Military citizenship 101

  • Published
  • By Chief Master Sgt. (Ret) Tim Litherland
  • Lakenheath Chief's Group
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 12 months, it no surprise that we have a Presidential election coming up. Any news channel, U.K. or U.S., is talking about the candidates, the issues, the current poll numbers and who the front runners are for the different parties. It's rather hard to get away from this stuff. With "heavy saturation" political news coverage in mind, I'd like to touch on military citizenship for a few moments and what being a good military citizen is all about. I want to focus on four areas that I feel makes us good military citizens. They are; being a registered voter, being informed about the issues, being educated about our legislative process and finally belonging to a Professional Military Association. 

According to OverseasVoteFoundation.com, servicemembers living overseas have low voter rates due to complicated rules to get that absentee ballot. While it may be a tad tougher to vote from overseas, I constantly remind people that you "give up" your right to complain if you don't exercise your right to vote. Don't be discouraged by that absentee voter registration paperwork. Keep an eye on the calendar and ensure your request is made early. Come Election Day your vote will be counted. Being a "good" military citizen means you need to be registered to vote. 

So, you've navigated your state's voter registration process, thanks in part to your unit voting officer, and now you're registered to vote. I know it's easy to fall into the trap of "I don't know what's going on at home" business and after all, "One vote doesn't matter really does it?" Even if you're deployed to the most remote parts of Iraq, you can access the internet and get the latest on any issue impacting your home area, national concerns or even international issues. As a military member, or in my case a retired member, what type of issues, local or national, do you hang your hat on? Well...that's pretty easy actually. What are your hot button issues? Being a "good" military citizen means you need to be informed about the issues. 

You've decided on your "hot" issue, but you've not lived in your state of residence for a few years and don't know who your congressman or senators are. What do you do? You type www.thomas.gov in your web browser. This is the Library of Congress website and is a powerful tool to not only help you look up your elected officials, but you can also get their e-mail address and keep track of different bills in the House of Representatives and the Senate. As I said, you need to be informed to be a "good" military citizen. There are several bills relating to military base pay, TRICARE, Veteran Affairs medical care, that are floating around both the House of Representatives and the Senate right now. 

If you're after Montgomery GI Bill reform acts, type that in the Thomas search engine and see how many hits you get. For instance, Senate Resolution 22 introduced by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., relates to the GI Bill and would pay a former service member $1000 a month to live on, in addition to their GI Bill education money, while they attended college. Using Thomas.gov you could see if your senator has signed on to SR 22 as a co-sponsor and if they haven't, using the e-mail link in Thomas you could e-mail them and ask that they support this bill. Signing on as a co-sponsor simply means your elected official has agreed to support that piece of legislation. Simply put, if 51 senators agree to co-sponsor a bill, it's a no brainer that it'll pass the Senate as more than half of the 100 senators support that legislation. Also, remember what I said about being a registered voter--being a registered voter tells your elected official that you're a serious player. By contacting them, as a registered voter, you're also saying that you're prepared to vote and depending on their voting record and support for issues that you feel are important you may or may not give them your support come Election Day. Just because you're in the military, sworn to preserve everyone else's freedoms, doesn't mean you're excluded from the electoral progress. Stay informed, stay engaged--and vote, no matter how complicated you feel your State's registration process is or how insignificant you feel your vote might be. So being a "good" military citizen means you need to be educated about our legislative process. 

The 110th Congress was sworn in this past January and is at the mid-way point of its run. In 2008, we'll elect a new President, a third of the Senate and all of the House of Representatives. A significant difference between the 110th and the 109th Congress it replaced is even fewer members have any military experience. Fewer than 24 percent of congressmen or congresswomen have ever been active duty or saw any time as a member of the Reserves or National Guard. What does this mean to you? Staying informed on issues is good, but what if your elected official's staff doesn't or can't really explain your military issues to their boss? To help educate Congress, there are a number of Professional Military Associations out there to help you. I'm the European Division President of the Air Force Sergeants Association but I'm also a member of the AF Association. Some of you may be members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, the Retired Officers Association and if you're from a sister service, the Fleet Reserve Association, Association of the United States Army or the Marine Corps League. All PMAs have the same mission, educate our legislators to help their members. All PMAs follow a strict code of conduct and work hard to assist our elected representatives to maintain, review and when they can enhance your hard earned benefits. 

Voting rates over the years have declined into the 30 percent range, something that needs to change. While we protect the rights of our citizens and others to vote, we many times fail to exercise that right ourselves. Regardless of how insignificant you feel your vote may be...it's very important you cast that vote.