(Above: Dean Young appearance on Uncle Henry 10/24/2013 radio show)
Republican congressional hopeful Dean Young wants no questions about his military service.
Young unloaded on Mobile’s “Uncle Henry Radio Show” Thursday when confronted with a question by a caller about his time in the military.
Young, who is running against Bradley Byrne for the Republican nomination for first congressional district seat vacated by Jo Bonner earlier this year, touts his military service on his campaign website.
Some, however, have questioned the merits of the Young’s service, including the caller — who Young ultimately interrupted to respond.
Young explained that he enlisted at a very young age, but was ultimately injured and discharge while training for pararescue.
“This is what happened to me,” Young said. “I come from — my mom raised me and my sister and I used to work at night, midnight shift from 11 o’clock at night until seven o’clock in the morning, stocking grocery shelves, going to school. I went to my mom and asked her to please sign for me to go into the military because it would relieve pressure from her and she did. And at 17, I was one of the youngest if not the youngest, well one of the youngest platoon leaders in the United States Air Force. I was over 48 men and I have awards for that. And then I tried out and was accepted in what they call pararescue and then when I was doing that I was injured and I was discharged from the military.”
The caller contested the suggestion that Young had actually served in the special forces since he had been injured while training for the special forces. Young responded by attacking the caller and accusing him of being in cahoots with Byrne supporters.
“Listen buddy, I’m trying to be clear to y’all,” Young said. “You guys need to really — you guys with the Bradley Byrne people need to really back off because I’m not out here like — I’m just tell you, you need to back off. I don’t do what y’all do. I’m not trying to mislead people. You become a trainee. You become accepted to train with the special forces group called pararescue. And then you have all this training you go through. I was injured. And I was discharged honorably. Y’all can go look it up. I’m sure you will.”
Young then took on Byrne for his remarks to the media and noted he had been honorably discharged and pointed to the support he has from two West Point grads — Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and Alabama State Circuit Court Judge John Bentley.
“People are sick of y’all trying to nitpick and find stuff like that,” Young said. “That’s ridiculous. And if your candidate’s honorable discharged from the United States Air Force, just say it. Don’t try to keep dragging stuff up. Frankly the people are tired of y’all doing that. And you need to stop — ‘Oh he did this,’ or ‘he did — ’ Listen buddy, I’m an honest guy that has worked my entire life to stand in front of people and do what’s right. You guys need to back off. You’ve been found out that you will lie at any cost. Your candidate will stand in front of the national media and say things like that knowingly — knowingly lying.”
“So y’all just need to, you know you need to change your — why don’t y’all just start talking about the issues that this country is faced with,” Young continued. “Let’s just get to that. When you got West Point graduates, Judge Roy Moore — when you got West Point graduates like Judge Bentley and honorable men that I stand with and stand behind me — those are the people that are honorable. And you guys — y’all need to figure out another tactic because y’all are going to lose because y’all continue to annihilate somebody’s character. And y’all need to back off. The country’s in trouble and we need to send men up there, and women, that will do what’s right and stand strong. Not stand up in front of the entire southern Alabama and lie to them in front of the whole nation. So y’all got to back off, plus talk about the issues, please.”
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