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A Conversation with Sen. Lindsey Graham
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has a special place in National Guard history.
Graham was a JAG officer in the South Carolina Air National Guard from 1989 to 1995 as part of his 33-year military career across all three Air Force components. However, his biggest contribution was as a lawmaker.
He and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, introduced the 2011 bill that provided the Guard with a seat at the table.
Graham was also a key figure in the pivotal Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the issue in November 2011. Every standing member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified against the legislation. Only Gen. Craig R. McKinley, the NGB chief and a regular “invitee” to JCS meetings, spoke in favor.
A gifted litigator, Graham got Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the JCS chairman, to say the nation is under constant threat of natural disasters, the Guard was the military’s first responders at home and the JCS had no contact with the adjutants general. Dempsey also admitted he could tell the NGB chief “to get out of the room.”
“At the end of the day,” Graham said looking at McKinley, “you need to be in the room with some weight behind you, not just an invitation.”
The senator’s words won the day, and Guard empowerment easily won in Congress.
Graham sat down with NATIONAL GUARD recently, not to talk so much about the past but the issues facing the Guard today.
In 2011, you made the case for empowering the National Guard by making the chief of the National Guard Bureau a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What has happened since then with Guard empowerment, and how do you think that the Guard could be further empowered today?
I think that the decision to make the Guard part of the Joint Chiefs was a good decision — it stood the test of time. Institutionally, everybody was against it until they weren’t. That was sort of a lot of fun. I teamed up with Sen. [Patrick] Leahy from Vermont, a Democrat. And we were able to persuade our colleagues that it is long past time to have the Guard at the table when it came to major military decisions.
Making the Guard part of the Joint Chiefs, I think, has given the Joint Chiefs system more credibility. The Guard has been heavily relied upon since 9/11, and they deserved a seat at the table. And I think time has proven me right.
I've never seen so many threats to America coming together at the same time.
You’re often talking about foreign policy and defense policy. Where do you see hotspots around the world right now, especially as it pertains to the Guard?
The question is, where don’t I see a hotspot? I’ve never seen so many threats to America coming together at the same time as I do right now. I’ve never been more worried about another 9/11 than I am right now.
The rise of terrorism — look at what happened in Moscow [the March 22, 2024, terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall in the Russian capital] — that’s coming our way. Getting out of Afghanistan the way that we did was a complete disaster. Radical Islam is on the rise. You have a completely broken border, millions of people streaming across, unvetted. We’re living on borrowed time when it comes to, I think, a terrorist attack. Putin [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is challenging the world order by taking land by force of arms in Europe; the last time that happened, it led to World War II. You have China intimidating the entire Asia theater, cyberattacks on our own country, stealing our intellectual property. Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than it has ever been. I’ve never seen so many threats.
That’s why I’m so disgusted by the military budgets we have. They’re inappropriate given the threats we have.
You say things like that from a place of experience. You were in the active Air Force, the South Carolina Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserve for about 33 years as a judge advocate general. How does that service inform the decisions that you make, especially in terms of defense?
I did some small deployments over in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’d get to see people in action overseas. You learn more at the dinner table overseas as a colonel than you ever will as a senator. But I think the main thing as a judge advocate — you’ve got to know your client. The client’s the Air Force. The client’s your squadron. The client’s your wing, if you’re in the Air Force. So, it makes you understand how the system works because you represent the system. It was great training to understand, you know, the intricacies of command, how it works, what the mission’s all about, what you can and can’t do legally. It has been very helpful.
The bottom line is that our budgets are insufficient. We talk about containing China and spending up to China — the budget we just passed will have less ships in the Navy at the end of the decade than we have today. We’ll be at 292, 293; China’s going to be at 450. We need more F-35s, not less [F-35 Lightning II fighters]. The F-16’s been a great airplane — we’re trying to replace it over time. The threats that we face throughout the world, our military budget is not sufficient to meet those threats. We have let our guard down, no pun intended.
The Guard has been indispensable in the fight since 9/11. There was at one time about half of the refuelers in the air were reservists, Air Guard and Air Force Reserve. The Guard is the combat arms component of the reserves. The F-16 unit at McEntire [McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina] has been deployed numerous times. That’s true like if you’re military police; they’ve been heavily utilized. It has just been a real strain on the Guard. And, these men and women are patriots, and they’ve risen to the call. It has been hard on employers. Now’s the time to modernize our military, make it more lethal, make it more high tech. But nothing works without dedicated patriots willing to serve.
You have people who do this full-time in the Guard. You have the active-duty component. But all these years later, it is still the citizen-soldier, the Guardsman, that answers the nation’s call. I would say the National Guard is more integral to our national security than any time in its history because of the missions it performs.
