Columbus, May 31 -  

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WASHINGTON — When Rep. Pat Tiberi gets a big-picture briefing on Iraq from Pentagon generals, the Genoa Township Republican can turn to staffer Ronald Mitchell, a combat photographer and Purple Heart recipient, for a grunt’s ground level reality check.

When debate rages about the military’s handling of detainees at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Tiberi can ask the opinion of staffer Mark Bell, who, as a military police officer, brought terrorism suspects and other prisoners to that very facility from hot spots such as Afghanistan.

And when questions are raised about whether U.S. troops under fire are equipped with adequate body and vehicle armor, Tiberi can seek answers from yet another member of his congressional staff: Jason Dominguez, a Marine infantry squad leader who served in Iraq with the hard-hit Lima Company.

The United States is embroiled in combat in Iraq and a continuing war on terrorism worldwide, but it is an era when a majority of lawmakers, like most Americans, have never served in the military. Just 25 percent of House members are veterans, and less than a third of current senators were in the armed forces, according to the Reserve Officers Association.

As a member of the non-veteran majority, Tiberi says having three battle-tested troops on his staff provides an invaluable well of experience and perspective. And his aides, who might represent the largest unit of recently serving veterans working for a single congressional office, agree.

For many lawmakers, "It’s a lot easier to see the military as a budgetary figure on the bottom line instead of a real-life experience," said Dominguez, 26, of Grove City. He was hired to work in Tiberi’s Washington office last year after his Marine Reserve unit ended its duty in Iraq.

"Myself, Mark and ‘Mitch’ offer to relay our experiences to Congressman Tiberi, and it becomes more personal, not just to him but our whole office."

Bell, of Columbus, a platoon sergeant in an Army Reserve military police company, has been deployed twice since Sept. 11, 2001, for a year each time.

He knows firsthand the trials and tribulations that members of the military suffer with each deployment, from being away from their families to mundane but thorny issues such as pay and housing problems.

Twenty years ago, most members of Congress were part of the World War II generation, and nearly all had some military service in their backgrounds, Bell noted.

"As fewer and fewer members of Congress have their own military experience, having staff that does becomes a bigger deal," he said. "Having people on your staff who have served, deployed, been overseas, gives you insight not just into policy issues but ordinary day in and day out quality-of-life issues."

And although the attention of many lawmakers and the public focuses on major policy debates, such as whether the United States should have gone into Iraq when it did or how to deal with the chaotic situation now, Bell often prompts Tiberi to zero in on more practical issues.

"You can tell the boss, ‘We really do need to do a better job making sure our soldiers get paid right,’ because they’re not," said the 44-year-old aide, who spends a lot of time in Tiberi’s Columbus office sorting out bureaucratic snafus for veterans and their families.

That doesn’t mean Tiberi’s in-house military experts don’t have opinions about the big issues of the day. Each is optimistic about the future of Iraq and confident that the United States can succeed in Iraq despite daily news of death and destruction.

Mitchell, or "Mitch," of Newark, a staff sergeant in the National Guard with eight years of active duty, received the Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, where he was shot in the leg and got grenade shrapnel in his eye. That experience allows him to give Tiberi a different perspective from many members of Congress who talk mainly with high-level Pentagon officials.

"The generals are honest, they give him the down and dirty, what’s wrong and bad and what they need … but they’re telling him the entire mission was good or bad for this reason," said Mitchell, 28. "I say, ‘We had to walk in these type of shoes.’ They’re talking big entire Army things and we’re talking, ‘This is how I felt as a person.’ "

Tiberi says his ability to gain insights from a diverse group of military staffers helps him do his job in myriad ways.

When a fellow military police officer in Bell’s unit applied for a federal job, the man discovered that the law giving veterans hiring preference didn’t apply. Although Bell’s comrade had served in Afghanistan more than a month, he wasn’t in the war theater for 30 consecutive days, as required by a little noticed provision of the law. Like many reservists, he had been moved in and out frequently.

Tiberi brought the problem to Rep. Duncan Hunter, RCalif., House Armed Services Committee chairman, who at first couldn’t believe such a glitch in the law existed. But in the end, legislation was passed correcting the problem, largely because Bell is so plugged in to the nitty-gritty concerns of veterans.

And when accusations flew about a lack of body armor for soldiers in Iraq, Dominguez talked to Tiberi about the need to make sure that the body armor used didn’t slow troops who need to move quickly under fire.

But Tiberi says there is a larger lesson he has absorbed, beyond learning the fine points of body armor or military benefits, from having three veterans as members of his staff.

"What these guys have taught me is that there is no question the dedication" shown by men and women in the armed forces during a time of war on multiple fronts goes "beyond what anyone can expect," Tiberi said.

jriskind@dispatch.com