Joni Ernst is a combat veteran

To the editor:

Huffington Post's Andrew Reinbach accuses Sen. Joni Ernst of embellishing her Iraq service when she claims she is a combat veteran when, indeed, she never came under fire.

The U.S. Army and the Department of Defense (DOD) have identified Ernst as a combat veteran. Where she served, in southern Iraq and Baghdad, were designated as combat zones which authorized her to receive 'imminent danger pay.”

As a captain, she was in charge of a transportation company of 135 personnel and all attending vehicles. Her responsibility was to get 'beans and bullets” off the ships in Kuwait, get them loaded on to her trucks and convoy those trucks to the 'front.” She accompanied her convoys, riding in the Command Humvee positioned in the middle of the column.

Not a danger? Tell that to the drivers and mechanics of the trucks or the gunship pilots that rode herd over head. Believe me, your life changes when you are in a combat zone. Your head is on a swivel, your eyes and ears are wide open and your pucker factor (Google it) is 'times 10.” This might not be 'combat” as Reinbach experienced it, but it's combat, none-the-less.

Certainly, Ernst did not assault any machine gun nests with a .45 in one hand and a bayonet the other, but she never claimed that. What she did do was voluntarily take responsibility for the lives of others and the successful completion of her mission in a lethal desert war.

Don Pugsley

Sergeant Major, Army, Airborne Special Forces (Retired)

Des Moines