The Joint Staff's first statement on Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia's departure praised his "distinguished" service.

Then it pulled the statement. The replacement said the first one "did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances."

According to a Defense Department official, those circumstances include three failed polygraph examinations about leaks of classified information on the war with Iran, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and more.

Failing once is a red flag. He failed three times.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired him this week. A senior Pentagon official called it "severe misconduct," and the case has gone to the Justice Department.

Sylvia was director of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff, known inside the building as the J5. That's the three-star post in charge of long-term military strategy, coordinating plans with other agencies and allies, and weighing risk for the National Military Strategy. It's among the most important offices in the building, and he'd held it for 11 months.

He wasn't running the Iran war. The Pentagon says that belongs to Central Command and Adm. Brad Cooper, and the J5 had been cut out of that role since spring. While a leak investigation was underway, the war plans stayed somewhere else.

Then there's the escort rule. Hegseth required reporters to have escorts inside the Pentagon, which made it a lot harder to slip a reporter something in a hallway. Sylvia allegedly started meeting reporters outside the building instead.

Hegseth locked the front door. Sylvia allegedly used the parking lot.

American troops are in the Middle East right now. Anything about the Iran war that ends up in an American newspaper ends up in Tehran the same morning, and Iran reads the papers too.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the department acted after an "extensive Air Force OSI investigation," meaning the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The department, he said, has "zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorized disclosure of classified information."

Sylvia is the fourth Pentagon official Hegseth has fired over alleged leaks. For years, leaking was something the building complained about. Hegseth is the one firing people for it.

Sylvia's résumé is real. He graduated from West Point in 1994 and served 32 years, with commands in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 101st Airborne Division, plus a Purple Heart and six Bronze Stars, one for valor. He's innocent until proven guilty, and that record earns him a fair hearing. It doesn't earn him a pass on three failed polygraphs.

The Atlantic broke the story as an "ouster" driven by "tensions with Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby." That makes it sound like an office feud. The Pentagon's version involves lie-detector results and a Justice Department referral.

Critics will say Hegseth is pushing out experienced generals at a dangerous time. Leaking classified details of an active war to reporters is the kind of experience the Pentagon can do without.

The Joint Staff called Sylvia's service "distinguished." Then it read the file.