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Elizabeth Frantz

Regarding the Sept. 5 op-ed by Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/04/army-navy-air-force-secretaries-tuberville-military-hold/" target=_blank>Don’t leave national security on hold</a>”:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is blocking the Senate from confirming some 300 military promotions, leaving critical seats without a leader, including the top officer of the Marine Corps, Army and Navy. Mr. Tuberville is putting his political ambition and need for attention above the lives and livelihoods of service members.

As a military spouse, I have seen firsthand that service members are apolitical, dedicated to the mission and willing to give their lives in service to a cause greater than themselves. It’s time for Mr. Tuberville to serve a cause greater than himself and end his protest.

No matter your political beliefs, we must agree that service members and military families will not be used as political leverage. The senator must end this political showmanship and recommit to respect the service and sacrifice of those who pledge to defend this nation.

Kate Marsh Lord, Springfield

The writer works at Secure Families Initiative.

Rape is anything but foreign to women in the military. Though well more than <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/09/01/sexual-assaults-female-troops-reach-highest-level-more-decade.html" target=_blank>8 percent of women in the service</a> have reported rapes, as elsewhere, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/sexual-assault-remains-dramatically-underreported" target=_blank>80 percent of assaults go unreported</a>. The new <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/04/military-system-sexual-crimes/" target=_blank>Offices of Special Trial Counsel</a> certainly constitute a start toward addressing that.

Having myself conceived after being drugged and raped, I know how it feels to encounter the disdain and disbelief of the police to whom I reported the crimes. No woman should be forced to endure bearing a violent aggressor’s child. Luckily, when that happened to me, then-Sen. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Joe Biden</a> (D-Del.) was updating the <a href="https://nnedv.org/content/violence-against-women-act/" target=_blank>Violence Against Women Act</a> to include date-rape drugs, of which I hadn’t heard.

More than 26 percent of women in college <a href="https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence" target=_blank>experience rape or sexual assault</a>. At NCAA Division I schools (such as Auburn, Ole Miss and Texas Tech, where Tommy Tuberville coached football), incidences of rape increase by more than <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20160031#:~:text=We%20find%20significant%20and%20robust,increase%20reports%20by%2015%20percent." target=_blank>40 percent after home games</a>.

I wonder how it would look if the United States were to glorify, protect and value what women and girls bring to the table.

Though it felt like vindication to read the leaders of the U.S. armed forces write that the military’s “foundation is being actively eroded by the actions of a single U.S. senator,” Mr. Tuberville’s willful ignorance about the plight and rights of women also seems corrosive for humanity itself.

Elissa Middleton, North Hollywood, Calif.

For more than two decades, I served as an Army officer. Here’s the deal behind providing transportation to pregnant service members. It is and has been military policy for more than 100 years to not penalize members when they and their families are sent to locations that lack the amenities commonly expected by our citizens. Post and base exchanges and commissaries provide members with U.S.-style food and clothing options in places such as South Korea and Germany. When members are overseas, the government picks up the cost of their postage between the overseas location and the nearest U.S. state.

These services are provided because the military has obligations all over the United States and the world. If a service member is needed in Italy or Alabama, he or she is sent there on orders. As a service member, you have to comply with orders or you can be put in jail. Providing transportation to female service members to get out of Texas or Georgia for medical issues is in keeping with this long-standing policy. These women did not exercise free will in going to such benighted states and should not be penalized for being assigned there. The old policy is being applied to a new situation. This isn’t complicated.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is a professional coach and an amateur politician. Sadly, he hasn’t considered the price our country is paying for his antics.

Rich O’Bryant, Alexandria

As one who served in the Army for 20 years, I am deeply concerned that the three military service secretaries would malign legitimate congressional scrutiny of military promotion actions.

It is alarming to see politically appointed military officials condemn an elected senator because he is holding the Defense Department to long-standing national policy. The idea that the military institution can select which laws to obey offers a reminder of why it was placed under civilian control from the nation’s opening moments. Our ancestors knew that peacetime standing armies can become dangerous to liberty.

I can personally attest that the ranks have been highly politicized in recent times. Against that reality, I chose to conclude my career as a military spokesman. Many others have made similar choices because the Defense Department has come to view itself as beyond accountability.

Responsibility for what the secretaries label a spectacle lies with the Defense Department, not the Senate. The service secretaries must know this. Their attempt to pass blame is a dangerous move that serves only to further harm public trust in the nation’s armed forces.

Chase Spears, Lansing, Kan.

I decided to check the résumé of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) after reading the op-ed from the secretaries of the Navy, Army and Air Force. I learned he coached for 40 years, beginning at age 22, and then worked for a small capital management firm where his stated primary role was to attract investors. There was no mention of military service or experience.

Mr. Tuberville wrote in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/22/tuberville-hold-military-nominees-national-security/" target=_blank>a June 22 letter</a>, “My hold on military nominees doesn’t affect national security,” that his procedural hold on military nominees “is not affecting [military] readiness.” I’d like to ask him about game-day readiness in football if there were a hold on head coaches and offensive and defensive coordinators across the NCAA. His experience in the sport probably allows a reasoned view on that question. With regard to military readiness, I think I’ll stick with the secretaries.

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