RK ARCHIVE - How Many Veterans Do We Have Here?

Hello everyone, I was curious to know this morning how many ~~Kossacks~~ RK'ers have served or are serving in the military.

We all know how Republicans try to paint our liberals, progressives, and Democrats as ant-military and anti-war.

But, we have shown and hope to show we can both be anti-war and support our troops.

Even our leader here Kos is a Veteran of the U.S. Army. We have many leaders who ran for Congress in 2006 dubbed "Fighting Dems".

Although few of them won, it was great to see so many Veterans run (99% as Democrats) to offer not just a different view of matters of War and Peace, but to prove to so many on the other side that we are not a party who is weak on National Security.
Out of this curiosity this Friday, how many of your have served in our Nation's military? Do you want to see more Veterans running for office? What branch did you serve? How long? What was is like?

I will be the first to admit that military service shouldn't be a prerequisite to run for office. But, in a world where war and peace are always issues past, present, and future it is good to have some of those who have served in our nation's uniform representing us in elected office.

As I write this now, the House is debating the Iraq War. I think if we had more Veterans in Congress during the early discussion to go to war in 2002 we might not have been in the place we are today.

Comments

veteran (Bernie Quigley - 2/16/2007 12:22:55 PM)

Dr. Montoya: I'm a veteran and contributing editor to this Fighting Dems News Service which encourages and helps vets go into politics; expecially Iraq war vets.

http://fighting-dems...

USAF 1966 to 1973 (Used2Bneutral - 2/16/2007 1:20:28 PM)

Specialized in Electronics/Radio systems/Crypto and then several years in large scale Computers/Telecom systems. Right smack-dab in the middle of the Vietnam War period. I lost several close friends and class mates during that war. I fought the war from a design laboratory and a computer room, which made me feel guilty at times, but what I did saved lives they tell me.

SASCOM - 1973 (norman swingvoter - 2/16/2007 4:29:51 PM)

I am a Veteran Era veteran, meaning I was drafted into the Vietnam war but not actually sent to Vietnam. I served under SASCOM and left the Army in 1973. In my opinion describing us as antiwar is too simplistic. I strongly support our troops but am strongly against incompetence in war, bush-cheney. I believe 100% in the Powell Doctrine, don't go to war unless it is absolutely necessary. When going to war is necessary, go with overwhelming force to win. I feel that we do need more veterans running to help avoid messes like bush-cheney have gotten us involved in.

USMC (Gordie - 2/16/2007 5:08:26 PM)

Korean War. 1953 to 1956. Led a wire team between the 6th Reg. Hdqtrs to Various Companies. Was offered OCS, but knew I was not a career military person. Got out end of enlistment.

What has amazed me about this Iraq War is that Bush does not seem to want to win it. He keeps skirting around the manuevers that could win this War. Why is that?

US Navy/Navy Reserve 1979-Present (10 active, 17 Reserve) (Hoss - 2/16/2007 6:00:20 PM)

Distinctly purple colored Navy Reservist mobilized for nearly every action since I joined. Desert Storm, Kosovo, Just Cause, and OIF. Supported most of these from CONUS (Defense Intelligence Agency) and others down-range. Served as a senior intelligence officer at USCENTCOM HQ Forward (Camp As Saliyah, Qatar).

Charter member of the Veterans For Webb (aka the other VFW)

I have considered running for office but I'm unsure of how, when, or where I would preceed to follow that ambition.

USAF (enlisted) from 1984 - 1994 (snolan - 2/20/2007 4:54:10 PM)

Ran out of money for college, desparately tried to avoid going into military because both my dad and step-dad were retired USAF (dad did one tour in the USN as well), but ended up enlisting after a year and a little college to get TAP (there was no GI-Bill for my time) and defer student loans a bit to pay them down some.

Lucked into assignments to Illinois, Hawaii, and Japan as a parachute rigger; cross trained into my college major (computer programming) and lucked into assignments to the Pentagon before luck ran out and I got sent to Offutt (Omaha).
Came back to DC area as soon as I could get out.

My brother was in the USN for a tour, then served 11 more years in the Army. He was on the USS Conyngham (sister ship to the Stark, and they rotated fire fighting crews). He spent time in Panama during action, Macedonia, Korean DMZ, and places in Georgia, Luisiana, and Kentucky that are hard to find on a map. He's in Alexandria now working at American Red Cross and as a contractor at US GAO.

The job situation in Upstate New York still leaves young people with few choices and enlisting in a service is still very common.