Who?

There are probably many people living in the 9th District who are better qualified than I am. These potential candidates are prevented from running by the understandable assessment “It takes more than a million dollars to run.” We need the best qualified, not the best funded.
We have to break through in order to save the United States democratic republic from becoming a plutocracy. The Founders did not intend for Congressional seats to be bought.

Well, there is this guy who’s volunteered* to try . .

Am I crazy?
Not as crazy as the current way of running for Congress. Just look at what we have now: “the best Congress money can buy” serves party, power, and profit; but rarely the people.
But crazy enough to only accept one half of the $174,000 annual salary. That’s all I need for living expenses in Washington, DC. I’ve lived in the DC area for years when “called up” by the Defense Intelligence Agency before and after 9/11. The other half will fund two staff positions in Indiana.
Am I concerned I’ll take votes away from one of the partisan candidates? No. If you look at the data, the Democratic candidates have lost badly in the 9th since the 2010 redistricting and the Republican incumbents vote nearly 100% in step with the Republican National Committee, i.e., minimal value added.

Am I qualified? Here’s a bio which should answer that question. Now let’s consider three US House committees where the legislative work gets done. Please compare the scope of each committee’s work (click on the committee name) to my qualifications.

Veterans Affairs:
Veteran of the Marine Corps with eighteen months in Vietnam.
Army Reservist called up three times after 9/11 (“by name” requested by the South Asia Branch, Regional Assessments Division, Defense Intelligence Agency).
Retired with more than thirty-six years of military service.
Worked for the Veterans Administration as a veterans benefits counselor.
Monroe County veterans affairs officer.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 604 service officer.
VA accredited claims agent, one of approximately four hundred nation wide. Never charge a client.
Have helped literally thousands of 9th District veterans.
Have taken appeals to the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and won, setting a national precedent in the process.
Filed a Freedom of Information Act appeal with the VA Office of General Counsel in a continuing effort to discover how many other veterans have been denied on a basis now proven to be invalid by the above mentioned national precedent. The VA will not readjudicate these denials unless pushed to do so.
Personally use VA medical care.
Service connected disabled.

I would like to have the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs across a committee hearing table after all the veterans and surviving spouses I’ve had to help get their VA benefits via years of appeals, knowing I was saving only the “tip of the iceberg” of those wrongly denied, and knowing how their 2015 and more recent changes (which were Congressionally approved) have hurt veterans and surviving spouses for the sake of VA convenience.

* * *

Wayne, a WWII combat veteran, is shown below. Three amphibious landings, wounded multiple times, and he died without a Purple Heart being officially awarded. Neither Indiana US Senator nor his US House Representative helped a bit. The Board for Correction of Military Records . . well, the Board needs an adjustment.
We had to appeal Wayne’s VA service connected disability ratings twice to get him to the 100% level. Wayne could not walk because of having his back broken in France in 1944 and suffered from what we now know as PTSD.

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:
Chief, Afghanistan Cell providing operational intelligence to the J-2 for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Senior military intelligence analyst for both the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Ground Intelligence Center.
Master of Science degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University in Washington, DC.
Wrote intelligence products lauded by the secretaries of Defense (Rumsfeld) and State (Powell).
Briefed the Israeli Mossad regarding Iraq.
Briefed the senior staffer for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations regarding Pakistan.
Routinely coordinated intelligence products with CIA, NSA, NGA, and other members of the intelligence community.
Retired as Deputy Commander of the National Ground Intelligence Center.
Top Secret (Special Background Investigation) clearance supplemented with special access codes which could be quickly reinstated.

I can still call friends at DIA, NGIC, and in the Pentagon to find out what’s really going on.

Oversight and Government Reform:
Senior federal position classification, labor relations, and organizational management specialist in three civilian agencies (Internal Revenue Service and the departments of the Army and Navy).
Served on two national task forces (IRS and Navy).
Conducted efficiency and effectiveness studies resulting in specific recommendations.
Established employee performance criteria, initiated performance awards, and removed non-bargaining unit and bargaining unit employees when required.
Restructured individual positions for physically challenged federal employees at one extreme and reorganized the nation wide Army Reserve troop unit assets of the National Ground Intelligence Center at the other, the latter requiring coordination with the office of every US House of Representatives incumbent with a district affected.

