Open letter to former candidate Mande Wilkes

Ms. Wilkes is a former candidate for U.S. Congress in South Carolina's 7th Congressional District. Last month she dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination. Just this week she has posted an uninformed, irresponsible opinion that discredits our military and those who serve, past and present. You can find her post here: U.S. Troops: Heroes or hoodlums Below is my response to the former candidate.

Ms. Wilkes

Many have already pointed out your lack of research in the post “U.S. Troops: Hoodlums or Heroes?” I would like to help correct the record and since you are supposedly a republican, let me point you to a study by the Heritage Foundation, specifically Shanea Watkins, Ph.D. and James Sherk, that looked into the demographics of those who serve our military. You can get the full report here.

Key findings in this report:

1. U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officers who do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.

2. Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods-a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.

3. American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted personnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18-24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor’s degree.

4. Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. Enlisted troops are somewhat more likely to be white or black than their non-military peers. Whites are proportionately represented in the officer corps, and blacks are overrepresented, but their rate of overrepresentation has declined each year from 2004 to 2007. New recruits are also disproportionately likely to come from the South, which is in line with the history of Southern military tradition.

The Department of Defense provides similar statistics that are publicly releasable and support the findings listed above. These are also shared through the Office of Congressional Liaison. These are things you should be aware of if you ever decide to run for an office again.

I would also point out that while you suggest many service members have no alternatives but to serve in the military, your position is wrong. For myself, it has been a family tradition to some degree, and an opportunity to do something meaningful for the nation. You see, we believe in something called selfless service. To me that means I serve my nation and all its people, even you Ms. Wilkes, for the privilege it is to give to our nation – not to enrich myself or my family. It means that I do not serve for the purpose of acclaim or fame, but to protect our borders, even from afar. Selfless service is sacrificing time from my family so that my young sons, as well as the sons and daughters of other families, will not have to fight and sacrifice as my brothers and sisters in arms have had to fight these last ten years and in countless conflicts before.

I would ask that you consider your position as a public figure in South Carolina. While you certainly are entitled to your right to free speech, you are obliged to be responsible and truthful because you are a public figure. Your post was irresponsible for someone seeking an office in our government. It is terrifying to me that voters would even consider electing/nominating someone so reckless with information and so damaging to the very pillar of our nation that protects their freedoms through personal sacrifice, with blood when necessary.

For my own pleasure I’ll ask you do one more thing – please compare the ‘plush pensions’ of a military person serving honorably over 20 years and that of a congressperson serving one or two terms.

I would hope that in light of your shortsighted post you will understand your mistakes and offer amends. Honor dictates that you be accountable and if you ever hope to earn a single vote in the future, you should do the honorable thing.

MSG Tom Clementson
Kabul, Afghanistan