How Pete Buttigieg’s time at Columbia’s Fort Jackson has helped shape his candidacy
When University of South Carolina sophomore James Wilson tells students why he backs South Bend., Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg for president, he shares a story about himself very few knew before last year.
“I remember turning on the news (in 2015) and seeing that the U.S. Supreme Court had legalized gay marriage — all the feelings that came with that,” said Wilson, 19, a senior volunteer on Buttigieg’s S.C. campaign. “I feel the same emotions when I hear Pete talk, when I see his interviews, when I read his book.”
Wilson, who came out to his parents a year ago, told The State the students he speaks with are largely unaware Buttigieg, a former intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, is an Afghanistan war veteran.
They also aren’t aware Buttigieg spent several weeks training at Columbia’s U.S. Army training base, Fort Jackson, long before the 2020 presidential hopeful began traveling to the Palmetto State to campaign, he said.
But while Buttigieg’s experience in South Carolina isn’t universally known, it played a role in shaping him — and now his candidacy.
“I was a Navy guy, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was supposed to be doing at Fort Jackson,” Buttigieg, 37, said in September from the Galivants Ferry Stump. “But when you sign up, the needs of the Navy are what comes first, and for some reason the Navy decided they needed me to go do Army stuff. So, they sent me here to South Carolina.”
The first thing Buttigieg says he remembers about Fort Jackson is the drive in — the tall trees, the chilly weather and his young drill instructors. He shared several stories from his short time there in his memoir, “Shortest Way Home: One Mayor’s Challenge and Model for America’s Future.”
Buttigieg writes: “The culminating event of the three-week combat training sequence was an all-day convoy simulation, where we proceeded through a threat-filled third world village, a slice of Afghanistan (or Somalia or Iraq, if you preferred) in the South Carolina woods. Advice was dispensed along the way, with occasional reminders that we were not supposed to be in combat roles, but would have to learn these things, just in case.”
Since the September stump, Buttigieg has surged in early state polling, though he still has struggled to win over South Carolina’s black voters, who make up two-thirds of the S.C. Democratic Party’s electorate.
But focusing on his military service, his supporters say, could help him attract more moderate Democratic voters seeking a younger candidate, or even Republican voters looking for an alternative to Republican President Donald Trump.
“Google Mayor Pete,” self-described longtime Republican voter John Dabrowski, 37, of Pawley’s Island, told The State at at Galivants Ferry. “If you hear about him, I think you’ll find something you like about him.”
As Buttigieg’s presidential campaign grows, his staffers say to expect a stronger focus on veterans and their families in early voting states. That includes in military-heavy South Carolina, home of the nation’s “First in the South” Democratic presidential primary on Feb. 29, more than 400,000 veterans and eight military installations.
“I find that even somebody with different values, maybe different political ideology can still make a connection, and maybe earn their support during an election,” Buttigieg told The State. “Not ... pretending to be something you’re not or watering your own beliefs, but by respecting people, understanding where they’re coming from. … And, I think part of the job as president is to bring Americans together, even or especially when we disagree on a policy.”
Buttigieg’s campaign rhetoric on military service and veterans has ramped up recently.
This week, Buttigieg launched policy initiatives directly for veterans and those in uniform. He also proposed naming the first woman to take the helm of the U.S. Veterans Affairs. And, Thursday, his campaign announced a $2 million, 60-second radio ad buy in South Carolina that will focus on his military record and service in Afghanistan.
“It’s not just a message about veterans to veterans,” Buttigieg told The State. “It’s a message to the country, about how this country keeps a promise that ... goes both ways. When a service member makes a promise to put their life on the line for the country, the country has to make a promise back and that promise has to last a lifetime.“
Jason McRae, 42, got to know Buttigieg at Fort Jackson, when the two picked bunks next to each other.
The two have stayed in touch since their training, said McRae.
Looking back at their time at Fort Jackson, McRae pointed to certain moments that, in hindsight, hinted at a future life in public life for Buttigieg. One day, for example, McRae watched Buttigieg pace back and forth in a room with earbuds in his ears.
“I said, ‘Hey man, what are you doing?’ McRae recalled. “He was either refreshing or learning a language, one of the dialects spoken in Afghanistan. He was learning and repeating phrases. I sort of chuckled. He was picking up a not very commonly used language to say the least.”
Now watching his friend run for president, McRae said not much about his “battle buddy” has changed.
“I got to know Pete as a calm, confident guy, who came across as a capable Naval office. If you talk to Pete, you have his full attention. I don’t have that skill set. The lack of pretense, the sort of sort of person you see, he really is like that. That’s the guy I know consistent before and during and after.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
