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Army declines to send reservist-congressman
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Steve Buyer wanted to serve his country in Iraq. He had his duffel packed with the things he remembered needing on his first tour of duty in the Persian Gulf 12 years ago. He had a skill his Army Reserve superiors said they need.
But hours before Buyer was due to ship out, his country said: No thanks. One thing on his résumé gave the Army pause.
Buyer is a congressman.
A letter from Army Secretary Thomas White said his "high profile status" might "put in jeopardy your safety and the safety of those serving around you."
Publicly, Lt. Col. Buyer seemed to be accepting his commanding officer's orders. "I understand the rationale," he said. Inwardly, he was seething.
"You don't pick and choose like that," Buyer (pronounced BOO-yur) says of the decision to exempt him. He's still a fan of the military, the six-term Republican from Indiana says, but "my respect for the civilian leadership has been lowered."
Buyer's thwarted service comes as the Reserves are straining to fulfill manpower requirements and some war critics are accusing Congress and the administration of being detached from the true cost of war. Only one member of Congress, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has a child in combat.
Letting Buyer serve would provide "a very, very positive role model" for reservists and their employers, says Bob McIntosh, a retired major general of the Air Force Reserve and the executive director of the Reserve Officers Association. The downsizing of the military has meant longer, more frequent tours of duty for the nation's citizen-soldiers.
Since 1995, members of the Army Reserve have been called up for active duty more times than they had been in the previous 88 years of its existence, according to spokesman Joseph Hanley.
There are three active reservists in Congress: Buyer, Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is in the National Guard. Buyer is the only one who was considered for duty in the war theater. He says that's because he has a special skill: During the 1991 Gulf War, Buyer, a lawyer, interrogated Iraqi prisoners.
Members of Congress have been discouraged from heading to the front lines since World War II, when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered eight back from active duty. (Four, including Rep. Lyndon Johnson, D-Texas, later the nation's 36th president, complied; four quit Congress rather than quit fighting.) Under a November 1999 Defense Department directive, members of Congress and others in "key positions" of federal government cannot be ordered to active duty. But it doesn't say they can't volunteer.
"I've already voted to send people," Buyer says. "How could I not go?"
He took a leave of absence and began the emotional process of saying goodbye to his wife and two children. When the letter from White came, Buyer wasn't relieved. He felt terrible "for the person that they're sending in my place," he says.
The Army says Buyer's skills as a POW interrogator were outweighed by the possibility that he might become a magnet for terrorists. "A congressman is a very inviting target to any enemy," Hanley says.
Buyer notes that actor Jimmy Stewart and baseball slugger Ted Williams served in World War II, though they undoubtedly had higher profiles than the representative from Indiana's 5th congressional district. "I could have taken my name tag off," Buyer says. "Don't treat me any differently than anyone else."
Former representative Greg Laughlin, a Texan who spent two weeks in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as a congressman-reservist during the last Gulf War, says "it was easy" for him to keep his official status under wraps. He says his soldier's view was invaluable for a member of Congress.
Other congressional reservists are planning to do their active duty on the home front. Kirk will spend Congress' two-week spring recess later this month at the Pentagon. Graham hopes to give another reservist a break this summer by taking his place as a military lawyer. "I may go to Bosnia," he says. Wilson spends his weekends briefing fellow Guard members on everything from how to write their wills to the laws of war.
Buyer isn't sure what he'll be doing. "I stand prepared to serve," he says. "If they need me, they know where to find me."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-06-buyer-no-iraq_x.htm
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Steve Buyer wanted to serve his country in Iraq. He had his duffel packed with the things he remembered needing on his first tour of duty in the Persian Gulf 12 years ago. He had a skill his Army Reserve superiors said they need.
But hours before Buyer was due to ship out, his country said: No thanks. One thing on his résumé gave the Army pause.
Buyer is a congressman.
A letter from Army Secretary Thomas White said his "high profile status" might "put in jeopardy your safety and the safety of those serving around you."
Publicly, Lt. Col. Buyer seemed to be accepting his commanding officer's orders. "I understand the rationale," he said. Inwardly, he was seething.
"You don't pick and choose like that," Buyer (pronounced BOO-yur) says of the decision to exempt him. He's still a fan of the military, the six-term Republican from Indiana says, but "my respect for the civilian leadership has been lowered."
Buyer's thwarted service comes as the Reserves are straining to fulfill manpower requirements and some war critics are accusing Congress and the administration of being detached from the true cost of war. Only one member of Congress, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., has a child in combat.
Letting Buyer serve would provide "a very, very positive role model" for reservists and their employers, says Bob McIntosh, a retired major general of the Air Force Reserve and the executive director of the Reserve Officers Association. The downsizing of the military has meant longer, more frequent tours of duty for the nation's citizen-soldiers.
Since 1995, members of the Army Reserve have been called up for active duty more times than they had been in the previous 88 years of its existence, according to spokesman Joseph Hanley.
There are three active reservists in Congress: Buyer, Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., is in the National Guard. Buyer is the only one who was considered for duty in the war theater. He says that's because he has a special skill: During the 1991 Gulf War, Buyer, a lawyer, interrogated Iraqi prisoners.
Members of Congress have been discouraged from heading to the front lines since World War II, when President Franklin Roosevelt ordered eight back from active duty. (Four, including Rep. Lyndon Johnson, D-Texas, later the nation's 36th president, complied; four quit Congress rather than quit fighting.) Under a November 1999 Defense Department directive, members of Congress and others in "key positions" of federal government cannot be ordered to active duty. But it doesn't say they can't volunteer.
"I've already voted to send people," Buyer says. "How could I not go?"
He took a leave of absence and began the emotional process of saying goodbye to his wife and two children. When the letter from White came, Buyer wasn't relieved. He felt terrible "for the person that they're sending in my place," he says.
The Army says Buyer's skills as a POW interrogator were outweighed by the possibility that he might become a magnet for terrorists. "A congressman is a very inviting target to any enemy," Hanley says.
Buyer notes that actor Jimmy Stewart and baseball slugger Ted Williams served in World War II, though they undoubtedly had higher profiles than the representative from Indiana's 5th congressional district. "I could have taken my name tag off," Buyer says. "Don't treat me any differently than anyone else."
Former representative Greg Laughlin, a Texan who spent two weeks in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia as a congressman-reservist during the last Gulf War, says "it was easy" for him to keep his official status under wraps. He says his soldier's view was invaluable for a member of Congress.
Other congressional reservists are planning to do their active duty on the home front. Kirk will spend Congress' two-week spring recess later this month at the Pentagon. Graham hopes to give another reservist a break this summer by taking his place as a military lawyer. "I may go to Bosnia," he says. Wilson spends his weekends briefing fellow Guard members on everything from how to write their wills to the laws of war.
Buyer isn't sure what he'll be doing. "I stand prepared to serve," he says. "If they need me, they know where to find me."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-04-06-buyer-no-iraq_x.htm
