Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden discharged from Navy Reserve for cocaine use

Normally the term “cup of coffee” is reserved for professional sports, but the alkaloid reference also seems very appropriate to describe Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s stint in the Navy Reserve, which lasted all of nine months after he reportedly tested positive for cocaine less than two months after being commissioned an ensign.

Hunter Biden, who is a 44-year-old former lobbyist and attorney who now works as a managing partner at an investment company, began the direct-commission process in 2012, which would allow him to become a commissioned public-affairs officer in the Navy Reserve without the usual requirements of attending the Naval Academy, a reserve-officer training course or officer-candidate school. The program was designed to allow the Navy to recruit civilians with much-needed skills, like lawyering, lobbying and investing apparently.

“The Navy typically accepts about six people into the public-affairs reserves each year,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “Navy reservists usually serve one weekend a month and two weeks a year, but they can be called up to serve as much as a year on active duty.”

From The Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Biden was commissioned as an ensign on May 7, 2013, and assigned to Navy Public Affairs Support Element East in Norfolk, Va., a reserve unit, according to the Navy. In June 2013, after reporting to his unit in Norfolk, he was given a drug test, which turned up positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Biden was discharged in February, the Navy said.

After it was revealed Hunter Biden had been discharged from the Navy, he said in a statement after his months of service that it was “the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family, I’m moving forward.”

There has been no official comment from Vice President Joe Biden, seen with Hunter and President Obama below during a college basketball game in 2010.

 

Hunter is the youngest of two sons. His older brother, Beau Biden, had a slightly more successful military career. Beau joined the Delaware Army National Guard in 2003 and spent a year deployed in Iraq from 2008-2009. He was recently promoted to the rank of Major in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps as part of the 261st Signal Brigade in Smyrna, Delaware, according to Wikipedia.

There is a great deal of speculation that Hunter Biden enlisting in his 40s was partly to help out his resume for a future career in politics, but that backfired horrendously. Once again, older brother Beau fared much better. He has served as Attorney General of Delaware since 2006 and has publicly revealed he plans to run for Governor of Delaware in 2016.

We’ll wrap this up with the obligatory Coca-Cola bottle joke: