Thoughts on the WaPo-Graham Brouhaha
Jonn recently wrote an article about Senator Lindsey Graham’s military service, and how the WaPo was questioning same.
Ever since, there seems to have be a bit of confusion about Senator Lindsey Graham’s military career. In particular, his service has raised a number of questions here – and has garnered a rather large amount of negative comment.
I was curious, so I decided to research the situation. Time to kick the anthill; here are the facts.
1. Wikipedia – which I’ll trust in this case to be correct – says Graham graduated from law school in 1981. He received a USAF commission in 1982. He served on active duty as a USAF JAG from 1982-1989, including 4 years in Germany. He then served in the SC ANG from 1989-1995; and in the USAFR from 1995 until his retirement from the USAFR earlier this year.
2. Graham has been a member of Congress continuously since 1995.
3. DoDD 1200.07, defines the term “key employee”. Further, para E2.1.4.1, specifies that a Member of Congress is by DoD policy designated a “key employee” of the Federal government.
4. DoDD 1200.07 also defines the members of the Standby Reserve, as follows (para E2.1.9):
The Standby Reserve consists of personnel who are maintaining their military affiliation without being in the Ready Reserve, but have been designated “key civilian employees,” or have a temporary hardship or disability. Those individuals are not required to perform training and are not part of the Ready Reserve. The Standby Reserve is a pool of trained individuals who may be mobilized as needed to fill manpower needs in specific skills. The Standby Reserve consists of the active status list and the inactive status list categories.
5. DoDI 1200.15, para 5.1.3, mandates that “key employees” who are members of the Reserve Components be transferred to the Standby Reserve. DoD 1200.07 further specifies that such individuals will be placed on the Standby Reserve – Active Status List (SR-ASL).
6. DoDD 1235.09 describes organization and management of the Standby Reserve. In particular, para 2.b. states that individuals on the SR-ASL may participate in military activities in both active duty and inactive status, but also appears to specify that any such service will be for “points only” – e.g., without pay and allowances.
7. Finally, 10 USC 12306 appears to allow individuals on the SR-ASL to request to serve temporarily on active duty in an imminent danger zone. With the approval of their Service Secretary, they may receive orders to do so.
The Standby Reserve and how it works (and what it does) is not something that’s exactly common knowledge. I’d run across it some years ago, and remembered it existed and had something to do with key personnel. But I didn’t really know much about it (or had forgotten the pertinent details) until I looked it up again in connection with this flap. If you’re curious about the Standby Reserve, this article from the US Army Human Resources Command gives a pretty good overview. I’m reasonably certain that all services handle their SR-ASL reasonably similarly, so it should be pertinent to any RC element.
. . .
So, to recap: Graham has been a member of Congress since 1995. He was an ANG officer – with 12+ years TIS, probably a Major – when he entered Congress. When he was sworn in as a Member of Congress, DoD policy allowed him to retain his commission (and transfer to the USAFR) – but required him to be placed in the Standby Reserve.
Regardless of what you think about Congress, serving as a Member of Congress is definitely a full-time job. (If you doubt that, find a copy of P. J. O’Rourke’s book Parliament of Whores and read the chapter where he describes a typical Member’s daily schedule – usually nonstop from 7:30AM or so until after 9PM most days, choreographed to the minute much like that of a GO.) We’d expect someone in a senior elected position in the Federal government devote the vast majority of their time and effort to the job he/she was elected to do, so that’s as it should be.
DoD also recognizes that being in a key Federal/state/industry position (some key positions are in industry) may preclude normal participation in Reserve duties. DoD has also decided that allowing Reservists who also serve in one of these key positions to continue their Reserve service is in DoD’s best interests. That’s almost certainly one reason that the Standby Reserve was created.
Finally, Graham’s placement in the Standby Reserve wasn’t his choice – DoD told him, “Standby Reserve, or resign your commission.” So Graham stayed in the USAFR, and played by the rules DoD dictated.
