As for this Guard = Draft Dodgers thing, how many of you folks were alive and of military age during that period?
I was. I accepted an AF ROTC scholarship in 1969 prior to the beginning of the lottery.
College was BY FAR the most common "draft avoidance" technique during the course of the VN war.
This is how it worked.
The process of deciding which men were actually drafted was controversial from the earliest days of the Vietnam war. Until the institution of the draft lottery, the sequence of induction from among those available for service was set by order of the President, with the highest priority for ‘delinquents’,
second priority for volunteers, and third priority for non-volunteers between the ages of 19 and 25, in
order of their dates of birth (i.e., from oldest to youngest).
Although other groups could be called, most
draft boards were able to fill their quotas from the these three categories, even at the peak of the draft
Technically, men who had held college or other deferments were eligible for induction until age 35. Since few men between the
ages of 26 and 35 were ever drafted, however, men who were able to maintain a college deferment until their 26th birthday could avoid service.
Those who finished a bachelors degree before reaching age 25 could apply for a graduate deferment in the early and middle years of the war (up to 1968) and could apply for occupational or dependent deferments throughout the period from 1965 to 1970.
It didn't really change after the introduction of the "fair" lottery in Dec '69. You could still get a one year college deferment and due to the reduction in requirements, guys that got a deferment as late as '71 permanently avoided military service.
So, let's look at all this.
Bush, like MILLIONS of others had a standard college deferment until graduation from Yale in 1968. We're not talking the "sons of the rich and famous" here. He got the same standard college deferment that anybody going to college could get at any cow college in the Midwest. There really was no preference shown here and he didn't really "take advantage of the system".
Born in July of 1946, Bush was 22 years old in '68. He now had about 3 years of "draft exposure" because as noted not many were drafted any older than that.
He COULD have gone to Graduate school. There's no doubt he could have gotten in somewhere. As a grad student, he'd have gotten another school deferment and been basically immune to the draft until age 25.
But he didn't go to Grad school although that was the "easy way out".
Instead, Bush joined the Guard and probably did get a "leg up" due to his old man. Again, painting this as something "unusual" just means the painter really isn't in tune with the times. The sons of the rich and famous DID get into Guard units easier than the sons of the plebians. But, as I said, this was just the way it was. Heck, I was a dumbaxe and I KNEW that THEN. We all knew that then. That's how the system worked. Just like if you didn't go to college, you were highly likely to be drafted. That's just the way it worked.
Note, I'm not excusing it as "right" but rather as "the system".
Now, some of you equate this joining the Guard as "draft dodging". Horse doobers. He could have just gone to Grad school, but he joined the Guard.
See "draft dodging" was going to Canada. Joining the Guard, even with the preferential treatment was STILL joining the military and serving your country.
Because the nation required the Guard. Congress wanted it and funded it. SOMEBODY had to join to fill the requirement. Millions did just that.
Was it better than going to VN? Damn straight it was. But those jobs were going to be filled one way or the other.
And for those of you who think Bush is a coward, I invite you to strap on a single-seat all-weather interceptor equipped with instruments that are crude by today's standards and fly night overwater missions returning to penetrate some Houston thunderstorms which are renowned for their ferocity and land safely time after time.
I guarantee you that you will find it more than thrilling.
I really despise those that disparage Bush without having a clue what winning and wearing those wings actually requires.
If I told you what I thought of folks talking through their sphincters like that, it would basically be a line of asterisks.
Now I'll wait and see if the CBS reports stand up to the scrutiny of outside experts. If CBS refuses to allow such scrutiny, I'm afraid I'll have to figure they have something to hide.
