OPINION: Sullivan goes to the mat for military and our veterans

Since he’s been in office, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s north star has always been strengthening America’s military and our national security — both in Alaska and across the globe — and working to take care of our nation’s veterans. Some of this work has involved passing and offering amendments to legislation — like the National Defense Authorization Act and various other bills to ensure that our veterans get the help they need and deserve. But I know through personal experience that much of the work to strengthen our military takes place behind the scenes.

Two big issues that got solved in 2023 — thanks in no small measure to Sullivan’s tenacious work — didn’t involve legislation, but are still critically important to our military and to our veterans nonetheless.

First, those of us who have served in our nation’s military know that the holiday season can be rough on us and our families. Christmas overseas, no matter the country, is just not like Christmas at home. That experience was, until recently, even more unsettling to members of our military due to fact that the promotion and the lives of at least 450 military officers — and their families — were in limbo.

Thanks to the efforts of Sullivan — who, despite the significant political risks that it took to counter another senator from his own party — the 11-month block on these promotions was finally lifted. Families will now have certainty about where they are going to be living, and our national security will be strengthened.

As many readers know, the holds were placed by Sen. Tommy Tuberville from Alabama on these military offices to protest a new Pentagon policy that paid for women who lived in states where abortion access was limited to travel to other states to receive the procedure. No matter your side on this issue, it was an ill-conceived policy that ultimately had more to do with politics than with our military’s war-fighting ability.

As Sullivan has repeated, he is personally “pro-life,” but the people who were being impacted by this protest of the policy had nothing to do with its creation, and could not change it. He asked repeatedly — why are we punishing hundreds of military officers and their families over a policy dispute they had nothing to do with and no power to fix?

I can speak from personal experience that it’s maddening and demoralizing for members of our military when they are caught up in these kinds of political matters. Further, it greatly impacts our national security.

Sullivan said that he heard from many of these military officers who were considering retiring because of this limbo that they and their families were caught in. I, too, heard from some who were also considering leaving the military because of these blanket holds. That would have been a grave mistake. These officers have spent their entire careers garnering valuable experience and training for these important positions. They are the best at what they do. If we lose them, we lose decades of training and expertise. We lose a generation of the greatest warfighters since World War II — at probably one of the most dangerous times for our country since that war.

A colonel in the Marine Corps himself, Sullivan was one of the few members of Congress who understood this and could see what was at stake. Our state and our country owe him a debt of gratitude for the work he did — again, despite the political consequences, in getting these holds lifted.

Another issue that Sullivan worked relentlessly to fix was Marines being targeted by scurrilous trial lawyers trying to grab the compensation they were due.

Marines and members of their families who served at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina during the 1970s and 1980s, and were sickened by water contamination found themselves the targets of a multimillion-dollar ad campaign unleashed by trial lawyers nationwide. These ads basically told Marines that, if they were sick, they could get huge payouts.

What they didn’t say was that the lawyers themselves were the ones who would be getting the payouts. That is because the legislation that passed to allow those impacted by Camp Lejeune contamination to receive compensation didn’t include caps on these lawyers’ fees. Some of these law firms were charging up to 70% of the amount that the sick Marines would be getting.

Sullivan worked all angles of this. When Democrats blocked his legislation to impose attorney fee caps for Camp Lejeune awards, he went directly to the U.S. attorney general to argue that this was a huge injustice that allowed unscrupulous trial lawyers to take so much money from the families of sick Marines and that the Federal Tort Claims Act should prevent this. The attorney general agreed. This fall, Sullivan was finally able to get the Department of Justice to impose caps of between 20-25%.

This was a top priority for him and a major victory for our veterans.

As I said, these actions—both breaking the blanket holds on military promotions and the Camp Lejeune win — will not be documented in the legislative record, but are both critically important to the security of our nation and to the well-being of our veterans.

Many members of Congress like to talk about how much they support our military and our veterans. Sullivan actually goes to the mat for them, and he wins.

Gen. Joe Ralston is former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Europe, and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is Vice Chairman of the Cohen Group. He lives in Anchorage.

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