Back Up The Truck, Johnny

Something's been gnawing at me since Kerry started this draft deferment bullshit. Millions of the 60's generation knows it's bullshit, the media knows it's bullshit.

BTW-Who appointed John Kerry as arbiter of honorable service?

Student deferments were not a negative for those seeking them, they were a legitimate means to finish your education. It was the radical left who turned deferments into a protest tool that created the negative image that the left is cynically exploiting in this election cycle.

Channeling was an official publication of the Selective Service System issued in Jul of 1965 and was sent to all local draft boards. It sought to justify the deferment of college bound young men, undergraduates and post graduate students as being in the larger national interest.

"The Selective Service System has the responsibility to deliver manpower to the armed forces in such a manner as to reduce to a minimum any adverse effect upon the national health, safety, interest and progress."

[...]

A new DoD database computer tape released through the Nat'l Archives allows researchers for the 1st time to take a much closer look at our 58,152 Vietnam casualties.

2,100,000 served in Vietnam in the years from 1964-73. This was exactly 24% of the 8,444,000 who were in the active Armed Forces during those years, but only 8% of the 2,6000,000 Americans who were eligible for military service. The vast majority of Americans who were eligible by age but did not serve in the Armed Forces were exempted by reason of physical, mental, psychiatric, or moral failure; or they were given status deferments because they were college students, fathers, teachers, engineers, or conscientious objectors.

[note: the referenced page may be useful for those who came of age after the conclusion of the Vietnam War. What you've heard or have been told is not necessarily the full story, nor is this page, but it does put lie to many of the misconceptions and myths currently being flogged in this election.]

College students were eligible for II-S deferments until they fulfilled their degree requirements or reached their twenty-fourth birthday, whichever came first. Initially, it was up to local boards to decide annually whether a student was making satisfactory progress toward a degree. Generally, boards granted a deferment to anyone who could prove that he was enrolled full time in an accredited college or university, or was well connected in the community, aka Bill Clinton, which was patentedly unfair.

As remedy for favoritism, in early 1966, the Selective Service System initiated the Selective Service College Qualification Test (SSCQT). Any student ranking in the lower levels of their class was eligible for the draft. Despite the nationwide outburst of student protest, over 750,000 students took the test in 1966, in hopes of retaining their student deferments. It was the norm on campus, not the exception. Deferments were an incentive to maintain a high GPA and attend grad school. Hundreds of thousands of men now in prominent positions, including the media, politics, academia and medicine received deferments, are they scoundrels too?

In my immediate and extended family five men were eligible for the draft. One was career Army and served two tours, one enlisted in advance of his draft notice, and three deferred; two of whom served and the youngest wasn't called.

How is that dishonorable?

That's why Kerry pisses so many of his peer group off, he is the worst sort of opportunist. Now he tars those of his generation who took advantage of college deferments, just as he tarred his band of brothers in 1971, to further his ambition.

Who will he next betray? We know the answer, don't we?

UPDATE: Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusual

A few details that leap out from the article:

Cheney received four student deferments, a category called 2-S, according to Patrick Schuback, a spokesman for the Selective Service System. They were dated March 20, 1963; July 23, 1963; Oct. 14, 1964; and Nov. 1, 1965.

His last deferment, dated Jan. 19, 1966, was category 3-A, usually issued to men with a family hardship. That was given as the Cheneys, who had married in August 1964, were expecting their first baby.

Note that two of the dates were before the Vietnam war draft began.

Deferments were common in the 1960s. More than 3.5 million men received 3-A deferments the same year Cheney got his, Schuback said. And 1.7 million others got 2-S deferments that year. More than 343,000 were drafted from July 1, 1965, to June 30, 1966.

Cheney's record also shows he was twice given 1-A status, indicating he was able to serve. The first instance was Feb. 15, 1962, when he was first exposed to the draft because government policy then was to confer that status on men who had reached their 20s, specialists say. The second time was May 19, 1965. As a result, there were apparently several months -- especially in 1965 -- when he could have been drafted. In all, 1.8 million men were drafted from 1964 to 1973.

This graf adds an odd twist to the article.

''Cheney got legal deferments, as did thousands of others, including Bill Clinton," Flynn said. ''Nothing odd about this behavior. What is odd is that Kerry, a Yale graduate with terrific credentials and opportunities, decided to volunteer for the war."

Posted by feste at September 3, 2004 09:36 PM | TrackBack