We get so many pleas for money in our little retirement household from politicians that most never get a second look except during gubernatorial, senatorial, and presidential elections.  I confess, however, that there is a single word that, should it catch my eye regardless of the office, ensures a closer examination, and that word is veteran.  Even there, though, my eye is yet further discriminating, searching for evidence of more than just service to our country, looking for proof of time served in ground combat arms organizations and more specifically for direct ground combat experience.  The closer the candidate has served to the pointy end of the spear in deadly and dangerous places, the more likely he will get a donation from this old combat infantryman.  If the petitioner has jumped out of airplanes as part of his lethal service, his chances go up even more.

My poor spouse has been hearing for decades my unending refrain that we need more Airborne Rangers in Congress.  These are precisely the kind of people who know how to identify an objective, how to develop a plan to reach it effectively, and ultimately how to take that objective by whatever means are at hand when the original plan has gone all to hell, as all battle (and political) plans tend to do.  Former Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs, USMC Force Recon/Special Ops, and Air Force Special Operators also are political candidates likely to get some of my money because they all share those combatant skills as well as the required attitude.

So that's why, upon retiring to beautiful Arkansas, we became immediate fans of our young congressman, Tom Cotton, a former Airborne Ranger who'd served in combat in Afghanistan, with my old unit of fifty years ago in Vietnam, the 101st Airborne Division.  That is why young Cotton got our vote and some of our money when he ran for the Senate, and that is why he tickled us to death this week when he verbally smacked that fancy-pants New Yorker, Charles Schumer, right in his prissy kisser, right there on the Senate floor.  Too bad it was just verbally, but even so, it made me proud of him and our shared legacy and just reinforced my belief in proven warriors as politicians.

Next election, watch your email and snail mail solicitations for candidates and incumbents like Cotton and Allen West, a combat commander and master parachutist, and send them a few extra bucks, regardless of whether they're in your state or not.  After all, they were serving your state when they were serving this country, were they not?

Have I said we need more Airborne Rangers in Congress?