Filed by KOSU News in Public Insight Network.
October 27, 2012

Members of the 82nd Airborne Division pass in review during a ceremony at Fort Bragg on May 22, 2008. (Photo by Saul Loeb | AFP/Getty Images)

Kristen McMillen, 23, only sort-of cared about elections in the past. “I would vote, but I didn’t really care in the end who won,” she said. But this year, she really cares.

The difference: Her fiance is an active-duty Army infantryman. So this election season, McMillen’s paying close attention to foreign policy issues — and hoping that November’s election results will keep her future husband from having to deploy overseas.

McMillen and her fiance live in Fayetteville, N.C., just outside Fort Bragg, the massive military installation that employs more than 55,000 service members and about 12,000 civilians. They consider themselves part of a community for whom deployment — sometimes at a moment’s notice — is a daily reality.

“Through [the candidates'] words on foreign policy, I can definitely tell who seems to want to start wars, and who wants to pull people out of where we are now,” she said. “It’s weird, because I definitely didn’t follow that before. But now I find myself looking for articles and different sources to find out more.”

Although McMillen would have considered herself nonpartisan in the past, she’s pretty clear on her choice this time around.

“I feel like Obama is more military-friendly, even though he doesn’t have a direct connection to the military; but I also feel like he’s been in office already and he would be a stronger candidate because he’s dealt with this stuff,” she said. “When you’re connected to the military you think about things like Osama bin Laden.” McMillen says she doesn’t think every president would have directed bin Laden’s killing the way President Barack Obama did.

McMillen’s fiance becomes available for emergency deployment in January, she says. But for now, they will wait to see what happens in November.

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