Veterans Outspoken About Views

By Ethan Williams

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — On the corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections, St. Louise Avenue and 41st Street, Vietnam veteran James Wainscoat sits in a lawn chair under an Army Special Forces cap and a blue-and-white umbrella in front his pewter Chevy suburban. With Hillary Clinton signs staked in the grass on either side if him, he waves at people who honk and chant, “Hillary, Hillary,” as they drive past.

Veterans make up about 13 percent of the voting population and are some of the hardest people to poll, with military regulations that limit the expression of political opinion of enlistees and restrict access to governmental veteran agencies.

“I judge first for commander in chief,” Wainscoat, 67, said of voting. “She shows a tenacious spirit of a warrior. I look for a warrior’s heart; you don’t have to be in combat to have that.

“That gal’s like Joan of Arc. I’ll follow her down to hell.”

A mile-and-a-half west down 41st Street, Navy Vietnam veteran Judy Baxter makes Democratic National Committee get-out-the-vote calls at the Obama headquarters in comfy green sweats.

Obama “strikes me as a man who listens,” she said, while avoiding local television camera crews because of her attire. He’s open to mentoring, she said.

“This man is coming from nowhere,” Baxter, 64, said. And all the Democrats are eager to help him.

Baxter said Obama is smart enough to know that he doesn’t have military experience.
He made a believer out of very cynical politicians, she said.

Unlike Wainscoat and Baxter, active duty members of the military are restrained by Defense Department Directive 1334.10.

At the Army National Guard Armory, Sgt. 1st Class Ted Deloy described his daughter as an avid campaigner.  As a uniformed soldier, he is not supposed to openly support any candidate, although he has a strong belief in one party.

Voting is a right and duty of every American, Army National Guard Capt. Tom Krull said.  We are choosing our commander in chief, he said.

For veterans out of uniform, their political opinion in uncensored.

“Hillary is a real treasure,” he said.  She’s made mistakes, but she learns from them, she said.

“The only thing going for Obama is he’s a good-looking black man,” he said. “Obama is an unknown. A good place for him is vice president.”

On the other hand Baxter was open to the prospect of Clinton as president.

“Hillary sounds tougher than any of the guys,” she said.  Clinton would make a capable commander in chief.

She said either Obama or Clinton would get the United States out of Iraq.  “They’ll do it intelligently,” Baxter said.