{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://stivers.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=366351", "Only a few serve U.S. in office and in uniform", "2013-12-28", "2013", "2013-12", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Steve Stivers", "S001187", "stivers.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2014 About two days out of every month, Rep. Brad Wenstrup gets a gut check when he leaves Capitol Hill for his other job: surgeon for the Army Reserve.\r\n          share:\r\n          f \r\n          t \r\n        \r\n      \r\n      WASHINGTON \u2014 About two days out of every month, Rep. Brad Wenstrup gets a gut check when he leaves Capitol Hill for his other job: surgeon for the Army Reserve.\r\nHe travels the 12 miles to Bethesda, Md., where the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center has treated servicemen and women since 2011, and he pitches in where he can.\r\nSometimes, that means talking to residents; other times, it means helping in surgery.\r\nBecause he serves two days a month, he can\u2019t develop long-term relationships with patients.\r\nOn Memorial Day, he had planned to enjoy a recess from his congressional duties. Then he got a call: Many casualties were coming in from Afghanistan, could he help? The Cincinnati Republican changed his plans, staying Friday and Saturday to help with sometimes complicated surgeries that required multiple surgeons.\r\nWenstrup, 55, is a rarity, one of just 14 members of the U.S. House who still serve in the military through the Guard or Reserves.\r\nOne senator also serves in the Reserves, according to the Congressional Research Service.\r\nAnd yet Wenstrup isn\u2019t the only Ohio lawmaker who balances military and congressional duties. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, is a member of the Ohio National Guard. He graduated from the Army War College last year and drills one weekend a month plus two weeks in the summer.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s Congress that has the ultimate authority to decide whether to declare war,\u201d Stivers said. \u201c So having someone who understands what that means, and what that means in a human price for all these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, is a good thing.\u201d\r\nOthers in Ohio\u2019s congressional delegation also have served. House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, enlisted in the Navy in 1968 but was honorably discharged after eight weeks because of back problems, and Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, served in the Air Force from 1973 to 1999.\r\nStill, the number is shrinking, according to the Congressional Research Service: At the beginning of the 113th Congress, there were 108 members who had served or were serving in the military, 10 fewer than at the beginning of the 112th Congress and 12 fewer than in the 111th Congress.\r\nAccording to CQ Roll Call, the House currently has 88 veterans while the Senate has 18. Congressional veterans served in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq and Kosovo.\r\nStivers and Wenstrup both came to Congress after serving on active duty in the Middle East.\r\nStivers joined the Ohio National Guard in 1985. He was called up while serving in the Ohio Senate in October 2004, and went to Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Djibouti as battalion commander overseeing mail delivery. He returned home in December 2005 and was awarded a Bronze Star for his work. Currently, he runs the Ohio Regional Training Institute, which is the training academy inside the Ohio Air National Guard.\r\nStivers was selected for the Army War College before he became a member of Congress. He began attending the War College in May 2010 and was elected to Congress six months later.\r\nEven as he was putting his congressional staff together, his War College classes were becoming more demanding. Most of the classes were distance learning. Typically, Stivers read three or four books for a specific course, posted on online forums as late as 1 a.m., then woke up early to read the replies. In July 2011, he went to Carlisle, Pa., for two weeks of on-campus training.\r\nOthers in his class have dropped out; Stivers did not. Six-hundred began War College; roughly 400 completed it.\r\n\u201cWhen I commit to do something, I think it\u2019s important to follow through and finish up,\u201d he said.\r\nHis education, he added, helped him become more informed as a member of Congress about war strategies. For example, when there is talk of entering a military conflict, Stivers is sure to ask about exit plans and what outcome would be considered a success. When Congress was weighing action in Syria, Stivers drew upon his War College education and ultimately spoke against military involvement.\r\nHis military service, he said, has given him sympathy for other public servants, especially fellow members of Congress.\r\n\u201cBeing in the military, regardless of the branch, helps you understand service,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd this job is a public service.\u201d\r\nWenstrup signed up to serve in 1998. He kept seeing reports of attacks on the United States \u2014 the flight over Lockerbie, the conflict in Lebanon \u2014 and he felt moved to help. He\u2019d heard of local doctors who were serving and liked the idea. But instead of signing up immediately, he waited; he was a bone-marrow donor for his sister, who had leukemia, and wanted to wait until she\u2019d reached the five-year survivorship mark before he joined.\r\nWenstrup was called up in 2005 and 2006, serving in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, after the notorious scandal involving the torture of military prisoners. At Abu Ghraib, he treated service members and prisoners alike.\r\n\u201cMy commitment was eight years,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd after that experience, while I was in Iraq, I came home and said, \u2018I\u2019m not leaving now.\u2019 \u201d He re-enlisted, but spoke about his experience in front of crowds. Eventually, he was recruited to run for Congress and defeated Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, in the 2012 primary election.\r\nWhile the more dramatic injuries have died down as troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan, Wenstrup\u2019s first few months at Walter Reed were a harsh reminder of the toll troops can pay. On his first day helping out, he worked on a man with several fingers and both legs gone.\r\nNow, Wenstrup treats wounded veterans, but in a different way. He recently helped an amputee who had hurt himself piloting a Sea-Doo from New York to Key West. The veteran wins pull-up contests. \u201c He\u2019s just blowing everyone away,\u201d Wenstrup said.\r\nDuring one visit, he met the vet\u2019s 4-year-old son and asked the boy what he wanted to be when he grew up. \u201cA Navy SEAL like my dad,\u201d the boy replied.\r\nBeing in Congress, Wenstrup said, is a different sort of challenge. As a soldier, he\u2019d get his mission and complete it. As a doctor, he examines a patient, makes a diagnosis, talks with the patient about options, decides on a course of action and follows it. Congress, he said, hardly works so neatly.\r\nHis trips to Walter Reed, he said, are a telling reminder of what determination can do.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s an honor to be there and see these troops,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll see a guy for the first time trying to go up the steps with two prosthetics, and he\u2019s just determined and he\u2019s sweating. And he just keeps going.\u201d\r\njwehrman@dispatch.com", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://stivers.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=366351"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4147618785500526, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}