Brewer brings military experience to campaign for third district seat

After living through six gunshot wounds and a rocket propelled grenade attack in Afghanistan, Col. Tom Brewer, a 36-year veteran of the armed services, plans to take on Congress. Brewer hopes to bring a new perspective to the U.S. House of Representatives, by representing Nebraska's third district.

An abundance of downtime due to an injury launched Brewer's interest in politics and ultimately his decision to run against Adrian Smith, who currently represents the third district.

After Brewer was injured by a rocket propelled grenade explosion in 2011 while deployed in Afghanistan, he spent almost two years recovering. During this time he watched too much television-his assessment-and realized that those currently in government failed to fix most of the problems that faced them.

"And the more I watched it, the more angry I got," Brewer said.

Although Brewer had been toying with the idea of running for congress, the tipping point was when he saw WWII and Korean War veterans barricaded from war memorials in Washington, D.C. during the government shutdown.

"The government shutdown obviously didn't accomplish what they wanted," Brewer said.

Congress never reached resolutions to the issues which led to the shutdown, nor did they decide to balance the budget or reduce spending, Brewer said.

"That's probably one of the biggest disappointments you hear from people in the third district is all we have done for the past eight years is kick the can down the road, we don't address how to reduce the budget, we just simply increase the debt ceiling and keeping spending more money," Brewer said.

He believes that if current spending levels are sustained, it will lead to an economic crash.

Brewer grew up on a farm and ranch north of Gordon. He got his start in the military through the Nebraska Army National Guard and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps while he was a student at Doane College. He has spent almost 40 years working in the National Guard, the Army Reserve and the active Army.

Brewer takes issue with Smith's lack of support for an investigation into the Benghazi attacks which took place in September 2012 at the U.S. mission in Libya and left four Americans dead. Brewer admitted he is passionate about this issue because a he was personal friend of one of the men killed in the attack.

"I just felt that anytime Americans are dying on American soil, even in a foreign land, that we need answers," he said.

To Brewer, the biggest difference between he and Smith is his passion for leadership and his willingness to be upfront and vocal about controversial issues. Brewer hopes for a chance to debate Smith on some of these issues.

While Smith is a career politician, Brewer is a career soldier.

"Those both have their strengths and weaknesses," Brewer said.

Members of the military must follow a strict budget and if they don't stay within that budget, they must face consequences. Members of the military work under strict orders to manage money, people and equipment. In Brewer's opinion, he has a better understanding of veteran's issues and a more profound appreciation for the second amendment because of his background.

"We day in and day out deal with international issues," Brewer said. "You cannot be deployed into either of the combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan without working with probably a dozen or more nations on any given day because of the mix of people that are serving in those countries."

This helped him gain a better understanding of not only international issues, but also the perceived trouble facing the U.S. government through excess spending by the state department and the military.

Brewer said he's torn about the United States' presence in Afghanistan. The candidate spent more than six years deployed in the country.

"I like the Afghan people," Brewer said. "I was proud to be a part of building their army, their police corps, their government."

He expressed disappointment over the 2008 announcement that the U.S. combat mission in the country would end in 2014, which he said resulted in a loss of faith in the U.S. on the part of the Afghan people. Because of this loss of faith in their own future, it became difficult to motivate them to move forward with security and country building.

"They are not ready to stand on their own," Brewer said. "They're doing much better. They have a good army. They have an adequate police corps. Their police corps needs more work."

He believes that at the rate in which the United States plans to pull out of the country, the current situation in Afghanistan can be maintained only until its next election.

"After that I believe there's a high probability the country will gradually degrade into a civil war and that the future Afghanistan is not good," Brewer said.

Although Brewer said he was well taken care of after he was wounded, he thinks some segments of Veterans Affairs services need to be improved.

"They are good about doing the initial triage and care from the time you're injured," Brewer said. "Where they completely fall apart and fail to address the issues that they should with veterans is once they become retired veterans, they look at every way possible to find the easy way out."

Attempts to close VA facilities like the one at Hot Springs are unfair, in Brewer's mind, causing veterans to travel further for care.

"When the United States government makes a commitment to people who give of their lives, whether it be 20 years or 30 years or whatever, they have an obligation to keep that promise and they have an obligation to figure out a way to take care of them-and it shouldn't be about convenience, it should be about what's the right thing to do," Brewer said.

The expansion of the federal government is out of control in Brewer's opinion including national security agencies and environmental regulation.

"It's all exploding at incredible rates," Brewer said.

As a staunch supporter of the second amendment, Brewer does not think restricting citizens' rights to own guns will cut down on mass shootings. He thinks it would be reasonable to train a qualified member or members of school staff to carry a firearm in order to serve as school security.

"I think you would be crazy to make a blanket statement that all teachers should be armed," Brewer said.

He added that he's not sure all mass shootings can be stopped.

"Unfortunately, there are crazy people out there," Brewer said. "I don't know that you can legislate craziness out."

Brewer added that the military works in a much different way than congress.

"In the military we don't have different parties, it's a group of individuals who need to come together to accomplish a mission and it really doesn't matter what part of the country you're from, what ethnic group you're from, male or female, you figure out how to get the mission done and I think it would be refreshing if congress approached it in the same way," Brewer said.