http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/print.php?id=67286Kimmitt's father, Joseph Stanley (Stan) Kimmitt, a former Col. in Army (an artilleryman like
Mark), has parlayed his military service into a Washington, DC, public relations, or lobbyist, firm
-- Kimmitt, Senter, Coates, & Weinferter. As Gen. Kimmitt promotes the war in Iraq, his father
represents defense contractors such as Textron Defense Systems, Talley Defense Systems, and
Boeing (maker of the Army's Apache attack helicopter).
The Kimmitts are a classic example of the revolving-door syndrome of U.S. military officers and
defense contractors. Such double-dipping is commonplace. It is one of the things President
Eisenhower meant when he referred to the dangers of the "military-industrial complex." It is a
self-replicating monster that feeds on war, death, and destruction
Ironically, S. Joseph Kimmitt was the secretary and close friend of Sen. Mike Mansfield of
Montana, after Kimmitt's military service. Sen. Mansfield came to see the Vietnam war as
unnecessary and would doubtless be opposed to the Iraq war if he were still alive.
Gen. Kimmitt's brother, Joseph "Jay" Kimmitt, is a Washington, DC, lobbyist employed by
Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Truck Corp. the No. 1 maker of concrete mixers, trash haulers and
military trucks. Now it wants a bigger slice of the homeland-security pie, too. And Jay Kimmitt
hired a Washington-based PR firm (not his father's) to get it. Another example of the revolving
door, Jay Kimmitt served 27 years in the Army he is now selling to.