The Department of the Air Force has a legislative proposal right now that would allow the service to move the Air National Guard’s space units to the Space Force without the required consent of the nation’s state governors. That consent has been a requirement in federal law for about 120 years. Do you have an opinion on that?
We need to be very wary of that. I will not let that happen without serious push back. But should the Space Force have a Guard component? I’m OK with that if it makes sense. The reserve component of the Space Force — the Guard component — will be different, because this is a very high tech — you’ll get people at Silicon Valley that maybe can’t afford to give up their day job but could serve as a National Guardsman in the Space Force. So, you’ll see me supporting a Guard component of the Space Force.
The Air National Guard also flies some of the oldest fighter aircraft in the Air Force. There are many experienced pilots and maintainers in the service with these aircraft. And the Air Force wants to retire some of these aircraft at many of the Guard fighter units out there. Why isn’t the Air Force making more of an effort to replace those aircraft with some of the advanced fighters?
You always have this fight between the active-duty guys and the Guard and Reserve. Here’s the argument I make — operating a Guard unit is about one fourth the cost, a third of the cost, of an active unit. It doesn’t mean you want to put the entire force in the Guard. But front-line Guard forces need front-line equipment, on the Army side and the Air side.
And the one thing I can tell you without any hesitation — on the Air Guard side, I’d put up the maintenance crews, the weapons crews, the pilots, against anybody in the service. They’ve been dealing with these aircraft for decades at the same place doing the same thing. So, you’ll see me be very bullish making sure that the Guard gets front-line equipment because they have a front-line job.
Speaking of attracting and retaining military talent, the U.S. military has been struggling the last couple years with recruiting and retention. What do you think can be done to turn that around?
I think there are a lot of people who feel like the military has gotten too woke. Get back to the mission of fighting. Get back to the mission of being a team — one team, one fight. I think part of it is that the economy — there are so many opportunities in the economy, you can’t find workers. So, in the private sector, there are a bunch of opportunities.
But a lot of it is that less and less people serve. So, it used to be that the families would be the biggest influencers. You have more and more families that have no connection to the military. So, it makes it more challenging.
The one thing about Guard units is the family connection. It is passed down within the family. I cannot tell you how many crew chiefs that I’ve met whose dad — and sometimes mom — were crew chiefs. That’s the beauty of the Guard. It really is kind of like a big family.
Medical readiness is critical to overall personnel readiness. A lot of Guard soldiers and airmen, up to one in five, lack the medical insurance necessary to stay medically ready right now. Do you support zero-cost TRICARE health care for every member of the Guard and Reserve?
We created TRICARE Reserve Select in 2008. Not zero-cost, no. I think some payment — make it a good deal. It was myself and Hillary Clinton [former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.] that made TRICARE Reserve Select available to the Guard. We learned from the War on Terror that a lot of Guardsmen couldn’t be deployed because they had dental problems. They didn’t have access to private insurance. They didn’t have a dental plan. So, what I did — along with Sen. Clinton — is required TRICARE to cover the Guard and Reserves. And there’s a co-payment.
I think there should be some co-payment. We want it to be affordable. I want it to be a good deal.
What do you hope to accomplish this year on the Senate National Guard Caucus?
Make sure that we’re not left behind when it comes to allocating weapons. Make sure that we get front-line weapons.
Make sure that the TRICARE program is working to help recruit and retain. If you’re out there now in the private sector and you sign up for the Guard, TRICARE is one hell of a good deal — Far better than you’ll get from an employer. It’ll be cheaper and better coverage. Make sure that stays the same. That’s a big recruiting effort.
In terms of the Guard itself, it is just make sure that we’re not left behind in equipment, that we’re on the forefront. As the military gets more modern, the Guard gets more modern. Being a voice in the Congress for a budget.
And I can tell you, the budget deal that was struck by Democrats and Republicans, is inconsistent with the defense needs of this nation. I judge apples to apples. GDP [gross domestic product] spent on defense — we’ll have the lowest GDP spent on defense in the next decade in the history of the country at a time of great threats. This is literally insane. The No. 1 priority of the federal government is to protect the nation, and we’re on a path in terms of military funding that would have us the lowest per-GDP spent on defense in the modern history of the nation. That is insane.
In the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, there was a provision that gave National Guardsmen and Reservists the same special- and incentive pay that active component members received for achieving the same level of proficiency. That language said that the Defense Department had until Sept. 30, 2022, to provide Congress with an implementation plan. It has been more than 18 months, and that plan hasn’t been provided; why isn’t the Pentagon following that law?
They should. And based on this interview, I’ll get with Sen. [Jeanne] Shaheen [D-N.H., the co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus with Graham] and we’ll kick their ass. I’m not on the [Senate] Armed Services Committee anymore, so I’ll get the details. But no, they should. If we tell them to do something, they should do it.
