While patrolling the Iron Curtain in the 1980s, I saw firsthand the importance of American leadership, the value of strong alliances, and the moral strength that springs from our national values. I also saw something more basic: 

Our security depends on the United States maintaining an edge in advanced technologies. Our advantage on the battlefield wasn’t in numbers; it was in having better and more sophisticated tools with which to destroy the enemy, and a fighting force that was truly lethal in its ability to use those tools. 

Even then, state-of-the-art wireless technologies enabled the reconnaissance, radar and communications capabilities that kept my unit informed of fast-changing threats. Four decades later, wireless technologies remain a crucial enabler of our national security, especially for missile defense and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, which rely on our military’s access to specific spectrum bands.

Right now, Congress is in the process of deciding how access to these bands will be allocated in the future, and the choices it makes will have major ramifications for our national security and economic prosperity. It is crucial that Congress gets this right.