Manion aspires to live son’s motto: “If not me, then who?”

By GARY WECKSELBLATT
The Intelligencer

Tom Manion’s campaign for Congress is inextricably linked to his son’s fate in Iraq.

Without Travis Manion’s death near Fallujah in a sniper attack, Tom Manion likely would be sitting in his office at Johnson & Johnson, where he is vice president of information technology, instead of campaigning for Congress.

But with his son’s sacrifice driving him, Manion has taken on the best of his son’s legacy and aspires to live Travis’ motto: “If not me, then who?”

Manion’s candidacy didn’t begin Jan. 15 when he stood in the kitchen of his Doylestown Township home to announce his bid for the Republican nomination in Bucks County’s 8th District. It began Sunday, April 29, 2007, at 4:30 p.m. when two Marines rang the Manions’ doorbell with news of Travis’ death.

Janet Manion, Tom’s wife of 30 years, opened the door, saw who stood there, quickly slammed it shut and began to scream.

All hell broke loose in the Manion home much as it had on a battlefield in Iraq early that day where Travis, a Marine first lieutenant in a reconnaissance battalion embedded with the Iraqi soldiers, helping them prepare to take on full defense of their nation.

Nearly a year and a half later, the bottom hinge on the door is still broken.

Who is Tom Manion, the man challenging Democrat Patrick Murphy, a fellow veteran serving his first term, for a seat in Congress? Manion also faces Tom Lingenfelter, an independent, in the three-person race.

According to those who know him, you get Travis’ valor packaged in a seasoned, mature business executive who taught his son about the sense of service his parents had instilled in him.

Manion, 54, was one of 10 children raised by Jim and Gertrude Manion in Philadelphia. During World War II, his father was a navigator on B-17 bombers. Manion’s oldest brother, Jim, was a decorated Vietnam War veteran.

Following their influence, Manion served 11 years of active duty as a Marine, and another 19 in the Marine Reserves, retiring at the end of 2007 as a colonel.

Tom met Janet in 1977, and they married the following year. She had two brothers in the Army and was impressed that he planned to join the Marines. Their two children, Travis, who was 26 when he was killed, and older sister Ryan, now 29 and Manion’s finance director, were both born at Camp Lejeune, the Marine base in North Carolina.

After leaving active duty, Manion worked for a consulting firm of Naval Academy graduates for two years before accepting an offer from Johnson & Johnson. He’s been using vacation time and is about to take a leave of absence as the campaign hits the home stretch.

“Character and integrity”

On the wall in Manion’s modest campaign office on West Ashland Street in Doylestown hangs a picture of Ronald Reagan.

“I often think of where we were when he came on the scene,” Manion said of Reagan’s ascendancy to the presidency in 1980 following Jimmy Carter. “There didn’t seem to be a worse time in our nation’s history. There was a lot of talk about where we’d gone wrong as a nation.”

Manion said today’s challenges are the same, but “I don’t see the leadership with President Bush, with Congress” that Reagan provided.

Manion contends his background in the military and business, specifically the health care industry, would serve 8th District constituents well in Washington.

“I’ve run a business, led teams, built relationships and gotten results,” he said. “At the end of the day, my experience has been about working with people. There are a lot of inefficiencies in Washington where my background can help.

“I have life experiences. I’ve raised a family. I’m not a politician, but it strikes me politicians have not been getting it done.”

The people who know Manion all say the same thing: he’s honest and reliable, serious and low-key. Perhaps retired Marine Lt. Col. Corky Gardner, who served with Manion and was the officer in charge of Plebe summer when Travis entered the Naval Academy, said it best. “There’s character and integrity and Tom has them in spades.”

“I know it sounds like a cliche, but that’s the way he is,” said Barry Fitzsimmons, a vice president for new business development at Johnson & Johnson.

Fitzsimmons, who lives in Solebury, certainly has spent enough time with Manion. The two car-pooled together for years to J&J’s office in Piscataway, an hour ride each way. “It was a horrible commute, but riding with Tom made it bearable.

