Lt. Colonel James Breazeale fights for the position of Adjutant General

Recently, Lt. Col. James Breazeale called into The Bryan Crabtree Show, WQSC 1340 AM, to discuss his candidacy for Adjutant General of South Carolina.  He is up against incumbent, General Bob Livingston.

“I’m not running against Bob Livingston, I’m running for the people of South Carolina, and he happens to be my opponent,” said Breazeale.

Breazeale, who lives in Florence, is a captain for Boeing 737, a major passenger airline.  He belongs to the 1st Brigade, 104th Training Division.

Does rank matter in this race?

Prior to Breazeale’s interview, his opponent also appeared on The Bryan Crabtree Show, questioning Breazeale’s ability to serve in the role of  Adjutant General.

“You have someone attempting to run an agency that is so critical of our national defense and the safety of the people of South Carolina and he would have to wear a suit to Washington, and if you are not a major general, and you are dealing with the people of Washington, they do not take you seriously if you do not have that rank of major general,” said Livingston.

In response to his opponent’s remark, Breazeale says you can look to Governor Nikki Haley to see why not having the rank of major general does command respect.

“Nikki Haley is the commander and chief of the national guard in South Carolina, and she has not served one day in the military, but she command respect wherever she goes,” said Breazeale. He went on to say that Livingston’s rank is just a sign of him being in the seat of adjutant general for too long.“All Rank is a sign of seniority, and here in South Carolina, we don’t believe in seniority system, we believe in the experience system.  Livingston has been in forever, and that is why he’s moved up to major general.”

When it comes to experience, Breazeale says his time in Iraq gives him more experience than Livingston for the job he’s seeking.

“I have three times the experience Livingston has at the senior level.  In Iraq, I trained the foreign army and certified thousands of their troops. In doing so, I met with Secretary of Defense of Iraq, and convinced him to use Iraq’s oil money to pay for their expenses instead of our tax money and saved the tax payers forty million dollars.”

Potential Rescue of Coastal Citizens 

Charleston citizens are always aware of the dangers of flooding and the potential of being trapped by flood waters. Breazeale believes that Livingston does not realize the potential need to rescue citizens, if flood waters were to trap citizens on their rooftops.

“Living in Charleston, you are surrounded by water, and the potential for flooding and the need to be rescued. Livingston wants to turn town 28 black hawk helicopters that the active duty army is trying to give South Carolina. Currently we have 28 apache attack helicopters. These helicopters have only two seats, compared to the black hawk that has 15, and cannot carry anyone off atop a building, but he wants to keep it because he wants to say he has a neat toy with attack power,” said Breazeale.

According to Breazeale, if the Apache helicopters are brought to active service, it would save the tax payers six billion dollars a year.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Breazeale would also like to shine more of a light on soldiers, coming back from war zones, that are suffering from PTSD.

“I have had to investigate a suicide of a soldier in my unit, and we have an epidemic of military suicides,” said Breazeale.

He believes two major things need to change in order to help combat PTSD and military suicides. The first is to change the HIPPA laws.

“We need to get rid of our archaic HIPAA laws, the soldier whose suicide I investigated, was prescribed a mind altering drug, like Prozac, and refused to take the prescription. However, the psychologist allowed to inform his commander because of HIPAA, and the soldier was still being sent out on combat patrols. Which ultimately led to his suicide,” said Breazeale.

The second change Breazeale says needs to be changed is the Army’s way of dealing with soldiers that are suspected of having PTSD.

“If a soldier is suspected of having PTSD or is troubled, which one in five soldiers coming back does, we do a check system called ACE, ask care escort. Well if you ask a soldier if they are suicidal and they say no, we just check the box and say we did our job. However, why would you believe someone that just lost 40 pounds in two months and say they are not suicidal.”

Breazeale is currently works as a AirTran pilot, and has logged over 10,000 flight hours, qualifying him to oversee both air and ground national guard.

The Bryan Crabtree Show airs from  8-10 a.m. on WQSC 1340 and 950 AM.  You can visit the show’s website by clicking here.  You can also catch Rocky D on the same airwaves from 3-6 p.m.