My take is that Graham seems to have done what he could to remain as active as time permitted in the Reserve Components. I’m guessing he “dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s” with respect to getting SECAF approval for all of his time spent in military training/active duty while serving in Congress. In fact, IMO he seems to have gone out of his way to do considerably more than was required for someone in his position.
For what it’s worth: if the dates listed in this article are correct (hat tip to TAH commenter AZtoVA), Graham appears to have considerably more than enough service in Afghanistan to qualify for the Afghanistan Campaign Medal and thus legitimately call himself an “Afghan veteran”. If those dates are correct for his military service time in Afghanistan, I counted over 100 days of nonconsecutive service in-country. (He’s got over 30 days service in Iraq as well, albeit nonconsecutively.) And if I’m reading the DoD regs correctly, since 1995 he did it without receiving anything but retirement points – e.g., no military pay and allowances.
I’ve never met Senator Graham. I don’t much care for some of his positions and recent actions, either. But he in my book he served honorably in the USAFR, and appears to have done far more than he was obligated (or would be expected) to do for someone in his position. The WaPO article attacking his service was IMO nothing more than a biased political hit piece.
And I’ll also say this: in my book, people who denigrated his service in comments here IMO owe Senator Graham an apology.
Category: Media, Military issues, Politics, Reserve Issues
Per the WaPo biased (for them, is there any other kind) article, this is different from. . . . . ?
???? Msg garbled, pls retrans.
Well, isn’t that special….AND educational.
Sounds like he was doing his service for the good of the DoD,but, if you want to bend it that way too, it certainly didn’t hurt him.
THAT being said, for points only, well give that man a cookie. No Pay and Allowances, and In Iraq and Afghanistan, EVEN if ie was doing it solely for his “career” or for political points or even if he was just being an Attention Whore. Point is he did it.
If you want to try to ask why, maybe you should ask HIM.
I now agree with Hondo.
I AM HONDO.
ET TU HONDO
ET TU HONDO
Cogito ergo Hondo.
Non cogito, ergo coetebus nederlandia gubernāculum.
How about “Non cogito, ergo sum membrum DRC”? (smile)
I…….. I AM HONDO……
I have met and had a few conversations with Senator Graham. He is after all from my neck of the woods and its a very small community.
I do not always agree with him politically, however I have no doubt at all of his integrity. As a Senator he has always been approachable and has done his best to serve those that elected him. I know for a fact that in the very recent past if a person called his local office and congress was not in session that the odds were pretty good that he would answer the phone himself.
I met him the first time in the barber shop years ago. I had no idea who he was, I found him to be very personable, and yes he waited his turn like everyone else.
I re-read the comments and I don’t see where anyone denigrated Graham’s service such that an apology is due. Jonn’s post pointed out that Graham claimed Desert Storm service but, in actuality, he had none. Others pointed out that Graham’s large number of deployments posited against his days deployed were anything but usual and smacked of gamesmanship. As for Graham’s climb in rank and the attribution he gave to that climb, I suppose it could be true that no one who evaluated him considered his status as a US senator. Right. It could also be true that he will be our next president, but neither is at all likely. But before I end this, let me revisit the Desert Storm claims made by Graham.
“Despite repeated statements that he served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Rep. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was actually living out of harm’s way at home in South Carolina, where he was processing wills and other paperwork for the Air Force during the entire course of the conflict. On his official web site, Graham describes himself as “an Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm veteran.” Other biographies he has written read similarly. […] But Graham says he never intended to mislead anyone about his military service. “I have not told anybody I’m a combatant,” he said. “I’m not a war hero, and never said I was. I never intended to lie. If I have lied about my military record, I’m not fit to serve in Congress.” Source: The Hill 18 Feb 1998
I love that line, “I never intended to lie.” But he did. And he did not resign from Congress as he said a liar ought to. In any event, wishy-washy and swishy Graham gets no apology from me. He served. That’s great. I wish we had more Veterans like McCain, Graham, and former Senator John Kerry in that club. Really. Not.
