If anyone brings up Biden "dodging" the draft, please share this with them

[TexasBushwhacker]

Last edited Sat Oct 10, 2020, 05:31 PM - Edit history (1)

I've seen people say Biden, with his exemption for asthma, is no better than Trump and his bone spurs. It's a bit more complicated.

Drafting young men to fight in Vietnam didn't really get started until 1965. They drafted single men ages 18 to 26.

Joe was born in 1942. He graduated from high school in 1961 and undoubtedly registered with the Selective Service System as all young 18 year old men did, but they weren't drafting in 1961. He started college at University of Delaware and graduated in 1965, then went straight to law school and got married to his first wife Neilia in 1966. He graduated from law school in 1968 and passed the bar in 1969. He and his wife also welcomed their first son, Beau.

So while Joe may have been technically classified as 4-F because of a history of asthma, the fact is, he wouldn't have been drafted anyway. By 1967, Joe was 25, married and in law school. Two years later he was also a father. You can call Joe lucky if you like, but he was really not drafted because he was just too old.

Trump, on the other hand, was born in 1946. He got deferments while he was in college, but when he graduated in 1968, he was deemed fit and eligible by the local draft board. If Fred Trump didn't have a podiatrist as a tenant, Donald may have never gotten his diagnosis of "bone spurs". Besides, bone spurs don't disappear on their own and Trump never had them surgically removed, so you do the math.

[elleng]

1. Thanks.

Bookmarking.

[sellitman]

31. Me too.

Great minds?

[Jim__]

2. Great information. Thanks.

[iluvtennis]

24. +1. nt

[DURHAM D]

3. Good post. You are correct.

One needs to hear from one who lived this period in real time as it is somewhat difficult to understand.

[TheOther95Percent]

4. Dick Cheney was Similiarly Fortunate

Biden's family members including his son Beau and maternal uncles all did military service. One of his maternal uncles was killed in action in Italy in WWII. None of the Trumps have ever served.

You are correct about the timing. Joe was too old, married or not, to have been drafted from 1967 to 1972. He had aged out. Besides as a law school graduate, he likely would have ended up in a non-combat role.

My father and three of his brothers fought in WWII. His eldest brother, who was already 27 and still single when the war broke out, was never called up. Nope, like Dad said being a healthy 19-21 year old after December 1941, got you on all-expenses paid trip to boot camp.

[Glorfindel]

5. " Drafting young men to fight in Vietnam didn't really get started until 1967"?

Personal experience: I was drafted in May 1966. They were taking anything with a pulse, seemingly. Men over 25, married men, fathers, all in my basic training platoon at Fort Benning, Georgia. They got us to Vietnam as fast as they could, too. Out of everyone in my Steno group at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, only one was sent somewhere else (Germany), and his uncle worked in the Pentagon. A TWA planeload of us landed in Vietnam in December 1966. I would say the draft was pretty "earnest" in 1966. I don't begrudge Vice-President Biden his deferment, but to say "the fact is, he wouldn't have been drafted anyway" is just plain wrong.

[TexasBushwhacker]

8. I stand corrected

The draft ramped up in 1965, following the Gulf of Tonkin. I've amended my post.

[FakeNoose]

6. Yes this is accurate - needs to be repeated often

My ex-hubbs was born in the same year as Chump. He would have been drafted and sent to Vietnam if he had stayed single. But in 1970 we got married and had a baby, so ex-hubbs never received a draft notice. Chump in the other hand, remained single until his late 20s and was eligible for the draft, age-wise. Only the fake diagnosis of "bone spurs" kept him out.

Among our friends who finished college in the timeframe of 1969-70-71 a lot of us married young and most had kids right away. Among those who did not marry, many (most) went to graduate school and continued their S-1 deferment until they were past the age of 25.

Thanks TexasBushwacker!

[rzemanfl]

7. Childless married men were eligible for the draft starting on August 26, 1965.

2-S deferments were changed prospectively to undergraduates only by a law signed by LBJ on June 30, 1967. That really fucked me up, because I graduated in three years, getting my B.A. in June, 1968. I had no deferment for law school. I managed to get one through an appeal and another after the birth of my daughter. I got a decent number in Nixon's lottery. I don't disagree with your point that Joe would not have been drafted. He would have been eligible for a deferment all through law school even if he'd been single and childless.

ON EDIT-Joe's draft lottery number was 185.

[LizBeth]

9. Ya, but in 65 he is 23. I am not going to use an argue that math doesn't play out. I have not heard

anyone say anything about Biden and Vietnam but I would not have an argument about it either. I do not talk bout Trump bone spur either. Too much now to get Trump.

