Special Forces Soldier Seeks Seat in the US Congress

[ODB]

I hope this is the right place to put this.

The Special Forces Ass'n (SFA) confirmed in response to an inquiry from the Congressional Quarterly that once elected I will indeed be the first Green Beret to serve in Congress.

I can use all the financial support possible. My pledge to SF personnel and vets in general in return - I've got your back 24/7 down in the snakepit of D.C., and the coffee will always be available for any vet stopping by my office.

The running password will be "TROJAN HORSE."

Jim Steiner

http://www.joinjim2008.com/

From another posting:

Yes, I am fully SF tab qualified. In 1982, since I am now an old guy, when I completed the Q course the tab was not yet out (someone posted the effective date, which is 1983).

Someone else correctly notes you had a choice of the SF tab or the Ranger tab at that time, not both. Like most SF personnel, I probably wore my greens 1-2 times a year, tops. This is the only picture in my greens. I do not have a photo once both tabs were authorized for wear (hell I don't even remember when that occurred, after 1987 or so?).

I branch transferred from Infantry (hence, EIB award) into MI at the time I volunteered for SF - courtesy of the guidance of one of my First Sergeants, then SFC Johnny Holman (5th SFGA - VN) in C Co, 2/1 Inf. at Lewis where I had both a rifle platoon and then a weapons platoon, and SFC Serafin Meno (also 5th SFG-VN), the First Sergeant for B Co, 2/1, next door to me.

As a side note, COL Pete Dillon, recent Cdr, 7th SFGA, had one of the other rifle platoons in the same C Co, 2/1 Inf with me. We were together as 2LTs-1LT. Long time ago.

My first platoon sergeant at Ft. Lewis, and who later served with me at 2/10th as well, was then SSG, and later CSM (ret.) Mike McIntyre, CSM of 5th SFGA during 2001, and through 9/11.

A current reference is BG Al Aycock, now in Korea. Al and I were roommates at West Point. My claim to fame is that I beat him into SF by a year. He stayed longer.

The two first sergeants cornered me and recommended from their observations I volunteer for SF. I respected them, and I volunteered. The rest is history. As soon as SF became its own branch, I joined all the Infantry guys, signed a DF and put crossed arrows on my uniform...again, no photos except the ugly official photo.

Also, in the early 80s, when this photo was taken, the candy stripe still existed for "assigned but non-qualified" personnel. Wearing the full flash, at that time, meant you were fully qualified, so that was another reason not to tear off the Ranger tab...the flash said it.

And yes, as someone else noted, that is not a 7th SFGA oval for the wings, but the official 10th SFGA oval, red border with green center (which I understand now has changed to all green).

Jim Steiner

I think it's about time one of these former warriors made a splash in DC, if that's even possible anymore.

[Jedburgh]

......I think it's about time one of these former warriors made a splash in DC, if that's even possible anymore.

Well, there was Bob Kerrey, who was a Navy SEAL, VN vet and MoH recipient, who served in the Senate for 12 years.

Although vets tend to be in the minority amongst our reps, there have still been quite a few over the years, both combat vets and those with peacetime service, but they don't always vote along the lines that most may assume from their military backgrounds.

Ultimately, Steiner is a lawyer - which caste already makes up the vast majority of our representation in Congress.

[Stan]

to see how well our vets take care of each other once they are Senators, Congressmen, or POTUS candidates.

POLITICS-US: Vets Press McCain to Back Greater Benefits

"It's time for Senator McCain to stand up for veterans, and be a leader," the chairman of VoteVets, Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz, said in a statement. "The success or failure of this bill largely rests on his shoulders. He is the de facto leader of the Republican party. If he signs onto the bill, it will pass and become law. If he doesn't support it, he needs to explain why he doesn't."

McCain's silence on the G.I. Bill may surprise some observers, given the senator's six years behind bars as a former prisoner of war in North Vietnam. On the campaign trail, McCain speaks almost daily about "supporting the troops".

But organisations that have followed the senator's voting record note McCain's actions are rarely in line with the interests of veterans' organisations. In 2006, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a failing grade of "D" based on his voting record.

The same year, McCain supported the interests of the group Disabled American Veterans just 20 percent of the time. The main reason for the low scores is a consistent pattern by Senator McCain of voting against appropriating money for veterans' health care and disability payments.

According to Disabled American Veterans (DAV), McCain voted almost a dozen separate times against spending additional money on veterans' health care in 2005 and 2006 -- even as hundreds of thousands of soldiers and Marines were returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and filing disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

During that time, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for returning service members, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.

[ODB]

I agree that most seem "to forget where they came from". As far as McCain goes thought this Newsweek article was interesting but looking to multi source this:

The Perot-McCain relationship goes back to McCain's five and a half years of captivity in Hanoi. When McCain's then-wife Carol was in a serious car accident, McCain's mother called Perot for help. "She asked me to send my people to Philadelphia to take care of the family," Perot says. Afterwards, McCain was grateful. "We loved him [Perot] for it," McCain told me in 2000.

Perot doesn't remember it that way. "After he came home, he walked with a limp, she [Carol McCain] walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona [Cindy McCain, his current wife] and the rest is history."

Perot's real problem with McCain is that he believes the senator hushed up evidence that live POWs were left behind in Vietnam and even transferred to the Soviet Union for human experimentation, a charge Perot says he heard from a senior Vietnamese official in the 1980s. "There's evidence, evidence, evidence," Perot claims. "McCain was adamant about shutting down anything to do with recovering POWs."

Full article http://www.newsweek.com/id/94827

Anyone know more on this?

[J Wolfsberger]

to see how well our vets take care of each other once they are Senators, Congressmen, or POTUS candidates.

POLITICS-US: Vets Press McCain to Back Greater Benefits

A note of caution on these things: Senators frequently vote against bills they would otherwise support beccause of "poison pill" attachments and riders. I won't condemn McCain for voting against these until I have more detail on why he voted against them.

[Steve Blair]

A note of caution on these things: Senators frequently vote against bills they would otherwise support beccause of "poison pill" attachments and riders. I won't condemn McCain for voting against these until I have more detail on why he voted against them.

That was my thought as well. It's often hard to say from the outside just what has been hidden in a particular bill.

[selil]

If military combat is war with bullets, then legislative representation is a war with words. In either case it is better to seek more understanding rather than jump to conclusions that are based on limited information or a biased message.