Well, I did say ‘didn’t amount to a hill of beans’, but I will rescind that and acknowledge that if he’d gone outside the wire, the security nightmare would have been a major issue, regardless of what he did.
imho for what its worth, he used the “military” designation as a vote getter, and being a senator sure as hell doesn’t hurt when it comes to promotions does it? so a little double dipping from the military and from the senate, not bad for a STINKING RINO! I don’t trust him any farther than I can throw Harry Reid, Schumer, Biden, obama or many others!!
Really? At least one individual outright called him a POS, and others commented disapprovingly on his multiple short deployments. At least one individual seemed to question whether the man had served honorably or not.
The former seems clearly “over the top” to me. The latter might seem reasonable at first – but shouldn’t after the DoD-imposed restrictions on Graham’s service options are understood.
IMO you are letting personal bias against the man interfere with your assessment here. You’re normally better than that.
As I’ve noted before: I disagree with some of Graham’s political positions; I’ve never met him. But his service does seem to be honorable, and he seems to have done far in excess of what most in his position would have done. For that, I’ll give him due credit.
He’s still a Blue Falcon.
Possibly true, Jonn. And I have issues with many of his positions also. But that’s also irrelevant to the point I’m making above.
Like him or not, the man served under the rules DoD mandated at the time. And he served honorably, under conditions when many others would have said, “Forget this.”
That’s worth something.
Super Blue Falcon with vet issues. Pay and beni’s all thi jack ass want to do is cut cut and cut. And I still have major issue with some of his awards
Well said. Personally, whether someone serves in the Reserves, Guard, or AD – they have done something even if it wasn’t necessarily in a combat role. I would love to see a day where the Reserves and Guard don’t have to deploy. When I was a young CPL in the 70’s I remember making fun of Reserves/Guard during REFORGER as not being “real” soldiers. Even before the past years of continuous deployments, being a “Citizen Soldier” ate up a lot of free time and didn’t necesarily have a big return on investment. There are always various levels of service in any branch or category. We’ll always have the REMF’s and those who can game the system. But for the average military member, including Senator Graham, they were willing to do something when others just sat around and bitched. We can’t all be heros. But we can at least do our part whether big or small.
Hondo – thanks for the in-depth look at the regulations. I knew there were restrictions on military service for politicians, both practical (time, travel, etc) and regulatory but didn’t have the details to put forth a coherent statement like you did.
As I said in the other comments, I’m not a fan of Graham’s but highly value truth over innuendo and facts over assumptions. It would be a sad state of affairs if military members (Reserve/Guard) were prohibited from running for office without completely surrendering their military career/affiliations.
I have not commented on his claims of veteran status of any operation because he doesn’t interest me enough to research. However, when I see some piling on simply over the character/amount of service of a veteran it sticks in my craw. Assuming you know someone’s intentions is very tenuous and runs the risk of being accused of projecting your feelings/intentions on the target. My dad taught me long ago that you don’t raise yourself by tearing someone else down.
Fact checking his claims against his service is fair game – I don’t know if he clamed to be a DS/DS veteran or a DS/DS era veteran, as some have done with Vietnam so I can’t address 2/17’s comments. Not everyone gets an opportunity to go down range, and I had to fight to the point of being accused of insubordination to get there myself.
I also posted on the other article I thought it a bit ironic that on stolen valor articles, where the person served, commenters state they should have been proud of whatever MOS/time/etc they performed as all service is commendatory, then rip into a veteran politician because he was in a REMF job instead of a trigger-puller or a specialty MOS where he flew a desk instead of a F-## with his hair on fire.
“Fact checking his claims against his service is fair game – I don’t know if he clamed to be a DS/DS veteran or a DS/DS era veteran, as some have done with Vietnam so I can’t address 2/17’s comments.”
