BG: A back condition wins Dean a Vietnam-era draft deferment

[DJcairo]

By Sarah Schweitzer and Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 9/21/2003

In February of 1970, with the Vietnam War raging, 21-year-old Howard Dean carried a set of X-rays and a letter from a Manhattan orthopedist named Hudson Wilson to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, where US military doctors determined that he was not fit for military service because of a back condition called spondylolisthesis.

Dean was classified 1Y, according to military records, meaning he was exempt from service for the duration of the war and free to head to Colorado after his Yale graduation, where he skied at Aspen and poured concrete. Spondylolisthesis is a condition caused by an unfused vertebra. When diagnosed nearly four years earlier, he was cleared to participate in all sports except long-distance running.

"I didn't try to get out of the draft," Dean has said. "I had a physical."

Among the candidates vying for the presidency, Senator John F. Kerry and retired General Wesley K. Clark served in the Vietnam War. The others served in the National Guard, were too young for the draft, or were recipients of deferments. President Bush served in the National Guard.

Military service is nonetheless a potential political minefield. Dean is mindful of that.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/dean/articles/2003/09/21/a_back_condition_wins_dean_a_vietnam_era_draft_deferment/