On Veterans Day, we honor those who defended our freedom - and renew our responsibility to those who will defend it next.

On Veterans Day, Americans pause to thank the people who put on a uniform and accepted obligations most of us will never fully understand. They left families, surrendered comforts, endured uncertainty, and made themselves available for duties that could cost them everything.

Their service allows the rest of us to make plans: raise children, build businesses, attend church, argue about politics, and imagine a future. Those ordinary freedoms are an extraordinary inheritance.

Protecting them remains an unfinished responsibility.

It can feel as though the world is more dangerous than ever. Earlier generations confronted dangers of staggering magnitude, from world wars to nuclear confrontation. 

What distinguishes our moment is how many new directions danger can come from, and how quickly it can reach into ordinary life.

Recent aviation incidents illustrate that vulnerability. Authorities say a FlyDubai copilot attempted to crash an airliner bound for Israel a few months ago. A wounded captain and intervening passengers helped avert catastrophe. This week, a United Airlines passenger was accused of claiming to have a bomb and attempting to reach the cockpit. 

The aircraft landed safely — the larger threat remains.

These incidents differ in motive and circumstances. Together, they remind us how national security impacts our everyday life.

In Idaho, the stakes were equally personal. 

According to the Justice Department, Alexander Scott Mercurio planned attacks on churches in allegiance to ISIS. Investigators arrested him in April 2024, one day before his planned assault. He has now been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Families were spared the nightmare he intended. Successful prevention rarely commands the attention that catastrophe does, but the absence of tragedy can represent an enormous achievement.

Civilian authorities mostly carry responsibility for these types of investigations. Our military has a different mission. Yet both illustrate the changing conditions under which U.S. military servicemembers must now labor.

In so many ways, the battlefield is changing. And it’s never changed faster.

In October, two Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft performed coordinated combat maneuvers using autonomy software. These were test flights involving simulated threats, with humans providing direction. They nevertheless offered a glimpse of future operations in which a pilot could direct several uncrewed teammates.

If developed successfully, such aircraft could expand American capabilities while allowing machines to undertake some missions that would otherwise expose people to danger. The promise deserves disciplined testing and serious investment.

Behind those aircraft lies another essential capability: communications. 

The Pentagon is establishing a mission operations center for its Space Data Network, intended to coordinate information across satellites and providers. The network could support missile defense, including Golden Dome, and help forces share information across enormous distances.

A warning must reach someone who can act. A commander needs dependable information. A unit operating under attack needs connections that survive disruption. Technical infrastructure becomes profoundly human when lives depend on it.

Even the region around the Moon is entering a new era of defense planning. 

The Pentagon is gathering industry information about a possible initial group of cislunar spacecraft. Naturally, as American exploration and commercial activity expand, understanding what happens there could become a practical security responsibility.

Cybersecurity adds another dimension. Advanced artificial intelligence creates opportunities for attackers and defenders alike. Preserving American technological leadership must include developing the people and capabilities needed to protect military networks and the civilian systems supporting national life.

Tomorrow’s service member may work with autonomous aircraft, defend a network, or monitor activity far beyond Earth. The tools will change. The need for courage, judgment, discipline, and accountability will endure.

Veterans deserve to see those qualities recognized in their own service, too. Gratitude requires dependable health care, help navigating civilian employment, support for families, and attention to wounds that remain long after deployment ends.

We also owe today’s troops clear missions, realistic training, capable equipment, and leaders who weigh the consequences of sending them into danger. 

Technological ambition must produce usable protection. Spending must deliver results.

The American advantage has always depended on people willing to accept responsibility for something larger than themselves. Veterans carried that responsibility through the circumstances of their time. Another generation carries it now.

On this Veterans Day, let us thank those who served with the seriousness their service deserves. Let us care for them, learn from them, and prepare their successors well.

The battlefield changes. Defending freedom remains the mission.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)