Carey Seeks a Few Good Men, Women; James Carey heads political organizations that rate candidates for Congress to ensure a strong military, homeland security and voting rights for servicemen

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 19, 2003 | by Stephen Goode

Byline: Stephen Goode, INSIGHT

Retired Rear Adm. James Carey is chairman of the National Defense PAC [political-action committee] and the National Defense Committee, groups that work to increase the number of veterans serving in Congress and to ensure the voting rights of U.S. servicemen and women. In 1975, 70 percent of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives and more than 70 percent of the U.S. Senate were veterans of military service. By 2003, those figures had fallen to about 35 percent of the Senate and less than 30 percent for the House. Even more startling for Carey is the fact than only 15 percent of freshmen congressmen have served in uniform. He asks how Congress can make adequate military policy and provide sufficient appropriations and oversight when so few of its members have any military background.

National Defense PAC supports candidates for the House and Senate who respond positively to 14 vetting questions calling for a strong military, intelligence and homeland security and for funding to ensure them.

Carey was called to active military duty for U.S. Navy service aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Topeka in 1961. Two deployments to the Western Pacific and service in the Vietnam War followed. During his military career he won four Legion of Merit awards. President Ronald Reagan appointed him a commissioner of the U.S. Maritime Commission in 1981.

It was Carey who started the Reagan Presidential Appointees Organization as well as the Conservative Network, a monthly gathering of conservatives to hear a speaker from the administration. After Reagan left office, Carey started the Reagan Alumni, a group that now has 4,400 members and evolved from the Presidential Appointees Organization. Carey is World Leader of the Knights Templar, an organization that traces its origins to the time of the Crusades, and he is the first American to hold that distinguished post.

He also is a cofounder of the National Assembly of Irish-American Republicans, about which Insight asked, "Aren't all Irishmen Democrats?" Carey smiled broadly and replied, "That's the popular misconception. But if you count the 44 million Americans of Irish descent, as I do, you'll find that half are Democrats and the other half Republicans and independents!"

Insight: Adm. Carey, how was it that the National Defense PAC came into being?

Rear Adm. James Carey: In approximately May 2000, a couple of military buddies and I were sitting over a glass of merlot, bitching and moaning because the number of veterans who were serving in Congress has been in a steady decline and we didn't see it getting any better.

Our premise was that in the past the Congress had done a reasonably good job of funding defense and coming up with some of the right [defense] systems, and that it was able to do that because the number of veterans in Congress was substantial. After all, there's nothing quite so likely to concentrate the mind on military issues, great and small, as sleeping overnight in a foxhole half-full of water and finding out your boots leak. You never forget that, and if the guy who experiences those leaky boots later gets into Congress he will make sure we don't always give these kids boots made in China by the lowest bidder. He will make sure we give them insulated boots of top quality that aren't going to leak.

Also, there's nothing like having somebody who for seven days a week has stood three section watches for 90 days at a crack out at sea to understand what that kind of life requires, even in peacetime. Such a person will know that it's not all Top Gun and An Officer and a Gentleman; that there are long, grueling hours. It helps a lot to have people voting on the kinds of ships you're going to have and the kind of people you're going to have manning them at sea also be those who have firsthand experience manning the nation's battlements.

All of the senators and members of the House of Representatives don't have to be veterans, but at least enough so that together their votes have some power. I also would include congressional staffers among those who benefit from military service, at least so enough of them have been there, done that, and who in the middle of a debate, when it's absolutely going in the wrong direction, can say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute! That is not the way the military works."

Our thought was that it would be good if we could get more veterans into the Congress and on congressional staffs. We need people who understand why it is important to put more of our national assets into national defense, homeland security and related intelligence.

Q: So what do you do about it?

A: We thought, "We need to do something, but what? How do we get more of the right people elected to Congress?" Well, we knew that all candidates need money and that they also need the support of veterans. But where do they go to get that? The Veterans of Foreign Wars [VFW] is the only veterans organization with a political-action committee.

If you check the VFW list, however, you'll find they only endorse incumbents, which doesn't elect any more veterans into the Congress. Incumbents are the ones who are already there. So we decided that in our PAC we also wanted to focus on supporting some nonincumbents who are veterans and get them elected.