole point about aviation safety is that you have to have the humility to understand that you are imperfect, because everybody screws up," said Lt. John Gadzinski, a former Navy pilot. "Everybody makes mistakes... but ultimately, if you can’t admit when you’re wrong, you’re going to kill somebody because your ego is too big.”
ALSO READ: 'Tide’s turning' for Dems as Florida special election reveals 'buyer’s remorse': report
Maj. Anthony Bourke, a former Air Force fighter pilot, expressed a similar sentiment and told the Times that "when you disclose operational security, people can get killed."
One Navy F/A-18 pilot who wished to remain anonymous, told the Times that, aside from sharing war plans on Signal, Hegseth probably shouldn't have been sharing war plans with anyone who was not crucial to executing the mission at hand.
"We intentionally don’t share plans with people who don’t need to know,” the pilot said. “You don’t share what time we’re supposed to show up over a target. You don’t want to telegraph that we’re about to show up on someone’s doorstep; that’s putting your crew at risk.”