[TexasBushwhacker]

11. But in 65 he could still use a deferment to go to law school

It wasn't until 1967 that LBJ cut deferments for grad students. You could only get a one year deferment to work on your masters degree, but up to 4 years for a PhD or professional degree.

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/7/3/lbj-signs-draft-law-cutting-graduate/

[LizBeth]

12. AH, but still someone will argue even a legitimate deferment. I mean, I really do not think it

it is necessary to argue this but if there is a conversation, it is good having the info. Thanks.

[TexasBushwhacker]

14. I brought it up because I just had a "discussion"

with someone who said Trump and Biden were both "privileged, draft dodging jerks".

[LizBeth]

15. I see. I haven't heard it but looks like you are in Texas. Democrats have always been the ones to

take care of military and Biden has family that served, he gets it. It blows my mind those that go Republican because of the whole macho/patriotic, not facts thing.

[TexasBushwhacker]

16. Yeah, when NRA member Tom Selleck got drafted

he managed to get into the California National Guard.

[groundloop]

28. Yep.... while Shrub protected the skies over Houston during Vietnam

that is, when he wasn't AWOL.

[Grins]

10. You know who else...?

Another guy who was eligible but was skipped because he was married and a father with small children?

Dick Cheney. Liz Cheney, aka, “Daddy’s little deferment.”

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. You know which rich white kid enlisted

because he knew some poor black kid would get drafted in his place? Albert Gore Jr.

[Grins]

18. Yes!! That's right!

And as an EM; not an officer.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Can't Spurs Get Even Worse Over Time?

I have a recollection of a parents' friend putting off fixing her heel, because the surgery in those days was very painful.
But, they got worse & worse, then the surgery was more extensive, the recovery pain was worse.
So, they spent years gritting their teeth through the pain, only to have everything worse than if they had it done originally.
That story is accurate, but I'm not 100% sure it was a bone spur in her foot.

[Grins]

19. If that is true...

...and it may, then why hasn’t 74-year old orange Caligula suffered like that?

Because...!

[pnwmom]

20. Also, asthma wasn't a "technical" exemption. It's a real disease that they didn't have any good

treatment for back then.

[pnwmom]

21. Also, asthma wasn't a "technical" exemption. It's a serious disease that they didn't have any good

treatment for in the 60's.

The invention of peak flow meters during the 1960s and 1970s was a technological leap aiding effective treatment. In the 1970s, extensive clinical research led to the use of inhaled corticosteroids for effective management of asthma.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Asthma-History.aspx

Even today, a medical history of asthma past the age of 13 is disqualifying.

Previously, any history of asthma was disqualifying, regardless of age. While medical waivers were sometimes possible, waiver approval usually required scheduling and passing a pulmonary function test.


In the present day, asthma is only disqualifying if it occurs after the applicant’s 13th birthday.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Asthma-History.aspx

[trueblue2007]

22. THANKS FOR THIS, i am posting to facebook

[Elwood P Dowd]

23. Trump served in the 5th Avenue Sex Brigade

[Mr.Bill]

27. And served in the battle of Epstein Island.

[Mr.Bill]

25. I turned 18 in 1971.

I was classified 1-H. This meant that in the event of a major war I would immediately become a hostage.

Old Woody Allen joke.

The true story is I really was classified 1-H. It meant only to be called in time of a national emergency. I registered for the draft on my 18th birthday, and that was on the draft card they sent me within several weeks. That's the last I ever heard from them. I was never even called for a physical. I have no idea why. I don't even know if I was eligible for the lottery, but I had a high number both years.

[keithbvadu2]

26. Too many minorities enlisting for 'patriots' to serve? (sarcasm)

Too many minorities enlisting for 'patriots' to serve?

Tom DeLay and Dan Quayle military service

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/1999/05/what_did_you_do_in_the_war_hammer.html


https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=rLJkWsTHOYTQjwPs4ai4DA&q=tom+delay+military+service&oq=tom+delay+military+service&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160k1.5268.23130.0.25569.34.32.1.0.0.0.410.3920.0j23j4-1.25.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..8.25.3899.6..0j35i39k1j0i131i67k1j0i67k1j0i131k1j0i46i67k1j46i67k1j0i131i46i67k1j46i131i67k1j0i20i264k1j0i20i263k1j0i10k1j0i20i263i264k1j0i22i30k1j33i21k1j33i22i29i30k1.150.HbLYgxNPR7M

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

30. Tom Delay said he avoided being drafted

because he didn't want to take a job away from some poor boy who needed the money.

At what point in their miserable lives do Republicans have their brains replaced with earthworms? Probably about the time they lose their sense of empathy for anyone who isn't exactly like themselves, I'll bet.