Graham retiring from Air Force Reserve
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday that he will retire from the Air Force Reserve after more than 30 years in the military.
“I’ll turn 60 this summer which is the mandatory retirement age for the Air Force Reserves,” the South Carolina Republican said in a statement. “It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve in the Air Force in some capacity for more than three decades. … I’m going to miss it an awful lot, and I wouldn’t leave if they weren’t making me.”
{mosads}Graham’s decision to retire also comes ahead of an announcement next week, when he’s expected to jump into the presidential race.
The hawkish senator has suggested foreign policy and national security will likely be at the forefront of the 2016 election, and running for president could allow him to influence the GOP’s discussion of the two issues.
He’s also slammed Sen. Rand Paul, who is running for president, saying that the Kentucky Republican’s foreign policy stance is worse than President Obama’s.
“If he’s the nominee of the party, I think we risk giving up the central issue of the 2016 campaign, which will be foreign policy,” Graham told reporters earlier this year. “I think Sen. Paul’s record on this issue is, frankly, behind President Obama.”
Graham’s office noted Thursday that he completed a “short tour of duty” in Afghanistan during Congress’s weeklong Memorial Day recess. The South Carolina Republican has previously traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan to work on legal issues.
Graham’s military service includes active-duty stints in the Air Force, the South Carolina Air National Guard and the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
He said he will now transfer to the retired reserves.
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