I provided quotes. I provided the source. When you have 15-30 seconds to spare, check it out. And I would caution regarding what was stated regarding Graham’s claim of war service. It wasn’t merely that “not everyone gets an opportunity to go down range”, as you wrote. It’s that separate little matter of serving during a war and claiming you were there when you were not.
Not disputing your quotes or your statements, as I said – your comments were fair game critique. I was just making sure other understood I was not defending this individual, I was limiting my comments to areas where I had knowledge/experience.
Your comments above cite a 1998 article from The Hill. I did not see an easy way to find this article on their site and your comment did not include a link so I ended my research at that point. But again, I have no reason to doubt your claims, just making clear I haven’t seen them for myself so I can’t comment. The video on his campaign site specifically states that he “served stateside during the first Gulf War” so that is all I have to go on. Would be more than happy to look at the other if you can provide an active link, but I won’t be voting for him either way.
Here you go, for your reading pleasure:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030205071148/http://65.105.56.188/jock/stories/graham021898.html
Thanks! Have it bookmarked and will review when I have some free time this afternoon.
Looks like he or his PR guy did get out of hand. Probably a PR flack but the politician still owns it and needs to answer for/correct it. I don’t discredit his service as it was restricted beyond his control, it is still a bit thin to claim he has extensive foreign policy experience based on his service.
I always think how my service would be characterized if I ever ran for office. I would have to mention it as that has been my full-time job for several years but I would hesitate to claim that my experience is so special that it entitles me to an elected office. Some aspects give me certain insights into government processes but just because I have campaign medals from DS/DS and OIF doesn’t mean I’m a foreign policy expert. I would try to run AS a veteran but not ON my status as a veteran, if that makes sense.
OK, AZ2VA, I did retract what I said and I did acknowledge that Graham’s going outside the walls of the compound constitutes a security nightmare, because it made him fair game for the bad guys. I don’t know what else you want. The usual history of politicians with military service is that they leave the military behind when they go into the political arena.
And one of the 3 politicals I was thinking of when I said ‘hill of beans’ was Lyndon Johnson. The other one is the current Secretary of State. They both got awards that were questionable.
My beef is with the promotion to 0-6 without the required school or any apparent way to legally waive it. I knew an 0-6 quite well who served in the reserves. He held an important civilian position and a very important military position, and found a way to do both jobs extremely well. No, he was neither a member of Congress nor a lawyer.
Nice job, Hondo. You managed to address most of my questions, or perhaps more accurately, doubts. Thanks.
Only for points, no pay? Points for an 0-6 are pretty significant so it’s a rather nice deferred paycheck. Every month instead of just once.
OWB: “important civilian job” does not necessarily equate to “key position”. The latter has a specific regulatory definition that includes only a small subset of the former. See the definitions in DoDD 1200.07. Persons who serve in positions formally designated as key positions are severely restricted in what they can do in the RC via DoD policy. In particular, they are forbidden to serve in the SELRES or the IRR. They may not be promoted to GO/FO. As I read the regs, they may not receive pay and allowances, presumably including travel and per diem. In short, they can do precious little besides unpaid special work and PME courses – the latter on their own nickle, including any necessary travel. If the person you knew served in a RC unit, as an IMA, or in the IRR – then it’s a virtual certainty that that individual’s civilian position was not a formally designated key position. Personnel in key positions must be assigned to the Standby Reserve and may not serve in SELRES positions or the IRR; both IMA and Unit positions are SELRES. If the individual did so anyway, then they violated DoD policy, possibly with the help of others. A person serving in a designated key position will indeed know they are serving in one; they have a duty to follow DoD policy in this area. One last point. I cannot speak directly to USAF/USAFR policy regarding PME for its officers, particularly when it comes to USAFR officers serving in key positions on the SR-ASL. However, I will observe – as I did previously on the other thread, and which no one from the USAFR/ANG to my knowledge has yet addressed – that last year’s AWC Class President was a USAF Colonel (O6). Further, that individual appears to have been promoted to Colonel in the USAF prior to reporting for duty at Maxwell as an AWC student. I provided references documenting this fact in the comments on the other Graham article. So let’s just say I’m not exactly convinced that completion of AWC is a “hard and fast, no… Read more »
Oh, I understand that “key position” is very specific, which is why I used the words I did use. My friend was not in a legally defined key position, never pretended to be.
