To the editor:

I felt compelled by a moral obligation to write a rebuttal to the recent Letter to the Editor (Dec. 20) “The bar is free falling”.

I am going to direct my comments specifically to the first paragraph of the letter which speaks to non U.S. citizens serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and a reference to “sending foreigners to flight school” which I will assume is in reference to 9/11. As to the first part which speaks directly to the Armed Services I speak from experience as I served for 24 years on active duty while I am certain the author of the original letter did not. During my service I served alongside many non U.S. citizens. They came from South and Central America, Mexico, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Many were from the Philippines, a country I know well as my wife is from there and we have property there. I also served with a fellow chief petty officer later in my career who was a female and a citizen of the United Kingdom. Not a single one of the people I served with in this situation was anything other than 100 percent professional and dedicated to the oath they took to serve.

To suggest that one example given of a foreign national serving as a US military officer murdering fellow service members is disingenuous. That is like stating that because one person of a specific ideology kills a person of a differing ideology then everyone with that ideology is evil or which is completely ridiculous. This is nothing more than fear mongering and it is blatantly racist. My own grandson is a first class petty officer in the U.S. Navy and as he came here as a teenager he holds U.S. and Philippine citizenship.

As to the second statement before 2004, a TSA endorsement in the logbook of flight trainees was not a requirement. Since 2004 the vetting of foreign nationals is more involved and as such takes longer because it involves fingerprinting and an application sent to the TSA for approval. No endorsement can be given, and therefore no flight training can be conducted until TSA approval is granted. The terrorists who came to the US for flight training came on their own and paid for it on their own. No one in the U.S. Government paid for the training which the letter would lead you to believe.

I will close by stating that I wish that people who wish to express something through a letter would not just use it as a vehicle to spread, hate, fear, disinformation, and to peddle baseless racist stereotypes. The last time I checked unless you can trace your roots back to a native American they you are the ancestors of an immigrant. Having come from another country does not make you less of a decent person just as being born and raised in America does not necessarily makes you a decent person.

David Nelson

Fredericksburg, Virginia