Terry Paul joined the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War to one-up his older brother. He couldn’t get past the idea that Marines carried their guns everywhere — even the shower. 

So when Paul was asked in the 1980s to trade his combat boots for wingtips and become the live-in Marine Corps liaison in the Senate, he thought he had failed as an infantryman.

“I was either real bad or real good [as the Senate liaison],” surmised Paul, 60, who is now the director of the defense practice at Cassidy and Associates. “I do not think the vote is in on that.”

Those who know the retired brigadier general are more certain that he was a natural fit to handle everything Washington could throw at him. He has an easy manner, essential for someone who spent four months of the year traveling with lawmakers and their staffs on delegations around the world. He can be direct, especially in his lobbying role, ferreting out those contractors with the military’s best interest in mind and sending the others to “Atlantic City.”

“He is highly principled and has a great sense of humor and he represents the very best attributes of the Marine Corps and public service,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who met Paul almost 10 years ago on a trip to war-torn Bosnia.

Paul is still in touch with Marines and colleagues from the other services, and that connection is essential for him as a lobbyist. While he represents his clients, he represents just as much the needs of Marines and soldiers overseas and at home.

Paul said he only picks clients with technologies that he believes would help the troops and feels confident promoting in Congress to receive funding for them.

“I still live that life [of a Marine], and the last thing I would do is to bring something that I thought would be inferior or life-threatening,” Paul said.

He is not afraid to turn clients away, and he does not mince words. If he thinks a technology presented to him is “junk,” he says so. He offended one prospective client by telling him: “Where you need to go is Atlantic City.”

“I don’t play that game. You just can’t roll the dice,” he said.

Paul derives satisfaction from clients who make it big by helping the military institutions he values.

One such client is M2 Technologies , which is developing an anti-sniper device. It has grown from a small business to one with 60 employees, and can claim defense giant Lockheed Martin as a sub-contractor.

Lockheed Martin is also among Paul’s clients, as is Alenia North America , one of the contractors for the new Joint Cargo Aircraft; American Superconductor Corp. , and International Titanium Powder , among others.

With Paul, what you see is what you get — he is never afraid to stand by his opinions. He’s direct, always lacing his comments with good-natured Southern humor.

“He is a very straight, very candid and very honest guy,” said Steve Bell, Sen. Pete Domenici’s (R-N.M.) chief of staff, now one of Paul’s regular poker buddies.

But Paul thinks his practice is different than others because of one trait: conscientiousness.

“I am burdened by that trait, and I say that with a little humor, but it is easy to give things a fast shuffle, make a couple calls on the Hill and you are done,” he said in an interview. “It is quite another thing to make sure that you have touched all the bases, you have exhausted all the efforts that are necessary to ensure success as best as you can.”

A Kentucky native, Paul signed up for the Marine Corps in 1969 to “one-up” his brother, an Army officer in Vietnam at the time. After hearing a story from his brother that the Marines would carry their guns and cartridges even into the shower, he decided Marines were much tougher than Army guys—the service his father and his brother served in.  

He never shared that story with his brother. And his brother, whom Paul always looked up to, will not get a chance to hear it. He was killed during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City. Paul to this day wears the work shirts, monogrammed “JRP,” that his brother had ordered but never got a chance to try on.

After a one-year combat tour in Vietnam in 1971, Paul served as an infantry officer in various command and staff positions on Marine bases across the country, including Camp Pendleton, Calif., Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Quantico, Va.

One of his most satisfying accomplishments was founding the Marine Corps infantry school — nonexistent until he and a couple other captains decided that the infantrymen also needed an occupational specialty education.

“Everybody goes to follow-on school but in the infantry we go to war,” he recalled thinking. He and his friends got six months and no money to develop a course that now is the bedrock of the Marines’ infantry training.

When he was assigned to the Senate in 1988, Paul went in thinking that patriots and hard work could only be found in the military. He quickly realized that members and staffers alike are dedicated and always want to do “the right thing for the military.”

During his time in the Senate, Paul worked on issues such as the controversial V-22 Osprey helicopter and succeeded in staving off a large reduction in Marine Corps numbers.

“I did not find that either party had a lock on patriotism,” he said. “They all love their country and they all show that love in various ways.”

Paul gives money to both Democrats and Republicans and has voted for both parties.

After he made brigadier general in 1998, Paul became the Marine Corps legislative director at the Pentagon, overseeing coordination with both the House and the Senate. Almost two years later, he joined Cassidy.