Service members cast votes, discuss the issues

[unhappycamper]

Service members cast votes, discuss the issues
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Nov 4, 2008 20:29:36 EST

NORFOLK, Va. — Military members did their part to get out the vote Tuesday, hitting the polling stations to pick the candidate who will be their next commander in chief, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama.

Defense Department policy places some restrictions on service members in discussing election outcomes, but several sailors and Marines not in uniform and contacted outside polling stations weighed in as private citizens on the military issues they want the next president to tackle.

Austin Tice took a leave of absence from law school in 2005 to get a commission in the Marine Corps. He describes himself as a “typical liberal democrat.” In August he returned from a combat tour in Anbar as an infantry officer with 1st platoon, Echo Co., 2/24 Marines, a reserve unit based in Des Moines.

Now a captain select in the Individual Ready Reserve, he’s a first-year student at Georgetown University’s law school. As a member of a group called Protect the Vote, he manned a poll here to lookout for voter interference and other election-day antics.

“The war in Iraq for me is the most important issue,” he said. “My feeling is America has accomplished our mission there. So I personally would like to see more emphasis placed on Afghanistan and finding bin Laden.”


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/military_election_110408w/%2e

[leftofcool]

1. Some soldiers will be happy about the outcome, others no so much

but they will respect their president even if they do not agree with him