John,
Senator Tommy Tuberville has spent months blocking hundreds of military promotions, including some of the highest-ranking leaders in several branches of our armed services. But now, after five weeks of Senate recess, Tuberville is back in DC — and it’s about damn time he did his job.
As a Marine officer doing arms control negotiations, I saw just how dangerous even a single empty leadership position could be. So I wanted to take a moment today to tell you more about what exactly is going on and how it impacts service members, military families, and our national security.
This email is a little longer than usual, but will you please let me explain?
For the first time in over a century, the United States Marine Corps is without a Commandant — the highest-ranking officer in the Corps. We're in this situation because Senator Tommy Tuberville has blocked hundreds of military promotions, including the Commandant's.
He claims he’s doing this because government funds have been made available to cover travel for some service members getting abortions. But because I spent 13 years as an active duty Marine and I'm still Lieutenant Colonel in the Reserves, I've been in a lot of conversations about what this means and thought I'd take some time to lay it out for you.
As a note, these are my personal observations and may or may not be the same as the Department of Defense.
So first, for a lot of us Marines, this just sucks. Going to the Commandant's house and meeting the Commandant during our initial six-month officer training called The Basic School is one of the highlights of that school.
The same can be said for Marines across the world and at every stage of their training or careers. The Commandant is a big deal for us — someone we look up to, aspire to, and who gives us guidance. So not having a Commandant because some politician in DC wants to play games is a morale killer.
But the problem is much bigger than us not having a Commandant. Hundreds of other promotions are backed up with it. And that doesn't just suck — that has a real impact on our troops and on national security.
Military life is hard. You move all the time, there's no certainty, there are lots of deployments, you work very long hours, but you do it because you believe in the mission and you believe in the country and taking care of the people who live here.
And now, because promotions aren't going through, people who've given decades of their lives to this country are being asked or forced to change their plans or not retire. The one thing they thought they had control over.
People are being frozen in place. They’re not getting the promotion they worked so hard for. Their kids don't know what school they're going to. Their spouses can't figure out their employment. The list goes on and on, and the impact of that is felt throughout the Corps.
This is wrong. Service members are being used for political leverage, the same way that these politicians recently used us veterans for political leverage by holding up the PACT Act — which takes care of us for burn pit exposure we received in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's absolutely demoralizing to see them use us like this over and over and over again.
Senator Tuberville is quite literally punishing military families for things that other people have done that he doesn't like. It's shameful, it's selfish, and I'll be frank, it's stupid because it also damages our national security.
He goes out there and has the nerve to say that promotions and positions don't matter, an acting commander can do just as good a job, and be just as capable with or without the actual nomination going through.
Trust me though, rank and position do matter or they wouldn't exist.
I learned that myself when I was representing the US in arms control negotiations with NATO allies and Russia from 2016 to 2019. When you've got American officers with lower ranks going up against generals and admirals in critical meetings and negotiations, that matters.
Our allies, our partners, other countries, and our adversaries notice. Russia and China, they notice.
And now dozens, if not hundreds, of military officers are going to have to explain why the US is sending significantly lower ranks than their counterparts to critical meetings and negotiations around the globe.
When China sends a high-ranking general to meet with a third country and we send a one-star acting commander, that undermines our country, our position, and our national security. It's going to look like we don't care, it's going to look like we aren't serious, and people are going to question our country's resolve.
Weakening the position of our representatives overseas weakens our national security. Period. And that's exactly what Senator Tuberville is doing.
We need more folks right now in the media, in Congress, and especially in the Republican Party, to step up and say something — and Senator Tuberville needs to stop putting his personal politics ahead of our troops and ahead of our national security.
These service members, veterans, and their families deserve to have someone looking out for them in the U.S. Senate — and that’s just part of why I’m running to defeat Josh Hawley and flip this seat. But I need your help to do it:
If you've stored your info with ActBlue Express, we'll process your contribution instantly:
Thanks for hearing me out,
Lucas Kunce
 |
 |
 |
Paid for by Lucas Kunce for Missouri
This email was sent to [email protected]. Email is the most important way we keep in touch with people like you. But, if you'd like to receive fewer emails, you can do so here. If you need to remove yourself from our email list, click here to unsubscribe. Mail us: PO BOX 1240 Independence, MO 64050.
Use of military rank, job titles, and photographs in uniform do not imply endorsement by the Department of the Navy or the Department of Defense.