Jim Webb

For other people named James Webb, see James Webb (disambiguation).

For the Canadian figure, see Jim Webb (Canada).

Jim Webb

James Henry "Jim" Webb, Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is a veteran Marine, author and politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Now a Democrat, Webb served in the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan.

Webb graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was a member of the Marine Corps until 1972. Webb was an infantry officer and is highly decorated for his service in the Vietnam War.

During his four years with the Reagan administration, Webb served as the nation's first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and as Secretary of the Navy. Webb entered the 2006 Virginia Senate race, and defeated Harris Miller in the primary to win the Democratic nomination. Webb is running against incumbent Republican George Allen.

Early life and education

Webb was born in Saint Joseph, Missouri, to a military family. He is the descendant of Scots-Irish Americans who emigrated to the United States from northern Ireland in the 1700s during the colonial era and are now scattered across the United States. Webb's 2004 book Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America details his own family history, including relatives who fought in every major American war.

Webb's father, a career officer in the U.S. Air Force, served as a bomber pilot in World War II (flying B-17s and B-29s), dropped cargo during the Berlin Airlift, and was involved in missile programs. Webb's father is buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.

Because of his father's military career, Webb grew up on the move, attending more than a dozen schools across the U.S. and in England. Webb graduated from high school in Bellevue, Nebraska. After high school, Webb attended the University of Southern California (where he was a member of Delta Chi) on a Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship from 1963-1964. Webb was accepted to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1964. At Annapolis, Webb was a member of the Brigade Honor Committee. He graduated in 1968, in the same class with Dennis Blair and Oliver North. (Webb and several other graduates, including North and Senator John McCain, are the subject of Robert Timberg's book The Nightingale's Song.)

Other distinguished members of Webb's Naval Academy Class of 1968 include the current Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Michael W. Hagee. Another classmate, retired Admiral Jay L. Johnson, also served as Chief of Naval Operations--the U.S. Navy's senior ranking officer.

Military career

After graduating from Annapolis, Webb was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. He served in the Vietnam War as a first lieutenant rifle platoon leader in Company D in the 1st Battalion of the 5th Marine Regiment, as part of the Fleet Marine Force. Webb earned a Navy Cross, the second highest decoration in the Navy and Marine Corps for heroism in Vietnam. Webb also earned the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts.

Webb received the Navy Cross for actions on July 10, 1969. The citation read:

The Navy Cross is presented to James H. Webb, Jr., First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving as a Platoon Commander with Company D, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, First Marine Division (Reinforced), Fleet Marine Force, in connection with combat operations against the enemy in the Republic of Vietnam. On 10 July 1969, while participating in a company-sized search and destroy operation deep in hostile territory, First Lieutenant Webb's platoon discovered a well-camouflaged bunker complex which appeared to be unoccupied. Deploying his men into defensive positions, First Lieutenant Webb was advancing to the first bunker when three enemy soldiers armed with hand grenades jumped out. Reacting instantly, he grabbed the closest man and, brandishing his .45 caliber pistol at the others, apprehended all three of the soldiers. Accompanied by one of his men, he then approached the second bunker and called for the enemy to surrender. When the hostile soldiers failed to answer him and threw a grenade which detonated dangerously close to him, First Lieutenant Webb detonated a claymore mine in the bunker aperture, accounting for two enemy casualties and disclosing the entrance to a tunnel. Despite the smoke and debris from the explosion and the possibility of enemy soldiers hiding in the tunnel, he then conducted a thorough search which yielded several items of equipment and numerous documents containing valuable intelligence data. Continuing the assault, he approached a third bunker and was preparing to fire into it when the enemy threw another grenade. Observing the grenade land dangerously close to his companion, First Lieutenant Webb simultaneously fired his weapon at the enemy, pushed the Marine away from the grenade, and shielded him from the explosion with his own body. Although sustaining painful fragmentation wounds from the explosion, he managed to throw a grenade into the aperture and completely destroy the remaining bunker. By his courage, aggressive leadership, and selfless devotion to duty, First Lieutenant Webb upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service.

Post-military career

James Webb as Assistant Secretary of Defense, 1984.

Webb attended Georgetown Law School from 1972 to 1975, graduating with a law degree. While at Georgetown, Webb wrote his first book, Micronesia and U.S. Pacific Strategy.