“The guy’s a rock,” Fitzsimmons said.

Mark McGillicuddy, director of information technology at J&J, has twice “jumped at the opportunity” to work with Manion. “He’s not a micro-manager. He gives you the tools and resources to get the job done, and expects you to do it. It comes from his Marine training.”
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“He’s very good at developing people,” Fitzsimmons said.

Gardner, one of two Marines at the door on the emotional day of Travis’ death, said the man he’s sat with at Phillies and Flyers games and competed in marathons “reflects the highest ideals of a citizen soldier. He understands business and has a sense of wanting to do more for the country.”

Mike Fitzpatrick, a former Bucks County commissioner and one-term congressman who lost a tight election to Murphy in 2006, has spoken to Manion about running for office.

“If you believe in family you can see why Tom is really so committed,” Fitzpatrick said. “Washington needs him a lot more than he needs Washington.”

Jerry Morgan, a “general consultant” to the Manion campaign, said his candidate reminds him of legendary actor John Wayne. “There is such a strength in his words,” Morgan said. “It took me a month to get used to him. He’s so straightforward, so honest.”

Morgan, who’s been in politics “a long time” and has run several campaigns, had no intention of working another one. “I was done,” he said.

But a friend asked him to talk to Manion. After meeting both Tom and Janet, Morgan drove back to Wayne County to do some hunting, believing he’d stay retired.

“It’s an ugly game,” he said of politics. “It’s so tough on a family. I remember asking Tom, “Are you sure you want to do this?’ He said, “I need to do it for my country.’ ”

“I left thinking I’m glad I met Tom and Janet Manion. They’re special people.”

While hunting, Morgan said, “I couldn’t get him off my mind.”

“The one word to describe Tom — refreshing.”

“Dad, you’ve got to do this’

Since Travis’ death there have been several visits to the Manion home by those he served with. And each one brought Tom Manion closer to the political realm.

Mustafa M. Jawad, an 18-year-old Iraqi interpreter, told the family that a week before Travis died he gave the teen a letter of recommendation Jawad had requested to become a U.S. citizen.

The young man spent New Year’s Eve in the Manion home. He gave his dog tags to Manion’s daughter.

The Manions point to this type of relationship as evidence of the success the U.S. military is having in Iraq.

Another visit was particularly potent.

Eric Greitens, a decorated U.S. Navy Seal and Rhodes Scholar, who now speaks about leadership, ethics and service, and Marine Maj. Joel Poudrier, told the Manions the Iraqi’s named their headquarters in honor of Travis, Combat Outpost Manion. Poudrier, who was wounded in Fallujah and able to be rescued when Travis exposed himself to enemy fire, lamented media coverage of the war, explaining that people don’t realize the good work being done by the U.S. military. It was a refrain often spoken about by Travis.

Greitens told Manion that people “don’t understand the evil out there. It’s as bad or worse than the Second World War.”

“They sat right out there,” Janet Manion said, pointing to the patio outside her kitchen, “talking about how the war had been politicized. They come home, turn on the news and it’s so false. They talk to war analysts. Why don’t they talk to us? They want to know why real soldiers are not being asked about the war.”

“That really stuck in my mind,” Tom Manion said. “You can argue whether we should be there in the first place, I can understand that. But we’re there now. You can’t walk away from it and let it fall apart and crumble.”

Each visit to the Manion home built on the other with similar themes: Travis’ bravery and the politicization of the war. The Manions ultimately decided something had to be done. The family considered writing a book, and may revisit that idea at a later date. They created the Travis Manion Foundation (travismanion.com) to help support families that have lost loved ones in the global war on terror.

But as Ryan Borek explained, Travis’ words keep tugging at his father. “He’d be saying, “Come on dad, you’ve got to do this.’ ”

“Travis is in my mind telling me what these guys are putting on the line for us,” Manion said. “There are so many others like him, and I wish the rest of the country understood about what these guys are doing and why they are doing it. That sticks with me.”