Col. J. Patrick Murray, USA (Ret) of Alexandria, VA is a 24 year military veteran and is running for election in 8th Congressional District of Virginia who is running against Congressman James Moran (D-VA-8), a 20 year incumbent and Pelosi clone.  Col Murray was raised in Oklahoma by a single mother who taught him the importance of hard works, honesty and self reliance.  He went to work at the age of 14 to help her pay the bills at home.  It was the height of the Cold War, and Patrick followed world events closely.  He developed a strong sense of patriotism and love of country as he watched the United States confront an oppressive Soviet Union around the world.  He put himself through college with a combination of working part time, student loans, and a stipend from the Veterans Administration owing to his father’s WW II service.  In 1983, Col Murray received a BS in Economics for Oklahoma State University, and in 1985 he received an MA in History from Oklahoma State University.  In 1995 he received an MA in Russian Studies at Ohio State University.  In 1996 he graduated from George C. Marshall Institute for European Studies.   
 

Patrick also felt drawn to military service, and enrolled in the ROTC program at Oklahoma State University. After graduation in 1986 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant and was assigned to combat units on the East-West German border, then the “frontier of freedom.”  After a 7 year tour in Command of a Tank Company, he went on to study Russian and graduated for Defense Language Institute in 1993.   In 1996 he had a tour of duty as a Military Investigator in Russia, and in 1997 he had a hostile fire deployment as an Intelligence Officer in Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina; in 2000 he had a hostile fire deployment as the Army Attaché in Pristina, Kosovo.  He had extensive operational, analytical, and policy assignments.  In 2001 he had a hostile fire deployment as an Army Attaché, in the U.S. Embassy, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.   As a Russian speaker, Col. Murray has worked in various bilateral and multilateral international relations venues, foreign policy, political military affairs, arms control and military-to-military relations. In 2001 he graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College.  He has been a Military Attaché and has served in US embassies in Russia, Belarus, Bosnia, Yugoslavia, and Kosovo.  In 2007 during the “Surge,” Col Patrick Murray deployed to Baghdad Iraq with the Joint Forces Command where he served as part of the Multi National Forces Iraq.  He was awarded two Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Services Achievement Medal, the NATO Medal, and various campaign service medals.  His final tour of duty was at the United Nations in New York; he retired on November 30, 2009.  Col Murray has had extensive experience in foreign policy & political military affairs, arms control, military-to-military relations, and duty at the United Nations Headquarters in New York as a member of the U. S. Military Staff Committee.   
 

Col Murray has been endorsed by Ambassador John Bolton, the Iraqi Vets for Congress, and now by the Combat Veterans For Congress PAC.  If you review Col Murray’s positions on his Web site, you would be pleased with his stand; they agree with the Combat Veterans For Congress Mission Statement.  We look forward to working with Col Murray, and are pleased that a Combat Veteran of his caliber is running for Congress.  If you have friends, associates, or relatives who know voters in the 8th Congressional district of Virginia, kindly pass this E-mail on to them, and ask them to support Col J. Patrick Murray by working in his campaign, providing financial support for his campaign in any amount, and/or by networking with others who would be willing to support his campaign. We have endorsed another Combat Veteran For Congress that General George Washington would have approved of.  A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to “The Unites States of America” for an amount “up to and including his life.”