After graduation, Webb worked on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 1981, and also represented veterans pro-bono during that period.

Webb served as the nation's first Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs from 1984 to 1987 and then was promoted to Secretary of the Navy and served from 1987 to 1988 during the Reagan Administration. He resigned as Secretary of the Navy after refusing to agree to reduce the size of the Navy. It is believed by many that Reagan regretted Webb's resignation and that the dispute was between Reagan's Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci and Webb.

During his time as Assistant Secretary, Webb was largely responsible for the reorganization of the entire Marine Corps. Webb was distraught at the disarray the Marines had fallen into post-Vietnam; the Oliver North scandal and Webb's perception of Corps members' drug use, racial infighting, and low morale made him feel it was no longer America's premier fighting force. Webb hired Al Gray as commandant of the Marine Corps with the hope that Gray could reshape the Corps into the elite unit it once was. Today, the Marine Corps looks at Webb as a surrogate father who relaunched the Corps and bettered the force.

After resigning as Secretary of the Navy, Webb worked primarily as a writer.

Among Webb's awards for community service and professional excellence are the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Medal of Honor Society's Patriot Award, the American Legion National Commander's Public Service Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Media Service Award, the Marine Corps League's Military Order of the Iron Mike Award, the John H. Russell Leadership Award, and the Robert L. Denig Distinguished Service Award

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Webb wrote an op-ed piece for USA Today in which he considered the candidacies of John Kerry and George W. Bush from the perspective of military veterans. He criticized Kerry for his activism against the Vietnam War in the 1970s while affiliated with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and accused Bush of using his father's connections to avoid service in Vietnam and also said Bush had "committed the greatest strategic blunder in modern memory" with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

2006 Senate campaign

Main article: Virginia United States Senate election, 2006

File:JAMES WEBB PORTRAIT With Permission.jpg

James Webb in 2006 (courtesy of 2006 Webb Senatorial Campaign)

In late 2005, an Internet campaign began to draft Webb to run for the Senate. On February 7, 2006, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the 2006 Senate race against incumbent Virginia Senator George Allen and Gail Parker, the Independent Green Party nominee.

In the Democratic primary on June 13, 2006, Webb faced longtime businessman and lobbyist Harris Miller. Webb won in a low-turnout race, with 53.5% of the vote.

Allen had been expected to have a relatively easy race, preparing him for a possible candidacy in the 2008 Presidential campaign. But Webb's entry into the race, and primary victory, changed the political landscape. Political analyst Larry Sabato said in May that "Jim Webb is George Allen's worst nightmare: a war hero and a Reagan appointee who holds moderate positions…. Allen tries to project a Reagan aura, but Webb already has it." In September, Bloomberg.com's Catherine Dodge wrote an article highlighting Webb and the Senate race, and said "Webb isn't a typical Democrat. His family hails from the rural southern part of the state. He's pro-gun ownership, and he takes a harder line on illegal immigration than many Senate Republicans."

As of October 24, of four national polls, three showed Allen ahead. Real Clear Politics' average of the polls has Allen ahead 1.3%, which is well within the margin of error.

Controversies

• On September 7, 2006, Webb released his first television advertisement. It featured footage of a 1985 speech by Ronald Reagan praising Webb at the secretary's alma mater, the United States Naval Academy in 1985. The next day, an official working for the Reagan Presidential Foundation faxed a letter to Webb's campaign on behalf of former first lady Nancy Reagan, urging them not to air the advertisement.

• Five female graduates of the United States Naval Academy held a press conference decrying an article written by Webb in 1979, entitled "Women Can't Fight". The women said Webb's article contributed to an air of hostility and harassment towards women at the academy.

• Webb has received an endorsement from nine military women who state that Webb is a "man of integrity" who "recognizes the crucial role that women have in the military today".

• Webb has faced various accusations that he used racial epithets while an ROTC candidate at USC. - Rena 21:07, 1 November 2006 (UTC) This is unsubstantiated. There is no credible reference outside of absolute inference from one article cited below and it does not rise to the level of either "various" nor "accusations". I will leave the reference in place to maintain the integrity of the wiki, but this has no place under "controversies" as it amounts to nothing more than a propagandized rumor.

