Sen. Scott Brown announced on Monday that he will go to Afghanistan as part of his service as a lieutenant colonel with the Massachusetts Army National Guard, according to a statement on his website.
The service is part of his annual two weeks of National Guard training.
“Following in the tradition of other lawmakers who have completed their military service requirements overseas, this year I have requested to conduct my annual training in Afghanistan,” Brown said in the press release. “Doing so will help me to better understand our ongoing mission in that country, and provide me first-hand experience for my duties on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs committees.”
Brown has been in the National Guard since 1979, but has never been deployed to a war zone, despite the ongoing conflicts on Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, he has been sent to Kazakhstan and Paraguay, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
Brown is a member of the judge advocate general’s corps, where he works as the military equal of a lawyer.
His training will come in July just as President Barak Obama begins removing 132,000 soldiers from Afghanistan, according to an article in The Boston Globe.
He is one of three Senators in the National Guard or Army and Navy reserves, including Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-N.C., according an article in The Washington Post.
“Senator Brown takes very seriously his membership in the National Guard,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, an adviser to the senator, to the Washington Post. “He’s been performing military service for more than 30 years, and it’s not something he was willing to give up even after his election to the U.S. Senate.”
He has said, however, that it is unlikely that he will be deployed because as a Senator he would be considered a valuable target for opponents, which would also create additional stress for the men and women serving with him.
Brown was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2010 to replace the vacated position of the late Edward Kennedy. He is up for reelection in the fall seeking his first full six-year term.
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