Last Thursday, Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer, was charged with the murder of a suspected Taliban bomb maker in Afghanistan. On Sunday, President Trump came to his defense on Twitter after watching a program on Fox News detailing his case. In his tweet, the president called Major Golsteyn a “U.S. Military hero,” referring to a Silver Star he was awarded for separate actions in Afghanistan, a medal that the Army has revoked.

The charges against Major Golsteyn stem from an incident when he was a captain in Afghanistan in 2010. Two Marines were killed by a roadside bomb, and according to an Army investigation, when Captain Golsteyn’s Special Forces team took the suspected bomb maker to their base, he inadvertently saw a local tribal leader who had been cooperating with the American forces. After receiving orders to release the bomb maker, Captain Golsteyn determined that the tribal leader’s life would be in jeopardy if his cooperation with the Special Forces was revealed.

Captain Golsteyn and another soldier, investigators say, then led the suspected bomb maker off base, executed him and buried his body in a shallow grave. Captain Golsteyn returned with two other soldiers who helped him dig up the body so that it could be incinerated in the base trash pit. The major admitted to the killing on a Fox News program in 2016.

I served in the Marines for eight years, first in the infantry and later, like Major Golsteyn, as a special operations officer. I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and saw my fair share of death, both of friends and enemies. I was in my early 20s when I first saw combat, and fought alongside others even younger.