Senator Jim Webb
First Person Singular: Jim Webb,
U.S. Senator (D-Va.) and Author
Sunday, July 6, 2008;
Washington Post Magazine

 The most disciplined thing I've ever done in my life is probably the act of writing a book -- and novels are harder than nonfiction. People tend to think, Oh, novels, you just start writing a story, and, you know, let the muse take you. But there's enormous discipline in writing novels. I wrote my first one cover to cover seven times. I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, and then I couldn't get it published.

 When I was on my, like, fifth draft for the book, I was able to get it to a guy named Ted Purdy, a really renowned editor. Anyway, I was sitting here inventing conversations between people who never existed in a room by myself -- and Purdy called me and said, "I'm going to work with you on this." This is a guy who had edited some of the greats, the true greats. And he made me believe. I actually had started working on the Hill as a committee counsel, and he was like: "Don't do politics. Anybody can do politics. You are a writer!"

 When the Reagan administration came in and offered me a job in '81, I said, "No, I really want to go write again." So I went out and did some really interesting journalism and wrote [another] novel. Then when the [Marine barracks] blew up in Beirut -- I'd been over there as a journalist -- I just felt like: I need to stick my oar in the water. It was one of those feelings like you need to come in and try to solve problems rather than simply writing. I came in for four years [at the Pentagon], and then I kind of felt like I'd done what I wanted to do.

 This time back [in politics] was very similar in a sense. From 9/11 to Katrina, it was almost the same feeling as when the building blew up in Beirut: I got so frustrated with the direction the country was going. So I just said, All right, I'm going to stick my oar in the water again.

 I'd never been involved in a campaign before, really. I was very late. I actually announced nine months to the day before the [2006 Senate] election -- with no money. No one around me, whether [my wife] Hong or my son, Jim, none of us really knew what was going to happen. My friend Nelson Jones said, "What are you doing?" He said: "You know what it means to dance with the bear? You start dancing with the bear, you can't stop dancing till the bear wants to stop dancing." And that's really what a campaign is. It was pretty brutal. But you have to see things through.

 I've never felt more natural than when I'm doing this sort of stuff, when I feel like I'm leading -- from the Marine Corps to working on the Hill, to working in the Pentagon, to working in the Senate. But nothing gives me greater pleasure than to write something that I believe is really good. Writing is what I will always do, no matter what. My mind always writes. You never stop writing if you're a writer.

Interview by KK Ottesen
Biography
Jim Webb presently serves as the senior Senator from Virginia.

Naval Academy StudentAs a combat Marine in Vietnam, an attorney, a senior defense department official, an Emmy-award winning journalist, a film-maker, and the author of nine books, Jim Webb has maintained a life-long commitment toward protecting America's national security interests, promoting economic fairness and social justice here at home, and increasing the accountability of government. In 2007, following his first-ever run for political office, he brought those passions with him to the United States Senate. By the fall of 2008, Washingtonian Magazine had picked him as the "Rising Star" in the magazine's "Best & Worst of Congress" edition, Politico newspaper had named him "Rookie of the Year" in Congress, The Atlantic magazine named him one of the world's 27 "Brave Thinkers," and Esquire Magazine had counted him among the 75 most influential people of the 21st century, for doing "more to repair his party's relationship with the military" than anyone since the Vietnam War.

WebbArriving in the Senate with long experience in military and veterans affairs, on his first day in office Webb introduced a comprehensive 21st century GI Bill for those who have been serving in our military since 9/11, and within 16 months had guided the most significant veterans legislation since World War Two through both houses of Congress, prompting The Atlantic Magazine to term him "the master of the Senate." Along with Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, he created the Wartime Contracting Commission, with responsibility for bringing accountability for fraud, waste and abuse brought about by the often-unsupervised contract processes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long dedicated to reforming our criminal justice system, Webb designed and chaired a series of committee hearings and conferences to examine the issues of mass incarceration and policies toward drugs, and became one of the strongest voices in Congress on the need for a top-to-bottom restructuring of the criminal justice system.

SecNavIn addition to these individual endeavors, Webb has remained an active voice on military, economic and foreign affairs through his membership on the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Joint Economic and Veterans Affairs committees. With long experience overseas that predates his time in the Senate, particularly in Asia, Webb now serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs on the Foreign Relations Committee. He also serves as the chairman of the Personnel Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee.

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Webb is a descendent of the Scots-Irish settlers who came to this country in the 18th century and became pioneers in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Webb graduated from the Naval Academy in l968, receiving the Superintendent's Commendation for outstanding leadership contributions while a midshipman, and subsequently chose a commission in the Marine Corps.

CommitteeFirst in his class of 243 at the Marine Corps Officers' Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, Webb served with the Fifth Marine Regiment in Vietnam, where as a rifle platoon and company commander in the infamous An Hoa Basin west of Danang he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals, and two Purple Hearts. He later served as a platoon commander and as an instructor in tactics and weapons at Marine Corps Officer Candidates School, and then as a member of the Secretary of the Navy's immediate staff, before leaving the Marine Corps in 1972.

Senator Webb championed the Post-9/11 GI BillWebb received his J.D. at Georgetown University Law Center in 1975. He served in the U.S. Congress as counsel to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs from 1977 to 1981. In 1982, he led the fight for including an African American soldier in the memorial statue that now graces the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, and wrote the inscription at the base of the flag pole. In 1984, he was appointed the inaugural Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. In 1987, he became the first Naval Academy graduate in history to serve in the military and then become Secretary of the Navy.

civilIn addition to Webb's public service, he has enjoyed a long career as a writer. He has authored nine books, including Fields of Fire, widely recognized as the classic novel of the Vietnam War, Born Fighting, an ethnography that explores how the Scots Irish shaped America, and A Time to Fight, his latest best-selling non-fiction about reclaiming a fair and just America. He has worked extensively as a screenwriter and producer in Hollywood, taught literature at the Naval Academy as their first visiting writer, has traveled worldwide as a journalist, and earned an Emmy Award for his PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut. In 2004, Webb went into Afghanistan as a journalist, embedded with the U.S. military.

Senator Webb delivers remarks at an event celebrating implementation of the Post-9/11 GI BillWebb speaks Vietnamese and has done extensive pro bono work with the Vietnamese community dating from the late l970's. He is the proud father of children Amy, Jimmy, Sarah, Julia, Georgia, and step-daughter Emily. He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife Hong Le Webb.