Vets irked by Kirk's military claims - but it won't decide their vote
Some local veterans say they are fed up with politicians inflating claims about military service - but that may not determine how they vote in an election.
While many consider the latest example of inflated claims involving Rep. Mark Kirk not nearly as egregious as some other high-profile cases, vets say the embellishments still rankle.
"It sticks in my throat a little bit," Lake County Marine Corps League 801 Commandant Russ Dusak said Monday. "If you've earned something, good. If you didn't, why say you did?"
In Connecticut, Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal recently apologized for repeated misstatements about his military career, including false claims he served in Vietnam.
Locally, Marengo Alderman Werner "Jack" Genot was caught in 2005 lying that he was a prisoner of war in the Korean War. In Kane County, Circuit Judge Michael O'Brien lied for years about receiving a Congressional Medal of Honor before the truth came out in 1995.
Most recently, Kirk, the Highland Park Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, admitted misstatements in which he said he was "in" Operation Iraqi Freedom, the war that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He was an intelligence officer for the U.S. Navy Reserves in the United States at the time, so he has qualified his descriptions to say he served "during" the war.
Kirk also claimed he was the U.S. Navy's Intelligence Officer of the Year in 1999, but it was a different award that went to his entire unit, not Kirk personally.
Kirk's Democratic opponent, Chicago banker Alexi Giannoulias, who did not serve in the military, has criticized Kirk for the misstatements, and each campaign has called upon veterans to support its side.
On Monday, several veterans held a news conference in Chicago to urge Kirk to apologize to veterans.
"All we're asking is for Cong. Kirk, who has an honorable record, to come clean," said Vietnam War veteran Mike Horowitz of Chicago.
The Kirk campaign said he has apologized for the misstatements and called the organizers a "front group" for Giannoulias, noting that organizer Mike Donatelli's wife Jan and attendee Jill Morgenthaler are former Democratic congressional candidates.
Mike Donatelli denied connections to Giannoulias, saying the event grew out of complaints by friends and veterans, and was not affiliated with the candidate or the Democratic Party.
The Kirk campaign countered with a statement from Gurnee resident and Medal of Honor recipient Al Lynch, who supports Kirk.
"To me," Lynch said, "it is disrespectful for Mr. Giannoulias, who has never served in the military, to question the distinguished service record of a 21-year veteran like Mark Kirk."