Nearly 300 alumni from across the military service academies are offering their support to transgender cadets and Midshipmen amid the Trump administration's attempts to ban transgender people from the military -- efforts that have gotten tied up in an increasingly complicated legal battle.

Alumni representing every academy and a broad spectrum of generations have signed onto an open letter aimed at providing transgender and other gender-nonconforming students with encouragement as the administration disparages transgender service members, according to a copy of the letter shared with Military.com ahead of its wider release.

"As you know, our academies hold dear and promote specific virtues and values, including honor, integrity, duty, courage, country, service, respect, commitment and excellence," the letter says. "And we firmly believe that the simple fact of being transgender is in no way incompatible with any of our academies' cherished virtues and values. Rather, we understand that living authentically as a trans person, especially at our academies, is often a profound expression of them."

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As of Monday, there were 273 signatures on the letter.

Signatories on the letter include alumni from all five service academies. The oldest alums on the letter are from the class of 1968, and the youngest graduated just last year.

"Whatever happens, please know: So long as you continue to demonstrate the courage, integrity, discipline and commitment that you have thus far, we will always be proud to count you among us and the long line of those who have gone before," the letter says. "Thank you for your commitment to our country, and for being who you are."

Emily Elledge, who graduated from the Naval Academy in 2012, said she signed the letter so that cadets and Midshipmen who "may feel right now as if they are under attack by the administration ... know that there are people who have also served this country who support them."

Having been at the academy when "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed, Elledge said she has seen firsthand the difference that being able to live authentically makes for Midshipmen. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was the policy that banned gay, lesbian and bisexual troops from serving openly and was repealed in 2011.

"They don't have to constantly be worrying about someone finding out something that's extremely important to them as a person, and I think that that allows people to then fulfill the mission better," Elledge told Military.com in a phone interview. "And then them living authentically didn't detract from anyone else's personal experience."

KYIV, Ukraine -- "Skunk" found himself pinned down in a trench, outnumbered and under relentless close-range fire. It was Christmas Eve 2024, and the 38-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran was serving with a unit in Eastern Ukraine as that country goes into its fourth year of repelling Russia's full-scale invasion. He didn't speak Ukrainian or Russian, and it had been 15 years since he'd served in the U.S. military, but he felt compelled to try to help defend an ally.

He'd arrived in Ukraine only two months before, shortly after submitting his 2024 election ballot. It was the first time he had voted in his life and, recalling a sense of better times during President Donald Trump's first term, he cast his ballot to return him to office. He cheered when he found out he'd picked the winner.

But when he turned his head in that trench in the hours before Christmas, a round tore through his thermal vision goggles and ripped into his face.

"It blew up in my eye," Skunk said, pointing to the scars over his right eyelid. He spoke to Military.com via a video interview earlier this month from Izium -- a formerly occupied area in the Kharkiv region that was liberated in 2023 but that remains on the front line under constant attack. Like other troops fighting in this war, Skunk asked to be referred to by his nom de guerre, a wartime nickname, for fear of his family being targeted by Russia.

The bullet shattered his collarbone and clavicle. Two others in his unit were killed on the same mission: One dismembered by a shell, another captured by the Russians and executed a day later, he was told.

It was while he was recovering from his wounds last month that what he considered to be his worthy sacrifice was being called into question by the president he had voted for.

Seeing Trump label Zelenskyy -- a wartime leader Skunk was risking his life for -- as a dictator felt like a gut punch. Hearing him dismiss Ukraine's will to continue defending itself felt even worse.

"Fear went through me," he said.

It made him reconsider the American flag patches he's worn proudly on his uniform while fighting in Ukraine.

"Maybe it's time to take off this f---ing flag, sitting next to the Ukrainian one," he said. "I have a northern Illinois accent -- I'd rather people think I am Canadian."

Hundreds of Americans have fought in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion began. At least 50 have been killed, 40 of whom were former U.S. service members. Military.com talked to half a dozen American veterans who have fought for Ukraine and are currently in the country about how their perspectives have changed since Trump took office.

The bodies of three American soldiers who had been missing since last week after their armored vehicle became trapped in deep mud during a military exercise in Lithuania have been recovered, the U.S. Army said Monday. A search for the fourth soldier remained underway.

The soldiers were aboard an M88A2 Hercules, a hulking armored recovery vehicle designed to tow tanks and other heavy machinery, when it became submerged in a bog last Tuesday, military officials said. The troops were believed to have been unable to escape as the vehicle was swallowed by the mire.

Following an arduous multinational recovery operation involving some 200 U.S., Lithuanian and Polish forces, the vehicle was extracted Sunday evening, Lithuania's Defense Ministry said. The effort required excavators and construction machinery, as well as hundreds of tons of gravel and sand to reinforce the unstable terrain. U.S. Navy divers secured cables to the submerged vehicle, enabling crews to pull it from the mud.

"The soldiers we have lost in this tragedy were not just soldiers -- they were a part of our family," Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, said in a statement. "The search isn't finished until everyone is home."

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All four soldiers were from 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, based out of Fort Stewart, Georgia.

The division deployed to Europe in January as part of the Pentagon's bolstering of NATO's front lines amid Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. The troops were a part of a relatively routine training exercise near Pabrad?, a city near the border of Belarus -- a key Russian ally.