Michigan Air National Guardsman Christopher Jones found out last year that he was going to be deployed. But when he told his employer about his military orders, it allegedly led to his termination. Now, he is suing them. Jones, a cybersecurity engineer from Royal Oak, Mich., filed a lawsuit against ex-employer Electrical Components International (ECI) alleging violations of USERRA, the federal law that protects military members from job discrimination tied to their service. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan. The lawsuit claims that Jones found out in May 2025 that the Air Force had ordered him into six months of active duty set to begin that September. But shortly after notifying ECI, he purportedly was cut out of company meetings and communications prior to receiving a "poor performance" warning from the former employer that led to his June 2025 firing. Military.com contacted ECI for comment but received no response prior to publication. Jones, 42, has been in the Air Force since 2010. He was on active duty at first before transitioning to the Air National Guard around 2014. He's been a part of the Michigan Air National Guard ever since. He told Military.com that his termination has been difficult not only for him, but also for his wife and son. He went from going into a deployment and uncertain situation, to learning his employment fate before even leaving the country. "It's had a huge impact," Jones said. "There was additional stress on top of an already high workload and high-stress environment. When things in Iran occurred, I was directly affected by those things. I'm trying to go and protect myself, protect my people, dealing with the stress of missiles overhead. "Also, I have that [thought] in the back of my head of, 'If I live, am I even going to be able to make a living?'"