Barbara Rodriguez | The Des Moines Register

Terry Philips was relieved.

The 72-year-old had organized a last-minute gathering this month in Washington, Iowa, to talk to fellow veterans about Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Philips worried what the limited advertising and 20-degree weather would do for turnout.

To Philips' surprise, about 20 people, including some self-identified veterans, showed up to the Nov. 7 event. Afterward, three signed cards committing to caucus for the South Bend, Indiana, mayor, who is also a veteran.

"What really struck me was a couple, who are friends of mine, who I don't think have ever voted for a Democrat, actually signed commit cards to caucus for Pete," said Philips, who says he served in the U.S. Navy.

Kelsey Kremer/The Register

The Washington event was the Buttigieg campaign's unofficial Iowa kick-off of "Veterans and Military Community for Pete," a new group with planned chapters in the early voting states and around the country. The campaign has a national veterans engagement director who has been traveling to Iowa recently to help with the local effort.

As polls show Buttigieg gaining traction in Iowa, the 37-year-old's experience as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and his deployment to Afghanistan has steadily gained prominence in how he introduces himself to Iowans. Now in the sprint to the Feb. 3 caucuses, Buttigieg is upping his organizing around veterans, a voting bloc that tends to lean conservative.

Brian Powers/The Register

If Buttigieg is elected president, he would be the first commander-in-chief since President George W. Bush with military experience. Two other Democratic presidential candidates running this year — U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania — are also veterans.

Brendan McPhillips, Buttigieg's Iowa state director, said the group will be made up of local veterans who will focus on one-on-one outreach that mirrors the campaign's "relational" organizing.

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"We're really encouraging a bottom-up organizing strategy," he said.

Deployment to Afghanistan

The photo has become almost synonymous with Buttigieg's military service.

Buttigieg is standing near a cliff that overlooks a part of Afghanistan. Dressed in a long-sleeved camo-style T-shirt and pants, Buttigieg is holding a rifle.

Buttigieg told reporters in Iowa this month that it was taken near a law enforcement facility, "close to a place that's good for hiking." Buttigieg added: " 'Good' being a relative term, because there were a lot of landmines, but if you stayed on the path, then you'd be fine."

Photo courtesy of the Buttigieg campaign

Buttigieg chronicled the balance of feeling both safe and in danger in his 2019 memoir, "Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future."

Buttigieg was appointed in 2009 as an ensign, a junior officer rank. After drills and training in Illinois over several years, he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 as a lieutenant, during his first term as mayor of South Bend. Buttigieg left the Reserve in 2017.

As an intelligence analyst during a six-month deployment, Buttigieg said he worked from a base in Kabul on efforts to disrupt terrorist groups' financing and support. He also served as a driver on convoys outside the heavily guarded compound, or "outside the wire." There was an awareness in those assignments, Buttigieg said, that the crowd around him could be either regular people or potential threats for improvised explosive devices.

"In order to figure out how to conduct yourself, you must hold two contradictory truths in your mind," Buttigieg wrote.

Andrew Stevens said he sometimes rode in those armored vehicles with Buttigieg. Stevens, who says he is a major in the U.S. Air Force, said their roles did not involve actively engaging in firefights, but there was a constant risk.

"Maybe you'll drive around across the city one day and everything's fine," Stevens told the Des Moines Register. "And then, somebody else does a similar thing the next day and they get blown up."

Back at base, Stevens remembers smoking cigars with Buttigieg and convincing him to join a fantasy football league. Stevens has stayed in touch with Buttigieg in part through text messages.

Thomas Gary said he met Buttigieg during drills at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois. Gary, who was a senior petty officer, told the Register that Buttigieg's service through the Reserve — a commitment that allows someone to maintain a civilian job — is an asset.

"I think having somebody who's worn the uniform — but worn it as most Americans ... which is not as a career, but as a facet of their life, as a part of their public service to their community — gives that leader a better sense of perspective," Gary said.

Iowa's role in Buttigieg's service

Buttigieg credits the first-in-the-nation caucus state with helping him join the Navy Reserve.

In his book, Buttigieg described feeling called to serve, in part because of his family's history in the military. But he solidified his decision while campaigning in rural counties for former President Barack Obama ahead of the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

Buttigieg said he knocked on the doors of young men who told the then 25-year-old that they didn't plan to caucus because they'd be at basic training.

