Jon Soltz

Jon Soltz was a Captain in the Iraq War and is currently the chairman and co-founder of VoteVets.org. As a member of the United States Army he served in both the Kosovo Campaign (2000) and later in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003). Soltz is an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, particularly with regards to its execution.

Military Service and Background

He was commissioned in 1999 from the University of Pittsburgh Army ROTC and attended the Armor Officer Basic Course at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Following his graduation he was stationed in Germany from 1999-2003. Soltz served in the Kosovo Campaign as a tank platoon leader between June and December 2000. From May to September 2003, Soltz served as a Captain during Operation Iraqi Freedom, deploying logistics convoys with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq. In 2005 Soltz was mobilized at Fort Dix, New Jersey to train soldiers for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Soltz is also a graduate of Washington & Jefferson College with dual degree in Political Science and History, and was a member of the men's soccer team as well as Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, Gamma Chapter. He has completed some graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He is a 1995 graduate of Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Media Appearances

Soltz has been interviewed by the Associated Press, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and LA Times. He has made numerous media appearances including Jim Lehrer’s Newshour on PBS, CNN’s Inside Politics, National Public Radio, the Alan Colmes show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Hardball with Chris Matthews.

YearlyKos Confrontation

Soltz is an outspoken critic of the Iraq War and attended the 2007 YearlyKos Convention in Chicago, where he was on the panel for the "The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different?" session. At the end of the debate, a sergeant in a Class A green uniform addressed the panel. Soltz confronted the sergeant and alleged that he was making political statements while in uniform. This episode was the subject of considerable controversy, and Soltz was widely defended at the Daily Kos website [cite web
url = http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/5/3940/86488
title = What Really Happened at the YearlyKos Military Panel
author = The Angry Rakkasan
date = 5 August 2007 |accessdate = 2007-08-05 ] [cite web
url = http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/5/151525/8196
title = New Interview on Pajamas Media with YearlyKos Sergeant
author = Vyan
date = 5 August 2007 |accessdate = 2007-08-19 ] [cite web
url = http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/5/05930/12222
title = YearlyKos 07 - The Unnamed Sergeant and Jon Soltz Confrontation
author = TheWurx
date = 5 August 2007 |accessdate = 2007-08-19 ] though at least one diarist, in a diary tagged as a troll diary, criticized Soltz over the incident. [cite web
url = http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/4/185513/1212
title = What Hath Soltz Wrought?
author = The Populist
date = 4 August 2007 |accessdate = 2007-08-05 ] .

ee also

*General John Batiste
*VoteVets.org

References