Agency head testifying: “It’s too hard for us to develop performance standards and remove our poor performers. Office of Personnel Management regulations, you know.”
Tilford responds: “That’s odd. I’ve done both.”

Would an Independent’s vote make any difference in a Republican vs Democratic Congress? Definitely yes! My vote would count every bit as much as the vote of every other member of the House. Whereas the partisan members of the House would be relied upon to vote their party line, I would be free to vote the way I feel is right. That is leverage, a rare commodity for a freshman member.
Example, Tilford speaking: “I’ll consider voting ‘yes’ on your bill since you’ve answered my concerns, BUT are you willing to cosponsor my bill to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs claims adjudication process?”

Do I have some legislative initiatives in mind? Well, here’s a post regarding legislative proposals and another specifically regarding proposals for the VA. Pertaining to the VA, let’s add “Restore a personal hearing with a veterans’ law judge as an appeal option” which was taken away in February 2019. (The appeals I’m helping vets and surviving spouses with now cannot be discussed with a judge face-to-face because of the VA appeal process changes approved by Congress.

Position Papers: some specific, some implied, one a reminder of who preserved our freedoms.

Term limits? I’ll be seventy-three on election day in 2020. I’d like to actually retire someday, but not as much as I want to break through the current “You have to have millions of dollars to get elected” paradigm which is strangling the United States. Here’s a different perspective for you: is Tilford old enough?

What do I know about hard work and real jobs? I’ve worked jobs from loading and transporting human waste (the “Honey Run” in Vietnam) to being invited to brief at the Office of the White House regarding the 2001 standoff between Pakistan and India. I’ve scrubbed floors at Burger Chef and chose which of my subordinate West Point grads would be sent to work for Special Operations Command and which to Iraq. I’ve repacked expansion joints in still-hot steam pipes below the Indiana University Bloomington campus and repaired a Marine Air Control Squadron-4 air traffic control computer system on Monkey Mountain, east of Danang. I’ve worked hard at real jobs.

Am I familiar with the 9th District? We’ve lived in Morgan, Monroe, and Floyd counties. I’ve worked in Monroe, Harrison, Crawford, Clark, and Floyd counties. I routinely travel through Brown, Lawrence, and Jackson (Bailey Tilford, the Wonder Dog, is from Red Sky Rescue) counties in addition to those mentioned above. I first moved to the 9th in 1964 to go to Indiana University and with only the following breaks have lived there ever since; for the Marine Corps, working to save money to return to IU, a year as an administrative intern with the IRS in Cincinnati, Ohio and Army Reserve call-ups before and after 9/11.

Talk is cheap. What have I actually done for the people of the 9th District since retirement?
Continued to help veterans and surviving spouses.
Founded and was the only president of Hoosier Honor Flight which took WWII and Korean war veterans to Washington, DC to see their national war memorials, Arlington National Cemetery, and other places most would never have visited otherwise at no cost to the veterans.
Volunteered for CASA and Meals on Wheels.
Assorted tasks for our church family.
Help neighbors and people who seem to need it – about the same as any other citizen of the 9th.

* Volunteered for the Marine Corps at the start of the Vietnam war.
Volunteered for Airborne at Ft. Benning at age 41.
But I did not volunteer for “LTC Tilford, the J-2 just relieved the Chief, Afghanistan Cell on the spot. You are the new Chief. Report to the Pentagon tomorrow morning at 0430.”

Birch Bayh, Max Cleland [then Administrator of the Veterans Administration], and some worker guy shaking Cleland’s one hand in 1977 in the VA Indianapolis Regional Office. I met Max again in 2005 in Bloomington and took the old photograph with me. Max signed the photo with “John – My brother, my friend – Love ya! Max Cleland [signature] – 2005”. Max and I were Marines in Vietnam at the same time.