Never before.

What was different about this time?
­

That is what David McCarthy, Deputy City Attorney, and a member of the City Attorney’s staff for the past 13 years, would like to know

A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marines, the veteran of a quarter-century in the military has answered the call for active duty four times previously.

Yet he never before was ordered to submit to an evaluation session with a City Hall-chosen forensic psychiatrist to determine whether he was fit to occupy his third-floor office at City Hall.

Question: What is your agreement with the city?

“I don’t have an agreement with the city. There are certain legal ramifications to being in the Reserves. To get all of the particulars, you would have to look up the Uniform Services Employment/Reemployment Act.”

Question: Do you have a reasonable amount of protection?

“No, you have some protection.”

Question: When you returned last winter, you spoke with the city’s Personnel Director, Serena Wright. Did she ask you for assurance that you would remain here for a certain amount of time?

“ No. I think it would have been highly inappropriate to even ask the question. Keep in mind, the law protects — or is supposed to protect, more accurately—your obligations to America for up to 5 years. In other words, you could literally deploy and not come back for 5 years, and those protections are supposed to be in place.

“However, all of the orders I have fulfilled since 9/11 are exempt from that. In other words…”

Question: You are vulnerable?

“No, no. Just the opposite. In other words, the National Command Staff and the President have determined that post-9/11, the situation is such that they’re saying that most orders Reservists are given don’t count against that 5 years. You can, conceivably, do 10 years. If the orders have a certain code on them, which every one of my orders has, then they don’t count against the 5 years.”

Question: You have been gone how many times since 9/11?

“If you combine them all, I would say I have been gone about 3 1/2 years since 9/11.”

Question: In what frame of mind did you compose the Letter to the Editor to the Daily Breeze — because of misinformation that was out there or because of your own experiences?

“Clearly, it was a combination. It was because of my own experience because if I had not had that experience, I would have written an entirely different letter. I felt compelled to add to the dialogue, to bring an awareness to the situation that the original article brought to light.”

Question: Is serving 26 years in the military parallel to doing something else in life for 26 years — that is, after awhile, the fervor begins to ebb?

“It is unique to each individual. One tour might be enough for some people. We have people, though, who are saying, ‘Keep me. I don’t want to go back to civilian life.’ It runs the whole gamut.”

Question: You are 50 years old. Gauge your fervor. Is it at a high level?

“Very high. I believe that our country and our Western way of life are under attack. There is no sign of it ebbing in our lifetime. We need people who can do what needs to be done to protect our country and our way of life.”

Question: Why do so few Americans accept that premise?

“I am not sure I agree with your premise. The Marine Corps — I can’t speak for the other branches — has met their recruiting goals throughout. Re-enlistment, by the way, is through the roof, especially for those units that are in combat zones. Clearly, a lot of young Americans are stepping up to the plate — a not just y-o-u-n-g Americans.”

Question: Will there ever be a time in the foreseeable future when you will step back and say, Okay, this is a younger man’s contest?

“From a technical standpoint, the Marine Corps has mandatory retirement ages. So, there will come a point, unless I die or am killed, when they will say, ‘You need to step down now.’ They are waiving that to give people more time, which I am grateful for.”

Question: Your spirit, then, is burning as strongly as ever?

“Stronger.”

Question: Does City Hall feel the same each time you return to civilian life? Or are you a different person because you have had such a vivid, life-changing experience?

“I can’t imagine anyone not being a different person. I am sure some people can do that. I can’t imagine it. First of all, there is a heavy, heavy dose of Survivor’s Guilt. There is the feeling, ‘Wait a minute. I am here, drinking Starbucks coffee, having a cigar and a nice chat in this beautiful, and right now, men and women are over there getting rocketed and shot at.

“Why am I here when I am needed over there?”

Question: Can you see improvement in Iraq?

“Absolutely. A hundred percent. On this latest tour, I got there when it was absolutely the worst it ever has been. You know, I was there for the invasion. When I got there in February of ’07, it was the worst it had ever been. We were getting indirect fire attacks 4 or 5 times a day. You couldn’t leave the forward operating base and not get shot at. It was staggering. The locals, at best, ignore you, or, at worst, shoot at you, or look at us with distrust or disdain in some cases.

“By the time I left in October of ’07, it had improved drastically. Indirect fire attacks were limited to every few days.

“(Gen. David) Petraeus, in my mind, was a genius. He got people off the forward operating bases and established combat outposts (manned strictly by Americans) and joint security stations (American-Iraqi) throughout Iraq, the cities and the countryside.

“Pushing them out there made a huge, huge difference. You know the old saying, ‘Nothing succeeds like success’? People started to see us out there doing good, and they would come to us with actionable intelligence information. They would say, ‘See that house over there? They are building bombs in that house.’ We’d go over and take it down. Then we’d either apprehend or kill the bad guys, and seize quantities of arms and munitions.

“By the time I left, the difference was between night and day. But don’t attribute that toi my being there, by the way.”