10th congressional district candidates spar over military service

As Election Day nears, the race for the tenth congressional district has taken a bitter turn with the Democratic challenger, Bobby Saxon, questioning the military service of the Republican incumbent, Rep. Paul Broun.

Saxon says Broun is misleading the public by saying he served in the Marine reserves in the "pre-Vietnam War era."

He says 20,000 American troops died in Vietnam during Broun's time in the Marines.

The two argued about Broun's service in an Atlanta Press Club debate at GPB's studios on Sunday.

"Will you look into the camera and tell the people of the tenth district why you misled them about your military record?" says Saxon.

"Bobby, you're so full of it," Broun replied. "You've not only impugned me, but every single person who served in the military who did not go to war."

Broun says he served in the active duty marine reserves from 1964-1967. Broun was serving when thousands of the casualties noted by Saxon happened. About 8000 of those deaths happened during his first three years. Broun was never deployed to Vietnam, although he says his unit eventually was.

In interviews with GPB, Broun has characterized his military service as beginning before things in Vietnam "got hot."

The war escalated with 11,000 American troop deaths in 1967, the year Broun started school at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He says he changed his military commission to the Navy reserves because of school.

Broun strongly disputes any implications that he avoided the war or that his lack of combat experience renders him unqualified to be a congressman.

Broun says his decision to leave the marines was MCG's call, since a deployment would have interrupted his education.

"The medical school made me get out of active Marine reserves so I had a commission in the Navy as a general medical officer," Broun said in the debate.

But Dr. Lois Ellison, MCG's historian, says the school has never required students to avoid active duty.

"I can assure you that that has never been the case," says Ellison. She says the school allowed deferments to students if they were called up, and that the military badly needed medical personnel during the war.

But Ellison also adds that she cannot speak to what an individual, such as an advisor, might have personally said to Broun.

Ellison was unsure how many MCG students served in Vietnam.

Bobby Saxon is also a veteran, serving in the army and the national guard. He spent a year in Iraq as a combat battle major with the 3rd Infantry Division.

Saxon, meanwhile, released a video advertisement via YouTube today questioning Broun's service.