I fought communism. Now Trump supporters call me a 'communist.'

How a veteran who deployed to Korea is treated for speaking out against Trump’s war on service members.

By Alan from Home of the Brave

I’m a US Army veteran who deployed to Korea and manned the de-militarized zone, where Americans and their South Korean allies fought the communists to a standstill in 1953. I froze, bled, and burned for my country there. I sustained frostbite that I still deal with today, had my hearing blown out by tank gunnery exercises, and was wounded on patrol. Today, at age 68, I’d still be willing to deploy and do it all over again in service of my country and our Constitution.

Back then, American veterans didn’t get much respect. People called us names and berated us in public, taking out their frustration with American foreign policy on the young men and women tasked with serving on the front lines. It was a slap in the face to all of us who served, and a disturbing reminder of how little a person’s sacrifices can be appreciated. Today, it’s equally disturbing to see that same behavior being repeated—except this time it’s coming from the commander in chief.

Donald Trump has spent a lifetime berating, demeaning, and attacking veterans. He dodged the draft with phony bone spurs and then called avoiding STDs his “personal Vietnam.” He called fallen service members “suckers” and “losers” and dismissed John McCain’s years of torture and confinement in a POW camp, saying “I like people who weren’t captured.” He went to war with a Gold Star Family, told the military to hide wounded warriors from the public, and asked his chief of staff—himself a Gold Star Parent and retired Marine General—of the dead at Arlington: “What was in it for them?

And now that he’s back in office, Trump is going to war against veterans once again. He slashed the Department of Veterans Affairs’ workforce, with original plans to fire more than 80,000 employees—many of them veterans. I’ve seen in real time what the downstream effects of these cuts look and feel like. I rely on the VA for all of my health care, and since January 20, I’ve seen a drastic decline in the quality and availability of care. Suddenly, wait times are longer, providers are less available, and the VA is working to farm out as much care as possible to other, non-VA facilities that have lower standards and fewer resources.

I’ve watched as this has impacted veterans of every generation: people like me, those who served in World War II and Vietnam, and those younger people who deployed in the Global War on Terror. Everyone’s needs are different, and everyone is seeing diminished care and poorer outcomes. When we all signed our name on the dotted line, we didn’t ask for anything; we just agreed to serve our country no matter what. But we did so with the expectation that our country would be there for us when we needed it. We held up our end of that deal, but, thanks to Trump, we’re now left feeling abandoned.

When they see that I’m a veteran, sometimes Trump supporters in red MAGA hats come up to slap me on the back and thank me for my service. When I tell them exactly what’s being done to veterans by their president, and say that we deserve better, they call me a “communist.” Trump himself likes to throw this word around, accusing his political opponents of being “communists” and “Marxists.” It’s ironic because, unlike these people, I actually strapped on our country’s uniform and stared down communism nose-to-nose on the DMZ in Korea. And I know what it looks like.

I ended up in Korea because North Korea’s communist dictator, Kim Il-Sung, decided to take by force land that wasn’t his. America was the only force powerful enough to stand against this aggression. Ever since, Kim and his successors—including North Korea’s current dictator, who Trump exchanges “love letters” with—have ruled their country with an iron fist. No free speech, no independence of thought, no recognition for any kind of human rights or dignity. Just one-man rule, with everybody else forced to fall in line, or else.

That’s what dictatorship looks like. I fought to keep the free world safe from it. And I’m disturbed to see, all these years later, so many of the same signs of autocracy creeping into the very country that once stood as the bastion for global freedom. It’s even more disturbing to know that those of us who put our lives on the line are being slapped in the face yet again by a president who pretends to support the veterans, but who in fact has spent his entire life undermining our service. Now that he’s back in power, Trump’s showing us just how anti-veteran he can be.

Alan is a US Army veteran and a participant in Home of the Brave, a new initiative highlighting the harms of Donald Trump’s second term.