"I began asking myself how it could be that whole communities in this part of the country, just like those in rural Indiana, seemed to be emptying out their youth into the armed services, while so few people I knew had served at all," he wrote.

In September, the image of Buttigieg by the cliff appeared in his first television ad in Iowa, beginning with a voice-over from the Democrat: "As a veteran ..." The same photo was featured in a large digital banner displayed before Buttigieg's remarks at the Liberty and Justice dinner earlier this month.

"I don't have to throw myself a military parade to see what a convoy looks like," Buttigieg told the 13,000 people at the annual Iowa Democratic Party fundraiser. "... I was driving one around Afghanistan right about the time this president was taping season seven of 'The Celebrity Apprentice.' "

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Election 2020: Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat campaigning for president in Iowa

Nearly 6 in 10 military veterans voted for Republican candidates in the November midterm elections, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters. A similar majority had positive views of President Donald Trump’s leadership.

"Veterans range the spectrum, from very conservative to very liberal to moderate," said Jon Soltz, chairman of VoteVets, a liberal-leaning political organization that is working with different campaigns. "... A lot of it depends on a variety of issues: where they grow up; what their religious faith is; what their income levels are; and those types of things. And that's why no political party owns veterans."

Philips, one of the co-chairs of Buttigieg's veterans Iowa chapter, said Buttigieg's military experience is a powerful part of his story, but it won't check an imaginary box for veterans. Philips said veterans are looking for policy proposals that address issues like health care.

"I don't think most veterans are going to be ... 'Yeah, I'm going to vote for another veteran.' " he said. "... Most veterans are looking at what is best for the country."

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Military service has affected Buttigieg

At campaign events around Iowa this year, at least one audience question for Buttigieg has started with the same words: "Thank you for your service."

At those events, Buttigieg often incorporates how being a veteran has affected different aspects of his life.

It has shaped his views on U.S. foreign policy, particularly his disapproval of ongoing military presence in areas like Afghanistan, without congressional support.

"Now we're still stuck in an endless war," he said outside a barn in Tipton in August. "That I thought I was one of the last guys turning out the lights on five years ago."

It helped the mayor come out as a gay man. Buttigieg joined the military during the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the U.S. policy that barred openly gay people from military service. Obama rescinded the policy by the time Buttigieg was deployed. When Buttigieg returned from Afghanistan to South Bend, he came out in a newspaper op-ed ahead of a successful reelection bid.

"I realized after I came back from my deployment to Afghanistan that I was ... just not ready to go on with life having no idea what it was like to be in love," Buttigieg said at an October town hall in Ames.

It shapes how he talks about unity, a central theme to his campaign pitch in the countdown to the caucuses. Buttigieg rolled out a national service policy in July inspired in part by his military service.

"It's so important to me to touch back to anything that has to do with different kinds of people working together in common purpose," he told reporters this month. "And the most powerful experience I had in that was deployment."

At a town hall in Charles City on Nov. 3, former Floyd County Democrats chair Jim Davis introduced Buttigieg by saying the mayor "put his life on the line to keep us safe."

"That's a character-shaping experience," Davis later said about Buttigieg's deployment.

Paige Warrington saw Buttigieg at the same Charles City event. The 45-year-old homemaker said the mayor's status as a veteran "is extremely admirable," and it should temper criticism that he doesn't have enough experience to compete with other candidates who have served in higher office.

"It gives him inside knowledge that I think a civilian wouldn't necessarily have," she said.

Buttigieg rolled out a veterans policy Monday that included proposals for more funding and staffing at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, improving veterans' access to health care, and expanding economic opportunities for veterans back from active duty.

Philips in Washington said before the policy roll-out, the Buttigieg campaign asked him to review the proposal. That level of engagement carried weight for Philips, a longtime party activist who has advocated for veterans' rights for years.

"Almost every campaign organizer came through the building to talk to me," Philips said of other candidates. "... Pete is the only one where I got anywhere."

Barbara Rodriguez covers health care and politics for the Register. She can be reached by email at bcrodriguez@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8011. Follow her on Twitter @bcrodriguez.