Many things within the Guard system had some wiggle room built in time lines to accommodate civilian lives and careers and the difficulty (often) in securing school dates. If that still exists, perhaps the example of the class prez was within those time lines.
What I’m saying is that it was not uncommon, while I was in, for the phrase “within 12 months” or “within 24 months” of appointment/promotion/whatever for training to fully qualify for the position. That requirement resulted in some horror stories, particularly in career fields and supervisory courses when they were effectively blocked to ANG personnel. (Like in small shops with schools taught only periodically.) When the calendar clock ran out, it was done and persons were separated.
Sounds like those personnel were serving in a MTOE/MTDA position that was coded to require a given level of PME; that they were given a grace period to become fully qualified; and the grace period turned out to be unworkable. When the grace period expired, they were removed from that slot. If they were excess and no other position was available, that could indeed have resulted in either a transfer to the IRR or an administrative elimination and/or a not entirely voluntary request for transfer to the retired reserve.
I did some checking, and it appears positions coded as requiring a given level of PME are more common than I’d realized at senior levels. In the active Army, it turns out many command and key staff positions at the O6 level appear to be coded as requiring SSC completion. I’d guess the same is true in the USAR and ARNG – as well as in the other services.
Bottom line: while SSC completion isn’t technically required for promotion to O6, not having completed SSC certainly limits an individual’s potential assignments as an O6. And I’m certain that selection and/or completion of SSC is used as a discriminator by the O6 board as well. Doesn’t make it a promotion prerequisite, but it does mean SSC selection/enrollment/completion serves as a high-fidelity indicator of the individual’s chances of being selected for O6.
Regarding Graham: as a member of the Standby Reserve, Graham wasn’t in a position coded to require SSC; I can see how he managed to stay in his current “assignment” (SR-ASL) until he hit age 60. How he managed to get promoted from O5 to O6 is a fair question. I’m guessing being a US Senator certainly didn’t hurt his chances, but I’d also hope that the USAFR promotion board considering him for O6 back in 2003 or 2004 didn’t base their selection solely on that fact.
OK, I lurked on this one as I do when appropriate.
Graham is a “key person” and anyone who served in the reserves knows what that means.
So whether you like or dislike him and or his service to his Country, he served in the capacity allowed by law.
PERIOD!
That is all … We now return the regularly scheduled bashing of POSERS and other miscreants!
For crying out loud, the guy’s a POLITICIAN! What else can you say about it? He turns me off as not being a man’s man. FYI, I do not owe him shit. Never did and never would have voted for him. None of his relatives were ever slaves owned by any of my ancestors. He has made a living for years telling people just what they want to hear. So why would anyone have any interest in his so-called military career? The only thing I have seen on here is opinions. A hobby horse with a wooden asshole….now there’s a rarity!!!!
Hondo – I appreciate you trying to give a fair assessment of the question. That takes some work and I appreciate it.
JQP weighed in with what I think are some reasonable questions to ask– if his statements are correct, then Graham didn’t do many of the things he claimed to do as a JAG officer. http://www.jqpublicblog.com/the-real-questions-lurking-within-lindsey-grahams-military-record/
Guy is a tax payer slug. He gamed the DOD while gaming voters and if he had any shame would retire to enjoy double dipping at tax payer expense already. Fuck that guy.
Fact is that he puts on a uniform, serves, then takes it off and shits all over his brothers and sisters in arms. He is a lawyer and a politician first…then a Vet.