Bailey, an 18-year House veteran who drew fire earlier this year for filing as both a Republican and Democratic candidate after a last-minute switch to the Republican Party, uses the sentence in his campaign flier.

He claims his two years of training at a Marine barracks when he was in high school qualifies him to say he was a Marine reservist.

"It seems Bailey is trying to exaggerate his two years of high school training as a distinguished military career," S.C. Democratic Party spokesman Wyeth Ruthven said.

Democratic Party Chairman Joe Erwin issued a statement challenging Bailey's claim Tuesday. Erwin cited a federal law that says a person has to have experience in the armed forces before he can be in the reserves.

"George Bailey never served one day in either the Marines or the Marine Reserves," Erwin said.

Bailey's resume in the S.C. Legislative Manual calls him a Marine veteran. Bailey acknowledged that was a mistake after Democrats challenged that claim this summer. But he insists he has a right to the reserve claim.

"They were right the first time, saying I was in the Marines. I should have corrected that," Bailey said Wednesday. "But I'm proud to say I served in the Marine Reserves."

For two years when he was in high school, he put on a uniform every other weekend and trained with the 53rd Special Infantry at a Marine barracks at the Charleston Naval Shipyard, Bailey said. He got paid for those weekends, and if there had been a war, he would have fought, he said.

"We didn't know what would happen when we were 18 and graduated," Bailey said. "I was ready to go."

The debate boils down to who has a right to call himself a Marine reservist, which might involve how much the current law applies to Bailey's service in the 1950s.Gunnery Sgt. Katheryn Brennan, a spokeswoman with the Marine Reserve unit in North Charleston, said she was familiar with the debate over Bailey's service.

"We're researching the question," Brennan said, adding she should know more today.

Bailey faces Lachlan McIntosh, a former aide to Democratic Gov. Jim Hodges, in the No-vember election for the House District 97 seat, which includes St. George.

McIntosh declined to com-ment on this dispute, saying he wasn't the one who raised the issue.

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