• On October 26, 2006, the Allen campaign issued a press release that cited several passages from Webb's novels that contained sexual scenes, including graphic references to female anatomy, pedophilia, homosexuality and incest. The press release said that the passages showed a "continued pattern of demeaning women". Allen's campaign refused to tell a local radio news station, WTOP-FM, whether it in fact had issued a news release on the matter.

Books

Webb's successful first novel, 1978's Fields of Fire, drew from personal experience to tell the story of a platoon of US Marines in Vietnam in the late 1960s. Reviewers hailed its pull-no-punches descriptions of infantry life and combat.

He followed that with five other novels, then wrote a work of non-fiction, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America. The book traces the role of the people of Scots-Irish ancestry in the development of American history and culture. Webb argues that, far from the "cracker" and "redneck" stereotypes often applied to the Scots-Irish, many of whom settled in Appalachia, the American Midwest and the American South, the Scots-Irish were central to defining American working class values and culture. He cites the fiercely independent streak and individualism of the Scots-Irish as laudable values, and their political pragmatism as explaining their role as swing voters in elections, in recent decades as Reagan Democrats, and as Ross Perot and Reform Party voters.

• Fields of Fire (1978) ISBN 0-553-58385-9
• A Sense of Honor (1981) ISBN 1-55750-917-4
• A Country Such as This (1983) ISBN 1-55750-964-6
• Something to Die For (1992) ISBN 0-380-71322-5
• A Sense of Honor (1995) ISBN 1-55750-917-4
• The Emperor's General (1999) ISBN 0-553-57854-5
• Lost Soldiers (2002) ISBN 0-440-24091-3
• Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (2004) ISBN 0-7679-1688-3

Movies

Webb wrote the story and was the executive producer for the 2000 movie Rules of Engagement, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson.

Warner Brothers acquired Webb's script for Whiskey River. Currently in production, the movie is directed and produced by Rob Reiner. The story is about a fictional American soldier injured in Iraq.

In October 2006, while commenting on the need to break away from stereotypical movie villains, Webb stated, "[e]very movie needs a villain. Towel-heads and rednecks -- of which I am one. If you write that word, please say that. I mean, I don't use that pejoratively, I use it defensively. Towel-heads and rednecks became the easy villains in so many movies out there."

Personal life

Webb is married to a lawyer, Hong Le Webb, an immigrant born in Vietnam who grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to his wife, Jim speaks "excellent Vietnamese". He has four children from previous marriages to Anne Arundel County Council member Barbara Samorajczyk and health-care lobbyist Jo Ann Krukar Webb: Amy, Sarah, Jimmy, and Julia. His only son Jimmy, an enlisted infantry U.S. Marine Lance Corporal whose unit based out of Camp Lejeune, is currently in Iraq.

Trivia

• Webb won a varsity letter for boxing at the U.S. Naval Academy. In his second-class (junior) year, he fought and lost in a controversial decision to Oliver North.
• Webb won an Emmy Award for his 1983 PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut.
• In 1987, he became the first Naval Academy graduate to serve in the military and then become Secretary of the Navy.
• He was a Fall 1992 fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics.
• Webb was interviewed as a guest on The Colbert Report in the episode aired March 8, 2006.
• Webb has two favorite U.S. Presidents, Ronald Reagan and Andrew Jackson.
• Webb has had a family member serve in every American military conflict.
• Webb has worn combat boots every day since he began his run for U.S. Senate.

See also

• Virginia U.S. Senate election, 2006

External links

Official

• Webb for Senate
• Veterans for James Webb
• Generation Webb
• Jim Webb's Facebook Grassroots Page
• Jim Webb's Grassroots Myspace.com Page
• James Webb Enterprises

Articles

• 2006 Campaign Finance Data
• Webb's Navy Cross citation
• Webb, James H. "The Price of Duty", PARADE Magazine, May 27, 2001. URL accessed December 29, 2005.
• Webb, James. "Purple Heartbreakers, New York Times, January 18, 2006.
• About James H. Webb, Jr., from the Naval Post Graduate School.
• Rules of Engagement at IMDb
• Whiskey River at IMDb
• Interview on Comedy Central
• Jim Webb vs. George Allen on Meet the Press (September, 17 2006)
• Allen: Webb's Books Show Bad Character: Webb Allies Defend Novels as Works of Imagination
• Wilder endorses Webb: The mayor plans to campaign for Webb
• A racial slur has long past in Southern politics
• Military women support Webb as 'man of integrity'