The failure of intelligence services was already quite serious, according to pilots and former combat pilots. But the refusal of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to recognize that he should not have revealed sensitive information about when the American combat pilots would attack the places in Yemen, they said, it was even worse.
This week, in the air bases, in the “preparation rooms” of the aircraft carriers and in the communities close to the military bases there was dismay. The news that senior government officials of Donald Trump discussed in Signal a commercial courier application, the plans of an imminent attack enraged and baffled the men and women who have crossed the air on behalf of the United States.
The error inclusion of the chief editor of The Atlantic magazine in the chat and the insistence of Hegesh in which he did not do anything wrong by revealing the secret plans to land decades of military doctrine on operational security, they said a dozen hunting pilots of the Air Force and the Navy.
Worse, they said, it will no longer be sure that the Pentagon focuses on their safety when they get on the cabins.
“The issue of air security is that you have to have the humility of understanding that you are imperfect, because everyone puts the leg. Everyone makes mistakes,” said Lieutenant John Gadzinski, a pilot retired from an F-14 of the Navy, who flew in combat missions from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. “But ultimately, if you can’t admit when you are wrong, you’re going to kill someone because your ego is too big.”
He and other pilots said that every day since Monday, when The Atlantic published an article on the chat revelations, he had brought a surprising new revelation. First came the news that Hegseth had put the operational sequence, or the flight programs, of the F/A-18 Hornets that aimed at the Hutí Militia de Yemen on March 15 in the non-classified chat of the Signal Group, which included several other high-level positions.
“We do not intentionally share the plans with whom you do not need to know,” said a F/A-18 pilot of the Navy, who has frequently flown in missions in the Middle East. “Do not share what time we are supposed to appear on a goal. You don’t want to telegraph that we are about to appear at someone’s door; that is to endanger your crew.” He and several other current and ancient pilots spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation of the Pentagon and the allies of President Trump.
But then the initial response of Hegseth arrived to the revelations. He attacked Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, describing him as “supposed journalist,” and took refuge in a semantic argument, saying that he had never revealed “war plans.”
So on Wednesday, The Atlantic published the real text of what I had written, at 11:44 am on the day of the attack, in the group’s chat: “1215et: F-18s Launch (1st attack package),” hegseth sent a text message, about 30 minutes before it happened. “1345: The window of the 1st attack F-18 ‘based on shots’ begins (the terrorist objective is in its known location, so it should arrive on time).”
This text was sent two hours before the attacks.
Hegseth added: “1410: more F-18 (2nd attack package) are launched.” And then, “1536: the 2nd attack with F-18 begins, the first Tomahawks are also thrown from the sea.”
That text warned almost three hours in advance.
On Wednesday, Hegseth described his revelation of “equipment update” to “provide real -time updates, real -time real -time updates” to keep Trump national security officials informed.
But the details of military operations usually remain so secret that even the members of the service that participate in them are “blocked.” That sometimes means that they are not allowed to speak with other people who do not need to know, much less tell them the plans, the hunting pilots interviewed said. In the “preparation rooms” of the aircraft carriers, where the flight squads pass when they are not in the air, the crews burn the instructions to destroy them.
“It is important to understand to what extent the OPSEC intervenes in all aspects of your life in an aircraft carrier,” said the retired captain of the Navy Joseph Capalbo, who directed an air wing of an aircraft carrier and two squadrons of F/A-18, in reference to operational safety. “Operations in the Red Sea are carried out in complete silence: nobody speaks on radio. Because everything can be heard by someone.”
A hunting pilot retired from the Air Forces, Major Anthony Bourke, added: “When operational security is disseminated, people can die.” He said that “these things are not taken light. I have never met anyone in the army not to know.”
Hegesh, former Fox News weekend host, served as a National Guard Infantry soldier.
Commander Parker Kuldau, retired pilot of F/A-18 of the Navy, desperate the revelations of Hegseth and the subsequent response to them.
“It goes far beyond what I would expect from any military,” said Commander Kuldau, who also flew in combat missions in the Middle East. “The idea that the Secretary of Defense, who should know better, has done this, is simply amazing.”
High officials of the Department of Defense and military analysts claim that the hutis have aerial defenses, provided by Iran, who can point to US warplanes.
“The hutis have received several types of Iranian earth-Aire missiles designed to be able to attack combat planes, even high,” said Fabian Hinz, a military analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
In fact, the Hutis rebels first shot Earth-Aire missiles against an F-16 hunting on February 19, said a senior US official. The missiles did not reach the hunt. The hutis have demolished several unmanned planes of the American Air Force, which fly more slowly.
The Trump government has insisted that no chat information was classified, and Hegseth and other officials have said that it was not a “war plan.”
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman, said in response to a question from the New York Times that the chat of Signal “referred to The Atlantic was not a forum for official planning and execution of military operations, in which leaders of the Joint General Staff and of the Joint Forces and of the Joint Forces and of the Joint Forces and of the Joint Forces.”
The vice president JD Vance participated in the chat; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; the National Security Advisor, Michael Waltz; And others, but not the funny chief of the Joint General Staff, Admiral Christopher Gray, the highest rank military.
Parnell said that “the military dome is often not included in political meetings.”
The Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, former pilot of F/A-18 and commander retired from the US naval forces in the Middle East, also rejected the idea that the safety of the aviators had been in danger due to the dissemination of information on the attacks of March 15.
“Assuming that chronology and information disclosed are true, the probability that something would have done something in such a short time was very low,” said Admiral Donegan. “In the end our planes were not demolished and no member of the US service personnel was injured or died.”
But a former senior official of the Department of Defense with Military Experience said that the Hegseth text described by launch hours and the type of attack plane was, in effect, classified information that could have endangered the life of the pilots if it had been disclosed or obtained.
A former Navy F/A-18 squad commander also said that pilots flewing in combat missions would have considered the content of Hegseth’s text classified information. Revealing the details in a text was “extremely arrogant,” said the Expileot.
If the hutis had known the exact time of the attacks and that they would be carried out by attack aircraft -based aircraft in the north of the Red Sea, the aerial defenses that have already demolished several American drones piloted at a distance, said the former Navy pilot, said the former Pilot of the Navy.
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Although Hegesh has ruled out the risks for the Navy drivers who flew in those attack missions, the videos published by the central command of the United States tell a different story.
Some of the F/A-18 Hornets that are shown taking off from the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft in the Red Sea were armed with 226 kilograms pumps and 453 kilograms that could only be launched within the reach of Hutís air defenses.