Posted on 04/21/2024 7:00:08 AM PDT by cutty
Barrett served for 22 years in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. His platform is centered on "military readiness."
Michigan GOP Congressional candidate Tom Barrett said he left the Army to run for Congress with goals to restore readiness in the military and stand up to President Joe Biden.
"I retired from the army two years ago in large part because of the failure of leadership of Joe Biden and decided to run for Congress to stand up to Biden, and really bring about a course correction in our military," Barrett said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "It's a major part of why I'm running."
Barrett served for 22 years in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait. He criticized the current military leadership put into place by Biden, arguing the military has a readiness problem.
Right now we have a recruiting problem in the military," he said. "We have a retention problem and we have a readiness problem. These are all because of Joe Biden and the senior leadership that he's appointed to these positions that have simply lost the trust of the American people.
...
Barrett is running for Michigan's seventh congressional district and currently serves as a state senator.
A lot of the issues he is supporting include protecting national security, border security and security in everyday neighborhoods. "We don't have a secure border," he said. "We don't have safe communities. We're overspending on failed priorities."
Barrett also criticized how Biden handled the Afghanistan withdrawal, saying it was one of the worst disasters in American political history. The United States haphazardly withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, resulting in the Taliban retaking the country and 13 United States soldiers dying.
"We forfeited billions of dollars in equipment, but more significant than that, the lives of the 13 service members who were lost on that day during that withdrawal that was overseen by Joe Biden," he said. "And then his own Pentagon chain of command tried to tell us that this was some kind of massive success."
Barrett is just one of many former veterans running for office who are calling for accountability in the military.
"We need to bring that trust back, and it starts with fiscal discipline," he said. "And it starts with a robust, capable military as well."
Fire 1/2 of all flag officers. Work on breaking down the empires getting back to having combat forces.
1. whoever used the idiotic term “former veteran” ain’t never been one and never will!!
In the eyes of those of us Americans who did serve, you have two classes:
those that serrved,
and everybody else.
The only way you can grammatically be called a “former veteran”, is when you are dead.
Another thing to mention, that somebody brought up a while ago, is that there is a military regulation that affects retired and medically retired servicemen, and their speaking out against the government.
Should somebody get the idea to appply that reg to this brave soul, domebody might just inform this political candidate before that card is played.
It would appear to me, that whoever called high ranking military officers, perfumed princes, was dead right on.
That was COL David Hackworth.
I thought it was him.
I was lucky...the few generals I served with had my back, which was often. I didn't mind mixing it up with field grades when I was right.
I got into it with an LTC team chief during my last exercise as a Reserve Force Commander during a Nuclear Surety Inspection. He was trying to bully me, and I was having nothing to do with that.
During the outbriefing the following day, the LTC made pointed comments as to how I led my force, which pissed me off no end. After the team left, the first person to speak was BG Archie Cannon, Deputy CG of 32nd AADCOM. His primary reason for being there was to relieve the Chain of Command up to Group CO, should the battery fail its inspection.
The first words he spoke were, "LT NHN, I'll take that hit for you. Any time you want to give your soldiers extra training, you have my express permission." That became one of the best days of my otherwise undistinguished military career.
I probably would not have made First LT in today's Army.
The deliberately misleading headline makes it sound like this is some recent development, which is clearly is not.
Barrett was already out of the military and ran 2 years ago in the Lansing district against ultra-liberal Democrat Elissa Slotkin, who is vacating the seat this time around in order to become Michigan’s newest ultra-liberal Senator, and probably end up with as long and undistinguished a Senate career as the dingbat she’s replacing (Stabenow).
Barrett was outspent by 300% in 2022 here, and he lost by 5.4%. In 2024 he has less than half as much campaign cash to work with right now than his loony leftist opponent — a perfect 100% liberal in the MI state Senate in 2022 and 2023.
This is one of the tossup battleground districts which is going to decide who controls the House after 2024. The odds of success currently aren’t great in this one, and Barrett’s going to need to come up with a very strong campaign (what with his opponent having the important advantages) in order to defy the odds in November.
I was a career USAF senior NCO. My son made it to USAF Captain. He was recently named CGO of the quarter. 👍
GREAT story.
Thank you for being willing to serve and to stand up for what is right.
Is your son still on active duty?
I loved my time on Hahn (77-78) and Spangdahlem (79-81). Our battery was tasked with short range air defense at Hahn, while Spangdahlem had another battery and Battalion HQ. The Officers Club was a two minute walk from our HQ...awesome.
I'll admit it, I was a real PITA after I'd been through a couple of successful tac evals. I'd like to think it was great confidence in my abilities, and my trust in my platoon.
During those two years as a Platoon Leader (for 3 platoons), my Platoon Sergeants all had at least one tour in Vietnam. I would have been stupid to not take advantage in their guidance and experience.
I loved tac evals once I learned what I could, and could not, do. It was showtime! lol Unfortunately, I had a CO who was much like CPT Sobel in Band of Brothers. He was an excellent staff officer who never should have been allowed near soldiers.
I was fortunate, there wasn't much going on from 76-84, when I was on active duty. I think the most dangerous time was during Nuclear Surety Inspections at a nearby Nike Hercules battery, where we played a tangential role. We assembled 40 men, issued live ammunition before we left the motor pool, and then took on our mission as an infantry platoon.
During my six forays in those inspections, we never had any injuries, or weapons discharged accidentally. I took great pains to provide them with two hours of infantry refresher training, as they hadn't had that since basic training.
The Baader Meinhof gang was known to operate in our area, and I'm certain they had observers during those inspections.
I was in Wiesbaden, from 80 to 84, but I went TDY to most USAF bases in Germany, England, and the Middle East.
I'll never forget the Wing Cdr at Hahn, COL (later BG) James Albritton. I got to know him pretty well during alerts at Hahn. There I was, a butter bar, who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
During my first Tac eval, I was briefing him on the location of our missile and gun systems, when an NBC input was dropped. Their Disaster Preparedness Officer was obviously flustered amongst 5-6 Bird Colonels, and he overreacted by recommending Alarm Red.
NBC Officer was one of my extra duties, so I jumped in and said, "Colonel may I make a recommendation?" Imagine an Army 2LT interjecting himself in the conversation...lol. I recommended Alarm Yellow, gave my reasons, and COL Albritton agreed with me, as did the NATO Team Chief.
For the next 15 months, I was called to the Eagles Nest on every NBC input. The new Base Commander, the first woman to hold that slot in the Air Force, made the mistake of asking why an "Army Lieutenant" was advising him on NBC inputs.
COL Albritton exploded, and proceeded to chew her out for a few minutes for questioning his authority. I wish I could have recorded it for posterity.
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