I was given the distinct honor and privilege to travel with the American 1st Veterans Alliance to Washington D.C. for the 47th Presidential Inauguration last week. I first met the organizations founder, Jason Loughran, at Trump Bedminster in New Jersey where we were working on advocacy efforts for military veterans who were wrongly imprisoned by the Biden Administration that were actually peacefully protesting in D.C. on January 6th 2020. He invited me to accept the role of President for the State of Colorado for the American 1st Veterans Alliance, and I humbly accepted the responsibility.
Fast forward several months, the objective of the organization was to recruit moral and ethical veterans, first responders, and community leaders to run for office; all the way from the local level to the Federal level. Teaching them the nuance of politics, public interaction, social media tactics, and ensuring that our shared conservative values would be adequately represented after our generation was sent to war for the last twenty years at the direction of failed politicians and ineffective foreign policy that cost the lives of thousands of American service members.
We were invited to a very small and private ceremony with the President's family, Medal of Honor Recipients, and his new cabinet, to witness the wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with Marine Tyler Vargas-Andrews. Tyler was the last survivor of the Abbey Gate bombing at HKIA during the withdrawal of Afghanistan. Tyler was one of the Marines that helped evacuate one of the families I was in contact with on the ground. I am eternally grateful for his efforts and his sacrifice. His presence sent a message that President Trump will hold those failed leaders accountable for their actions, and that there will be justice served for those that lost their lives unnecessarily that day.

It was a whirlwind of a day where I met each member of the President's family, Dakota Meyer, my former boss Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and our new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. We discussed all the important things that need to change in our military, as well as the importance of passing the #DeRitoAct this year in Congress as an NDAA Amendment. They were very productive discussions, and it was an unbelievable honor to be invited to stand with them for the ceremony.
Although many of the outdoor events for the general public were cancelled due to weather concerns, Lindsay Rowland and I were busy lobbying on Capitol Hill for the #DeRitoAct with dozens of meetings with members of Congress and Congressional Staffers. There is a new appetite now to hold failed and corrupt military leaders accountable, especially when it comes to sexual assault, rape, retaliation, and falsification of medical records. For too long, so called "leaders" in the military have operated without impunity. This year, with your help, that ends with the #DeRitoAct.
The next few months will be very busy with travel, from around the State of Colorado, and to Washington D.C. I've had several extremely productive conversations with our new Colorado Freshman Congressmen; Congressman Jeff Crank CO-5, Congressman Jeff Hurd CO-3 and Congressman Gabe Evans CO-8. We recognize the need to protect Colorado's environment, energy sector, reaching out to our conservative brothers and sisters in the Hispanic community, and fixing our military with the #DeRitoAct within our local bases at the USAF Academy, Fort Carson, Schriever SFB, Peterson AFB, and Buckley SFB. It is such a breath of relief having these new conservative members in Congress that are willing to do the work and hit the ground running, work for our military, the people of Colorado, and preserve our Colorado Culture of farming, ranching and agriculture.

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