Bob McNamara, Upham

In response to an Aug 5 letter I would submit Mr. Turberville is in fact is way off base in blocking military promotions. His is strictly a political move against an administration that he doesn’t like. One only has to look at the administration’s decision to leave US Space Command in Colorado rather than move it to Alabama.

I spent 26+ years in the military. In 1990 while stationed in Spain I had a young airman who became pregnant. There was no authority for the military to provide an abortion. She couldn’t have an abortion in a Spanish hospital and, for her own reasons, she couldn’t fly to her home to have an abortion. So, another young airman flew with her to her home state and to her family for the abortion. Two young troops used their leave, paid their way to the states, paid for the abortion, and couldn’t get help from any military sources.

To all those who believe Mr. Tuberville is right to block military programs don’t tell me you care about troops. Troops who may or may not have asked to be stationed overseas or in some state where abortion is damn near impossible. And let’s be very clear the military is not paying for ANY abortions. The program strictly provides them the time off (without using their earned leave) and reimburses transportation costs. I doubt one can claim the time off is the big problem when the military already provides 12 weeks of non-charged leave to birth mothers and birth fathers. The same 12 weeks non-charged leave is available to mothers and fathers who adopt or those who take in long term foster children and a host of other family programs. Please don’t say you have an issue with non-charged leave. There was a time when non-charged leave was unheard of but that is not today’s military.

Also, spare me what 5000 veterans have to say. There are millions of veterans in this country. One can easily find 50,000 veterans homeless or sitting in prisons so finding 5000 to sign a letter is a drop in the bucket. And guess what. There are many legal experts who say this program is perfectly legal so the fact that “some legal experts” say it is illegal is an argument that I certainly wouldn’t hang my hat on. This is strictly an issue of taking care of troops and should not be the political issue that Mr. Turberville and others want it to be.

How Mr. Turberville got to the Senate I’ll never know. But the fact remains he is there hurting the nation’s military and national defense for a personal vendetta. I doubt Mr. Cramer will stand up to this nonsense as he seems afraid of Donald Trump, Harold Hamm, the national Republican Party, and the ND Republican Party. Even though he is in a thoroughly republican state the nation can be damned because he fears for his job and will not stand up to anything unless he is told to. That is unfortunate because he has the knowledge and skill to be a meaningful senator. Mr. Cramer, publicly stand up to this nonsense and get the other republicans to join in to shut Mr. Tuberville down.