By Peter Hardin
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON — Phillip F. Thompson, who was a senior aide to Sen. Jim Webb, has resigned to work as a speechwriter for the secretary of the Army, according to a Webb spokeswoman.
Thompson was "a tremendous asset" and helped garner bipartisan support for Webb's GI benefits bill for veterans who have served since Sept. 11, 2001, said Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith.
Thompson made news in March after police said he carried a loaded pistol and two ammunition magazines into a Senate office building in a briefcase.
He was arrested on an illegal-handgun charge, which a U.S. prosecutor later dropped. Webb, D-Va., hinted at the time of the arrest at an innocent mix-up and refused to say who owned the gun; in June, Webb acknowledged it was his own.
A longtime friend of Webb, Thompson was Webb's executive assistant. A novelist, former journalist and former Marine, Thompson saw combat in Operation Desert Storm.
He did not return a reporter's calls to his mobile phone yesterday.
Thompson was "a tremendous asset" and helped garner bipartisan support for Webb's GI benefits bill for veterans who have served since Sept. 11, 2001, said Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith.
Thompson made news in March after police said he carried a loaded pistol and two ammunition magazines into a Senate office building in a briefcase.
He was arrested on an illegal-handgun charge, which a U.S. prosecutor later dropped. Webb, D-Va., hinted at the time of the arrest at an innocent mix-up and refused to say who owned the gun; in June, Webb acknowledged it was his own.
A longtime friend of Webb, Thompson was Webb's executive assistant. A novelist, former journalist and former Marine, Thompson saw combat in Operation Desert Storm.
He did not return a reporter's calls to his mobile phone yesterday.