COLUMBUS — For Ryan Calloway, the raging debate over the vice presidential candidates’ military records is “silly.” Troops serve in a variety of roles, including financial management, the retired Air Force lieutenant colonel said, and most never see combat.
“Honestly, I think it is kind of silly,” said the Decatur resident, who works as a JROTC instructor at Towers High School in DeKalb County. “We should all appreciate the service we have given and not stoop to that kind of stuff. There are more pressing and important issues other than did you serve in combat or not.”
Calloway spoke about the race as he watched one of his former students graduate from infantry training at Fort Moore on Friday. He was among many spectators at the National Infantry Museum ceremony who shared their views with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the latest flashpoint in the presidential election.
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
This week, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Donald Trump’s Republican running mate, accused his Democratic counterpart, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, of exaggerating his military service.
At issue is a video clip that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign promoted on social media this week. In it, Walz spoke to a crowd about gun control, saying: “We can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at.”
Walz never served in combat, prompting Vance’s attack.
“Do not pretend to be something that you’re not,” Vance said Wednesday as he campaigned in Michigan, The Associated Press reported. “I’d be ashamed if I was saying that I lied about my military service like you did.”
Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, reaching the rank of command sergeant major. He attended basic training at Georgia’s Fort Benning, now called Fort Moore. He helped fight floods and respond to tornadoes and was deployed on active duty in Italy.
“In his 24 years of service, the governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times,” Harris’ campaign said in a statement Friday. “Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American’s service to this country — in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It’s the American way.”
Vance served with the U.S. Marine Corps between 2003 and 2007, reaching the rank of corporal and working as a combat correspondent for his unit. He was assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing. The New York Times reported that he deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 2006 with that wing but did not see combat as a front line combatant.
Vance has also accused Walz of retiring from the Guard to avoid being deployed to Iraq with his artillery unit. The Harris campaign denied that, saying: “After 24 years of military service, Governor Walz retired in 2005 and ran for Congress, where he was a tireless advocate for our men and women in uniform — and as vice president of the United States he will continue to be a relentless champion for our veterans and military families.”
Like Calloway, Kawanda Gaines said she believes military experience could help the next vice president make critical decisions, though she cited competency as the most important factor for her in the election. She has three brothers who served in the U.S. Navy.
“You have to be competent enough to run this country, no matter who you are,” said the office manager, who is originally from Statesboro but now lives in Orlando.
Gaines visited the museum Friday to watch her son’s graduation ceremony. The event featured an elaborate military demonstration with patriotic music, purple smoke and rifle-wielding soldiers in camouflage uniforms.
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
As he prepared to watch his son march across the parade field, Karl Davis of Ferriday, Louisiana, pointed out that Trump avoided the Vietnam War because of a deferment related to bone spurs in his heel. A physician gave him that medical assessment as a favor to Trump’s father, the doctor’s daughter told The Times in 2018.
“He dodged the whole thing. He didn’t want to go,” said Davis, a retired chemical plant supervisor who plans to vote for Harris. “But there is nothing being said about that.”
Donna Greene, a retired nurse from Dawsonville, indicated Trump’s deferment wouldn’t deter her from voting for him. She added she likes Vance and sees credibility as a top issue.
“I have got to feel that I believe them, not so much whatever they did in the military,” she said as she prepared to watch her grandson stand at attention on the parade field.
Dennette Soliai of Orangevale, California, arrived early Friday to watch her son participate in the ceremony. The daughter of a Vietnam War veteran, she said “there is more to military service than just the combat side.”
“It is not always your choice who gets to go to combat,” said Soliai, a retired human resources worker. “You are giving yourself to that cause. To me, that would be the importance.”
As the ceremony ended, the graduates marched ramrod straight past Soliai and the hundreds of other spectators seated in the stands. The crowd cheered them loudly. Next, the soldiers marched toward the museum, briefly passing between several monuments to American veterans, including a replica Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. It bears the names of more than 58,000 U.S. service members who died or were reported missing during the war.
The march ended at a parking lot, where the newly minted soldiers’ luggage and buses awaited. The excitement among their loved ones was palpable as they scrambled after the graduates, hoping to embrace them once more before they headed to their assignments across the United States and abroad.
Finally, the young graduates’ superiors dismissed them. Hurriedly, they waded into the crowd and then into the waiting arms of their mothers, fathers and siblings.
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
Credit: Jeremy Redmon/jredmon@ajc.com
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