Band of Brothers: How Kerry's veterans could send "Brother John" to the White House

by David L. Englin
The Gadflyer, Aug. 24, 2004

This year, more than in any other modern presidential election, both candidates are turning to America's military veterans to swing crucial votes in key states. Republicans have long considered veterans to be part of their base. However, thanks to the nomination of a genuine war hero on the Democratic side and bad policy and bad politics on the Republican side, veteran support for Sen. John Kerry is growing. In a CBS News poll taken shortly after the Democratic Convention, Kerry had eliminated the gap between him and President George W. Bush among veterans who are registered to vote. In reaction, Republican front groups like the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth stepped up feverish attacks on Kerry's war record, to which Kerry has responded strongly if belatedly. Despite the fact that independent media investigations found official military documents proving the attacks on Kerry to be false, Bush continues to tacitly support them, effectively acknowledging the potential for Kerry to win the veteran vote. If Kerry can hold on to substantial veteran support it could turn the election in his favor, not only because Kerry's veterans movement can reach out to other veterans in key battleground states (there were 26.4 million veterans as of the 2000 census, fully 13% of the adult American population), but also because veterans today are uniquely positioned to win support from non-veterans.

Bush will no doubt surround himself with veterans during the Republican convention, as Kerry did during the Democratic convention. But my own experience with Kerry's "Band of Brothers" suggests something powerful that Bush, for all his cowboy talk, will have a hard time emulating. In June, 29 years old and just a week out of the military, I found myself waiting in a room to meet Max Cleland with other veterans, mostly middle aged and older, but from all walks of life. As different as they were from me on the surface, even the bearded, leather-clad, tattoo-mottled Vietnam vets literally embraced me as their brother, imploring us all to help send "Brother John" Kerry to the White House.

John Hurley, the national director of Veterans for Kerry, notes a growing sense, especially among Vietnam veterans, that America needs a combat veteran in the White House, somebody who has commanded troops under fire. By now, we've all heard the stories of John Kerry's heroism as a Navy lieutenant swift boat commander in Vietnam, where he won the silver star, the bronze star, and three purple hearts. Hurley also argues that, "Veterans relate to the troops on active duty, and feel particular outrage that many were sent to Iraq without the proper body armor, that Bush tried to cut their combat pay, and that many of them are getting substandard medical care when they return." Hurley believes that veterans make the connection between Bush's treatment of American troops and the fact that he studiously avoided combat and has surrounded himself with people who found ways to avoid even putting on a uniform during Vietnam.

While this election may represent a political realignment among veterans, Vietnam veterans have always been important to Kerry's electoral success. Hurley served in Vietnam, first met Kerry in law school in 1970, and has been a key organizer of veterans for Kerry over the years. There has always been a core of veterans loyal to Kerry – the group in Massachusetts calling themselves the Doghunters – who have successfully watched Kerry's back during his Senate bids. But that circle has grown far beyond Kerry's Vietnam and post-war peace activist comrades. What makes this year different, according to Hurley, is the feeling among veterans that this election has become a movement to put one of their own in the White House. That's what brought veterans from 16 states to Iowa in January to turn out 10,000 Iowan veterans for Kerry on caucus day, reviving a campaign pundits had all but declared dead. A week later, veterans from 27 states descended on New Hampshire and helped put Kerry solidly on the road to the nomination. It's that same sense of a movement that Hurley hopes his nationwide Veterans for Kerry organization can harness to put Kerry into the White House.

Cleland, the former Georgia senator and combat veteran who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, is the national chairman of Veterans for Kerry. He shares Hurley's view, noting that, "This is the first time in a generation that a wounded combat veteran is at the top of the ticket, somebody who has exhibited courage under fire, somebody veterans identify as one of their own."

Unlike some other movements in politics, veterans have a unique ability to grow their numbers across traditional lines of separation, and they are uniquely powerful advocates to voters who are not veterans, especially in an election so focused on national security.

Brother to brother

Borrowing from Shakespeare, Kerry calls this movement his "Band of Brothers," tapping into an important element of military culture; the sense of a common bond among people who have served. Cleland says that this "Band of Brothers" notion is what sets veterans apart from other political movements. "It's not that there isn't camaraderie among teachers and unions members and those kinds of groups, but it's different for veterans. These are people whose very lives have depended on each other."

