Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defying White House orders, an Army officer serving with President Donald Trump’s National Security Council testified to impeachment investigators Tuesday that he twice raised concerns over the administration’s push to have Ukraine investigate Democrats and Joe Biden. Alexander Vindman, a lieutenant colonel who served in Iraq and later as a diplomat, is the first official to testify who actually heard Trump’s July 25 call with new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He reported his concerns to the NSC’s lead counsel, he said in his prepared remarks. His arrival in military blue, with medals , created a striking image...

It's impossible to know how you'll react to being shot at until it happens. And when it does happen there is little time for sober reflection on what to do next. There are only the nearly unconscious choices you make from among the conditioned responses instilled in you through training. Where is the threat? Where is my nearest cover? How clear is my shot? But training, no matter how realistic, never quite prepares you for that dreadful moment, that sudden flash in time, when you realize someone is doing his very best to kill...you. I have been blessed in that...

When John Jester addresses military and civilian law enforcement agencies throughout the country, he offers two key pieces of advice: first, don't think it can't happen on your watch, and second, think about the unexpected. And Jester is just the man to deliver such advice. He was chief of what was then the Defense Protective Service on Sept. 11, 2001, when a hijacked airliner crashed into the Pentagon. It was a day and an event that forever transformed the way he thinks about security. It also was a day and an event that helped him transform the present- day security...