American Carnage: An Officer’s Duty to Warn

by Steve Nolan

Had I been faced with any service member who stated that sexual assault was due to putting men and women together, who refused to believe that their Commander in Chief was a U.S. citizen, who thought he knew more than the generals, who believed and claimed that enemy leadership was stronger than American leadership, that we should murder family members of terrorists, that the Geneva Conventions tie the hands of our military, that proven U.S. intelligence is a hoax, that Neo-Nazis are fine people, or that a free press is the enemy of the people, I would be obligated to discharge that person from the military.

Steve Nolan, Major, USAF, Ret., served six Commanders in Chief (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama). Initially a line officer in the Air Force assigned to Electronic Security Command, Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska, he left the Air Force to earn his Master's degree in clinical social work from Barry University in Miami, Florida. He graduated from Barry in 1992 with an MSW. He joined the Army Medical Service Corps and was assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado Springs, Colorado. After two years of clinical supervision he earned the first of two licenses (LCSWs). It was here that he had his first experiences of discharging from the Service individuals maladaptive to the military due to the characteristics of a malady that makes conformity to social norms and values practically impossible. In a military environment that is clearly a game-ender. He brings more than 30 years' experience (from military prisons to the mountains of Afghanistan) to shed light on what he thinks is the greatest threat to democracy.