The old movie cliché comes to mind: The Iowa farm boy, the Jewish kid from Brooklyn, the Alabama football star, the Asian kid from San Francisco, the college-educated officer, and so on, all thrown into combat together, depending on each other to survive. Maybe it's a tired cliché, but it's still a fairly accurate description of military service in America. Because of it, veterans who disagree with each other politically still share a common set of experiences and a proven willingness to lay down their lives for their country. With few exceptions, veterans don't challenge each other's patriotism. That's why Sen. John McCain can sit across the aisle from his friend John Kerry, actively campaign for Bush, and condemn attacks on Kerry's war record by the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as "dishonest and dishonorable." Some have even linked the decline in comity across the aisles in Congress with the declining number of lawmakers who are veterans.

Because of this unique bond, veterans tend to treat each other with a kind of respect that seems lost in today's bitterly partisan atmosphere, allowing them at least to hear what each other has to say. Wade Sanders is a swift boat veteran who got to know Kerry in Vietnam and now volunteers on the Kerry campaign. He also was a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy during the Clinton administration. Sanders recalls working the telephones with fellow veterans during the Iowa caucuses. Through thousands of calls to Iowa veterans, not one of them ever slammed down the phone, and even the Bush supporters were willing to hear out a fellow veteran. Howard Dean's grassroots movement took root online, but it sent thousands of out-of-state volunteers to Iowa. Kerry's "Band of Brothers" also descended on Iowa from out of state. But where many Iowans felt put upon by Dean's vociferous interlopers in their signature orange caps, Kerry's veterans – also interlopers – grew their numbers by reaching out to fellow veterans, who, rather than feeling put upon, rallied to the cause of their former comrades at arms.

Aside from being positioned to win votes among other veterans in key states, veterans have found their social status elevated in post-September 11 America, so political candidates of all stripes are clamoring for their support. Hurley notes that this wasn't always the case, especially for Vietnam veterans, but the public now holds veterans in high regard. Ask people who served in uniform before and after September 11, 2001, and they will tell you that random people now stop them on the street to thank them for their service, which almost never happened before. With terrorism and the war in Iraq front and center in this election, the American people look to veterans to vouch for the martial leadership of any potential commander in chief. Veterans bear witness to the successes and failures of past commanders under whom they served, and they give voice through their own experience to people who currently serve, whose partisan activities are necessarily limited.

Bush rankles veterans

Ironically, as Sanders points out, a good portion of veteran support for Kerry is actually Bush's own fault, and has nothing to do with terrorism or Iraq. According to Sanders, Bush has driven away veterans by failing to fully fund the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system – actually closing hospitals and eliminating certain veterans from healthcare eligibility – and by repealing the "concurrent receipt" rule that allowed disabled veterans to collect both disability and retirement. Rescinding the concurrent receipt rule has been especially controversial because civilian federal employees can still use it. Sanders also notes that Dr. David Chu, Bush's undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, dismissed concurrent receipt as an "entitlement," adding insult to injury for many veterans by implying that disabled veterans who retire are somehow grubbing for a handout.

On top of the Bush administration's clumsy handling of veterans' benefits, many veterans found the Republican treatment of Sen. Max Cleland during the 2002 election to be particularly distasteful. In Republican-funded campaign ads, Cleland, a combat veteran who left both legs and an arm in Vietnam - and who was running against Saxby Chambliss, whose bum knee excused him from serving - was likened to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden for refusing to support a version of the Homeland Security bill that would have stripped union rights from tens of thousands of federal employees. Cleland's treatment has since become a rallying cry among Democrats tired of Republicans questioning their patriotism. It also sent an ominous message to veterans that Republicans consider their patriotism to be fair game, no matter how much they've sacrificed for their country.

Against a backdrop of Bush policies and politics that have pushed veterans away, it's no wonder that Kerry's "Band of Brothers" is growing. Kerry's Iowa headquarters got a call three days before the caucuses from a man who said he was a Republican, but he wanted to help John Kerry win. "Why?" he was asked. "Because John Kerry saved my life." The call was from Jim Rassmann, the wounded Green Beret who Lt. Kerry pulled from the Mekong River. If Kerry wins in November, it will be in no small part because of men like Rassmann and thousands of veterans who call Kerry "brother."