How did this man ever get elected? What happened to us?
A report from The Atlantic revealed Thursday that Milley had chosen Army captain Luis Avila, who is severely wounded after serving in five combat tours, to sing "God Bless America" at the 2019 Armed Forces Welcome Ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall because, to him and several other Army generals, Avila represented the dignity, strength and sacrifice of wounded soldiers. Avila had lost a leg in an IED attack while serving in Afghanistan in 2011 and suffered two strokes, two heart attacks and brain damage as a result of his injuries.
After Trump went over to congratulate the captain for his performance, the then-president asked Milley, who as JCS chairman served as Trump's principal military adviser, within earshot of others, "Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded." He also told Milley to never let Avila make a public appearance again.
"These sorts of moments, which would grow in intensity and velocity, were disturbing to Milley. As a veteran of multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he had buried 242 soldiers who'd served under his command," The Atlantic's Jeffery Goldberg writes. "Milley's family venerated the military, and Trump's attitude toward the uniformed services seemed superficial, callous, and, at the deepest human level, repugnant.