Listen, we found it hard to get the Guard at the table, but we won. The political power of the Guard is real; they’re all citizen-soldiers, they live in our communities. They fought TRICARE [for the Guard], and we won. When it comes to advocating for the Guard, you have to fight, but you usually win, because most Americans are sold on the Guard. The best thing the Guard has going for it is the network of families that serve — people in my business listen to, because they are their constituents.
What have you learned about the Guard through all these years in the Senate?
They have a level of expertise that is acquired different than the active forces. The active forces move around a lot — they have to. But the Guard has the continuity that leads to excellence. It has an attitude that is reflective of its founding, of being citizen-soldiers.
The main thing it has is a connection to the community that the active forces do not. We love our active-duty forces in South Carolina. They come and they go. Our Guard units are part of the community. The Guard armory is where people go to have birthday parties. The Guard unit is made up of families from that community that has served generationally. The Guard is the closest thing to what we had in World War II — a connection between the military and the public. That’s what’s unique to the Guard.
That’s why it is so politically powerful. Because our active-duty forces just move around, our Guard forces are an integral part of the community. And when you look at a Guard unit in a small town in South Carolina, chances are that the ones who are in that unit, some family member has been in that unit. That Guard armory is a center of the community. The Swamp Foxes in South Carolina [the 169th Fighter Wing at McEntire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina], a lot of kids go there to see air power up close because of family connections.
I don't want the Guard to become the active-duty lite.
How do you balance the need for equipment and trying to be prudent with the spending behind it?
What’s the proper role of the federal government? It’s a good question. The No. 1 job of the federal government is to defend the nation, so I’ve put that ahead of everything else.
But we have a big debt problem. I just don’t want to throw money into the military — I want to get a return on investment. The return on investment in the Guard is unbelievable. For a fraction of what you spend on active units, you get a great investment.
But you’ll destroy the Guard if you make it the active duty. What I worry about is overutilization of the Guard. You know, the border, everywhere, every time you turn around you see the Guard. I don’t want the Guard to become the active-duty lite. I want it to be the Guard. I want it to be the citizen-soldier that makes their commitments, that will do their tour of duties but feel like it doesn’t destroy their job or their family. The smaller the military’s active forces, the more you rely on the Guard.
It is my belief that GDP spent on defense is woefully inadequate, and I’m going to do everything I can to change that. Now, I’m going to ask the Navy to be creative. I’m going to ask the Guard to be creative.
You know, everybody says, ‘Well, let’s make TRICARE zero.’” Well, that becomes an expense taken away from the ability to do other things. I think members of the Guard deserve access to TRICARE. I think some reasonable premium, better than the outside, is necessary, because that money would come out of some — that’s less money to buy the weapons and buy the planes and drop the bombs. I want a good deal for the Guard member, but we’ve got to realize that we have a system where we don’t have unlimited money.
Is there something that you see as a top priority for modernizing?
Yes. I think artificial intelligence, unmanned aircraft, drones, I think the future of artificial intelligence — I think the Guard is uniquely capable of taking on some of these very complicated tests because they have access to civilians, quite frankly. This is why I think a National Guard Space Force may really help us a lot. Getting people who work in the high tech, space industry, Silicon Valley into the military and tapping their understanding of how these systems work. The modernization of the force, given artificial intelligence and high tech, is a real priority of mine.
AT A GLANCE: Sen. Lindsey Graham
BORN: Lindsey Olin Graham, July 9, 1955 (Seneca, South Carolina)
MARITAL STATUS: Never married
EDUCATION: University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., B.A. Psychology, 1977; University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, S.C., JD, 1981
CIVILIAN WORK EXPERIENCE: U.S. Senate, 2003-present; U.S. House of Representatives, South Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, 1995-2022; South Carolina House of Representatives, 1993-1994; city attorney for Central, S.C.; assistant county attorney for Oconee, S.C.; attorney in private practice
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS: Judiciary Committee, Appropriations Committee, Budget Committee and Environment and Public Works Committee
MILITARY SERVICE: Active-component Air Force, 1984-1989; South Carolina Air National Guard, 1989-1995; Air Force Reserve, 1995-2015
OVERSEAS ASSIGNMENTS: Stationed at Rhein-Main Air Force Base, Germany, during time on active duty. Served numerous short tours in Iraq and Afghanistan over congressional breaks and holidays while in the Air Force Reserve.
ALSO NOTABLE: First member of his family to attend college. Helped raise his sister, Darline Graham Nordone, after the deaths of his mother and father, which occurred within 15 months of each other, leaving the two without parents when he was 22 and she was 13. Republican co-chair of the Senate National Guard Caucus since 2010. Formally retired from military service as a colonel in 2015 at a ceremony at the National Guard Memorial, the NGAUS headquarters in Washington, D.C. Unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 2016.
Source: Senate bio
