Kuhl campaign spokesman gets appointment as Navy officer
To the victor, go the spoils:
U.S. Representative John R. “Randy†Kuhl, Jr. (R-Hammondsport) today announced that his deputy chief of staff, Bob Van Wicklin, was sworn in as an officer in the United States Navy. Van Wicklin received a Direct Commission to serve as an officer in the Navy Reserves.
“I am extremely proud of Bob for taking on this responsibility to serve our country in the armed forces,†said Rep. Kuhl. “To be directly commissioned as an officer in the Navy is a rare honor, and one that Bob has rightly earned. He has had an outstanding career of government service including 14 years as a congressional staff member for me and with Amo Houghton before me. I’m glad that he has taken this extra step to serve our country in the Navy while continuing his work for me and the 29th Congressional District in Washington.â€
Oh boy. Where to start. Ok. A couple of things:
1. If it’s a rare honor, how does being a professional congressional staffer merit it?
Van Wicklin will begin his Navy career as an Ensign attached to the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C. He will also continue to serve as deputy chief of staff in Rep. Kuhl’s Washington office.
2. The DIA? Well, it’s going to be a step up from having to say unintelligent stuff like this.
3. I have to wonder how Eric Massa feels about all this. I mean, the Kuhl campaign started a whisper/smear about Massa not getting far enough up the ranks in his career (although I dunno, “Commander” sounds pretty high up there to me). Maybe Kuhl thought Massa should’ve skipped all that pesky Naval Academy stuff and, you know, that “working up through the ranks” thang. If he’d only been a congressional staffer, and gotten appointed directly into officerhood, why, who KNOWS what rank he’d have achieved!
Oh, and to refresh your memory about the whisper campaign and Massa’s rank, here’s the Fighting 29th blog blast from the past:
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Intimations of a “whisper campaign” about Massa’s military service. The basis of this campaign is the idea that Massa should have achieved a higher rank than Commander after 24 years of service. A Kuhl supporter was quoted as follows:
DR. ANTHONY SANTOMAURO, Kuhl Supporter: What position did he have in Navy?
RAY SUAREZ [News Hour Reporter]: He retired as a commander.
DR. ANTHONY SANTOMAURO: How many years was he in?
RAY SUAREZ: Twenty four, but I’m not sure all of that was active duty.
DR. ANTHONY SANTOMAURO: Twenty four years in the Navy, what would you expect to get rank to?
RAY SUAREZ: Well, they say he would have made captain, except he took a medical — he retired…
DR. ANTHONY SANTOMAURO: I’ll leave it at that. I think you see where I’m coming from.
Commander is the Naval equivalent of Lt. Colonel. Of course, what Ray Suarez was trying to say is that Massa would have probably retired as a Captain (the naval equivalent of full Colonel), except that he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and spent the last part of his career fighting cancer and serving as a cancer outreach advocate.
So, yes, I think we see where you’re coming from, Dr. Santomauro.
What a bunch of insensitive jerks. That still gets me.
Well congrats to Van Wicklin. Seriously. He want to serve then ok serve - nothing wrong with that. I’m not sure direct commissions are “rare”, there is a 2 week school in FL and poof you get a commission. A google search for navy direct commission will lead you there. You don’t have to go through a service Academy to get a commission, an ROTC program will do just fine.
It sounds like he is a reservist so he still has his day job on the hill. Of course with the general military recruiting shortfalls I wonder how soon he will be activitated full time. Which makes me wonder further if the “needs of the military” will trump the desires of the individual in this case.
He went to the Naval War College, so it is ROTC. I can’t comment on how rare that is, but it is certainly rare to get a press release from your Congressman when you join the Navy.
You don’t have to be in the military to attend the Naval War College. ROTC is something you do as an undergrad, the NWC is more like grad school for those already in the business.
Will we be seeing a “Baghdad Bob” van Wicklin who issues rosy press releases about how we’re buidling schools and toppling statues in Iraq? That seems his most likely role in the armed services.
This is an outrage, a direct insult to everyone like Eric Massa who earned the right to serve as an officer. At his age the chances are that Kuhl will only stay in congress for three terms, long enough to get his congressional pension. Could Van Wicklin be the heir apparent? Using his influence with Bush & Co. Kuhl gets Van Wicklin a direct commission, he spends some time in Iraq in Intelligence and comes home to the 29th to run for congress as a war hero.
There’s an ugly scenario. Kuhl must’ve taken Massa’s “I’ll lay my uniform down on the table” challenge to heart.
Shame on all of you who have belittled Ensign Van Wicklin’s tremendous personal accomplishment and who have ungratefully ignored that fact that Van Wicklin’s commission means that he is now part of the world’s most powerful military organization, the United States Armed Forces, and as such, is responsible for protecting your safety, security, and way of life. To suggest that Van Wicklin breezed into military service for political gain is not only erroneous, but downright ignorant. In order to receive a direct commission, one must possess superior intelligence, physical and psychological strength, and patience as the application process alone can take over a year. Van Wicklin’s commitment to our country is YEARS long and he and his family, like all other military families, will be asked to make many personal sacrifices over the course of his military career. So, to those of you who have suggested that it was inappropriate for Congressman Kuhl to recognize Van Wicklin’s achievement or that Van Wicklin joined the Navy to garner a few votes for his boss, your comments are baseless and reprehensible.
I happen to know Bob Van Wicklin personally, and anyone who knows him on a one to one basis knows he is NOT ANYONEs flunkie, and is one of the hardest working and most intelligent people anywhere. Thank God he is willing to serve in the Navy …for us.
It’s interesting that you Kulites were happy to smear Massa’s record of 20 years of service but are ready to give Van Wicklin a medal of honor for his much shorter period of service. But what do I expect from the Flat Earth Party?
That said, I do respect Mr. Van Wicklin’s service. But again, maybe I’d take your complaints a bit more seriously if Republicans didn’t do things like wear purple band-aids to mock Purple Hearts and send our troops off without body armor while bragging about “supporting the troops”.