Many working on Capitol Hill have loved ones who’ve served in the military. What many are unaware of is the large group of those heroes among us who have served as Reserves and are now working on Capitol Hill.
Sebastian Hazzard, a press assistant for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), served in Iraq and was deployed at the start of the war in March 2003. He was in Iraq until 2004 and started in Kerry’s office as a staff assistant one year later. Now, Hazzard works as a press assistant.
{mosads}Hazzard, who is still in the Reserves, feels that his time in the military has helped him with political work through learning how to better focus on the task at hand and find the best solution to problems.
“Basic training was very transformative and obviously very challenging,” Hazzard said. “You realize you are part of a team and you must work with other people to get where you need to go and accomplish what you need to accomplish.”
Hazzard relates his military time to working on Capitol Hill, where senators and their staff members work together, along with the rest of Congress, to hammer out good policies and advance the country.
“It really is another way to give back to both the country and the community,” said Hazzard, who did force protection for the Reserves and dealt with security issues and threat assessment.
Hazzard interned for Kerry’s office in 1999 during his last year of high school and later started a second internship in the fall of 2002, which was cut short due to active duty and deployment. He stayed in contact with the members of the staff and applied for the staff assistant position, which he started the year after he returned from Iraq in May of 2005.
Hazzard has always been interested in politics and issues that shape our country here and overseas, and Capitol Hill seemed like a great and important place to be.
“All Americans want what’s best for the country and for those serving overseas. What I do is a way to continue that along with the Reserves,” Hazzard said.
Hazzard said his time serving in Iraq has been a valuable experience. “It’s definitely one I wouldn’t give up,” he said. “It’s good to have people who have served working on the Hill when war is being discussed in the political sense.”
The best advice Hazzard could give to those who wish to follow in his footsteps is to remain true to yourself, work hard and definitely not to forget the other people that served with you. “You can’t do that in the military — you’re all one team,” he said.
Greg Keeley, press secretary for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), is unique in the military world. He’s the first naval officer to transfer from one allied service to another, moving from the Royal Australian Navy to the U.S. Navy Reserve.
“Joining the U.S. Navy Reserve has been a four-year process. It’s definitely been complicated,” Keeley said.
Keeley’s last tour in the Australian navy was to Washington, D.C. He just couldn’t part with the United States after that and worked as a military liaison officer at the Pentagon, working out of the Australian embassy.
{mosads}“Spending time in the military is good no matter what job you have,” Keeley said. “You understand loyalty, respect, how to solve problems, crisis situations and how to handle pressure.”
Keeley, who went to Iraq in 2003, faced different pressures and situations daily. “Oftentimes the decisions were pretty weighty,” he said.
Keeley’s decision to work on Capitol Hill was after he finished his tour in D.C. and went to work for the Australian Department of Defense. “I knew I wanted to work here, and on the Hill, but it was hard with no contacts and knowing no one,” he said.
Fortunately, Keeley got his chance and now works for Barrasso. He uses his experiences to speak with the senator about defense and military issues.
Keeley’s best advice to those who wish to follow in his footsteps is to not give up. “The military is an enormous bureaucracy, with thousands of hurdles to go through, and if you give up you get dropped off,” he said. “There is no amount of camaraderie in work, sports, anything else as there is in the military — it’s just different.”
On the House side, Alexis Taylor represents Army Reserve veterans. Taylor, who joined the Reserves back in 1998 as a junior in high school, spent eight years in the military, including one deployment for 15 months, 12 in Iraq. The Army and Marine Reserves are the only two branches that allow joining at age 17 with both parents’ consent.
Taylor, who worked as a food service specialist army reservist 92 G, spent most of her time in a reserve unit in Iowa and was deployed with them. She decided to come to D.C. in 2005, and shortly after she got a job as staff assistant to Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa). She was promoted to legislative assistant in spring 2006 working on a variety of issues, particularly defense and veterans’ affairs.
“I think the military has given me a lot of solid foundation,” Taylor said. “It definitely taught me discipline and hard work and the ability to multi-task and finish everything from start to finish.”
Taylor credits her time in the Reserves with a perspective not everyone working on Capitol Hill has. “Issues going on with the troops day-to-day, I experienced,” she said.
{mosads}Taylor decided she wanted to work in politics in college while she interned on a campaign in Iowa. “I was majoring in poli-sci, and that opened up the political and policy side in D.C.,” she said. “That was my sophomore year of college, and the first time I seriously thought about moving to D.C.”
Like Hazzard, Taylor notices a public service aspect to Capitol Hill that she carried over from the military. “I don’t think anyone does this for the money,” she said. “I’m lucky enough I work for a home-state member, so I’m working to better the communities of family and friends who live in Iowa. This sense of public service is definitely relatable to the military.”
Taylor calls her active-duty service in Iraq a life-changing experience. “I had just turned 21 and was getting pulled out of college, leaving my family and going to a war zone,” she said. “It definitely bred independence and discipline, and things the military instilled all along. It really was a final test of sorts.”
Coming to D.C., passing the first bill she ever worked on, the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, was what Taylor calls a key point in her time on Capitol Hill. “Being able to work on a bill from start to finish and having it being signed into law, saving veterans lives, it was a pivotal moment in my career,” she said.
Her time working for Boswell has been predominantly positive. “Sometimes it’s a little harder for me,” she said. “There’s personal issues with being a veteran so sometimes I take things a little more personally.”
Taylor recently spent some time at a Mass honoring troops at the Basilica of the National Shrine to recognize Armed Forces Day. She tries to honor troops for their sacrifice year-round, and was proud to honor them in this manner around Memorial Day.
In addition to House and Senate staffers, there are members of Congress who serve in the Reserves. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) graduated from The Citadel in 1980 and upon graduating, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserve as a Medical Service Corps officer. After graduating from law school, Buyer branch-transferred to the Judge Advocate General corps and was called to active duty for three years. In the fall of 1990, he was called to active duty to participate in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.
Buyer continues to serve as a colonel in the Army Reserve. “It’s challenging to maintain active commission while in Congress; not many of us do it because it’s so difficult,” Buyer said. “However, it’s very self-rewarding and personally enriching.”
Buyer likes that he has the opportunity to serve as a role model for those in the National Guard and Army Reserve. “Everyone in the Guard and Reserve I view as someone who does so much more than the average citizen — they can squeeze more out of 24 hours than most people,” Buyer said.
Having had only three days active-duty notice to go to the Gulf War and consequently losing his law practice, and then losing a friend in the war, Buyer has had personal loss, allowing him to empathize with American citizens. “In the end, we truly believe in the arc of human hope, happiness and opportunities to succeed,” Buyer said. “We have commitments to faith, country selfless service and sacrifice.”