Republican Dean Allen, a candidate for South Carolina Adjutant General, held what he called a “Machine Gun Social” in Greenville on Saturday to raise some cash for his campaign.
For $25, donors were given barbecue and 20 rounds to shoot in an AK-47. They also had a chance to win a semi-automatic AK-47 valued at $700.
A similar event is planned soon for Charleston.
Allen hopes to change several things if he is elected as South Carolina’s Adjutant General, the office which has authority over the state’s defense forces. “I spent six year in the South Carolina State Guard and realized that they were not properly equipped and are not given missions to protect the people of South Carolina. That will change under my leadership.”
South Carolina is the only state where voters elect the Adjutant General.
Allen advocates bringing National Guardsmen back from Afghanistan to address domestic issues such as illegal immigration.
Allen says there are several reasons the National Guard should not be overseas in Afghanistan. “We can’t say who our enemy is. We have rules of engagement designed to protect civilians rather than our forces. We don’t have a clear plan to win a war or even a commitment to win a war. ”
Allen spent six years in the Army and six years in the South Carolina Guard.
Allen says the Army is not doing what it is supposed to overseas. “We have all the military branches bogged down trying to do public relations, civil planning and government building in a country that has never had democratic institutions. And the job of the army is to kill people and break things.”
Current Adjutant General Maj. General Stan Spears has not said whether he will run for re-election.
Allen says his field experience is what separates him from the rest of the leading generals of South Carolina’s National Guard. “Unlike the other guard generals I’ve been in combat three times, on the DMZ in Korea and Vietnam. I’ve been in the capital of Vietnam, two different tours of duty.”
Allen says the focus needs to be more on protecting the troops than diplomatic handling.
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