Deferments Helped Trump Dodge Vietnam

[sufrommich]

By the time his number (356) was drawn during the December 1, 1969 draft lottery, Trump had already received four student deferments and a medical deferment, according to military records on file with the National Archives and Records Administration. An extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record, seen here, was provided in response to a TSG records request.

In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business at the Wharton School. So, while claiming that he would “never forget” being at Wharton watching the draft numbers being drawn, the 64-year-old Trump seems to have misremembered, as candidates are fond of saying.

Trump obtained his first two Class 2-S student deferments in June 1964 and December 1965, when he was student at Fordham University in the Bronx. He was briefly reclassified as 1-A--or “available for military service”--in late-November 1966, but that classification was switched back to 2-S three weeks later.

Another 2-S deferment is dated January 16, 1968, just months before his graduation from UPenn (to which he transferred following his sophomore year at Fordham).

Following his UPenn graduation, Trump--no longer qualified for a 2-S deferment--was again briefly classified as available for service on July 9. However, three months later, on October 15, his classification was switched to 1-Y, which was given to men deemed qualified for military service “only in time of national emergency.”

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/deferments-helped-trump-dodge-vietnam


Another republican "patriot" who believes actually fighting in wars is only for the little people.

[Canuckistanian]

1. A medical deferment?

Like a Military Section 8?

[gratuitous]

2. Doesn't appear any strings were pulled

Although I'm not sure why his 1-A classification got switched to 1-Y in October 1968. This might bear some additional scrutiny if Trump ever runs for president.

[sufrommich]

3. Trump claimed his lottery number was too high to qualify for

the draft. It really wasn't. His medical deferment was put in place as his draft number was close to coming up. Nowhere does he ever mention getting deferments to stay out of the draft.

[End Of The Road]

10. In 1969, his lottery number was considered "safe".

Anything above 300 was cause for celebration in 1969. The highest number called was 195. Trump's number was 356. His number was NOT close to coming up.

[karynnj]

22. True, but the draft started in 1969, years AFTER he was eligible

I frankly think this is really a non-issue. Many peopel avoided being drafted - many in completely acceptable ways. I was in that generation - and obviously as a Karyn, I had no worry of being drafted. I had male friends who became teachers, who wouldn't have otherwise. I had one friend join the National Guard. The company that hired me was able to get all their technical staff deferments. (Bell Labs did some important military work - and the company requested that they get deferments even for telephone work because otherwise they would need all their older, more experienced people there - not on the military contracts. This may have been rumor, but it appeared to be true going by the fact that all my male friends there had them. They hired a large number of recent graduates in the early 1970s)

The fact is that John Kerry and Al Gore were exceptions. John McCain was an admiral's son and he likely intended to have a military career. I suspect the reason really didn't go after Bush, Cheney, Quayle - or Clinton, for that matter, is because the majority of them avoided the war too - and likely, at heart, feel more comfortable with that then the conscientiousness of Kerry and Gore, both serving though both had reservations about the war itself.

[End Of The Road]

24. I think you mean the lottery started in 1969.

The draft for the Vietnam War, specifically, began in 1964.

[karynnj]

28. oops - that is exactly what I meant

Before the lottery, you were at risk if you had no deferment.

[TxVietVet]

4. Like most rich republikans, he's a chickenhawk.

He's all for war if it's someone else or someone else's kid that has to do the dirty work.

The rat bastard racist doesn't deserve any more media exposure. He's a champion conservanazi POS.

[RichGirl]

7. According to Trump...

The rich can buy their way out of the military and buy their way into Harvard. In the eloquent words of Cher "He is a f*cking asshole!"

[TxVietVet]

9. I like Cher even more now.

I have a lot of former classmates who are conservanazis today. Their one common trait is that they were draft dodgers. Today, they are white conservatives.
The conservanazi chickenhawks hope people have forgotten how things were during the Vietnam Era. It was like a big dark cloud looming over your life at the time.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. How embarrassing! A 1-Y deferment is for medical abnormalities . 4-F was for serious conditions. Be...

that's the same as Limpballs cyst.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_System#Classifications

1-Y Registrant available for military service, but qualified only in case of war or national emergency. Usually given to registrants with medical conditions that were limiting but not disabling (examples: high blood pressure, mild muscular or skeletal injuries or disorders, skin disorders, severe allergies, etc.). Class was discontinued in December, 1971 and its members were reclassified as 4-F.

[Broderick]

6. Trump

has no clue to the hornet's nest he waded into. HAHA.

where are the tax returns?

[SpiralHawk]

8. This is soooooo Republicon

Chickenhawkery is a core Republicon Family Cesspool Value.

[ellenfl]

11. i bet he had a boil on his bum. i believe that's a common

conservative deferment excuse.

ellen fl

[CBGLuthier]

12. I hate Trump but using the word DODGE to describe legal use of deferments is bullshit

I guess my father DODGED Vietnam by getting married and having me and my sister.

[leftynyc]

13. We're just using

the same terminology the pubs would be using if donnie were a Democrat.

[End Of The Road]

15. But that doesn't make it true, or right. nt

[leftynyc]

18. No, it doesn't

But I don't have a problem with people who used whatever means they could to avoid going to fight a war they don't believe in. I can't speak for all progressives but it's those who scream the loudest for wars often seem to be the same ones to chicken out when it's their turn. I would never call anyone who was against the war and took deferrment a draft dodger. I save that for the chickenhawks.

[Dogtown]

21. Does your father promote war now?

The outrage, and disrespectful language, has been earned by Trump who cheerleads the chickenhawks and attacks our president with thinly veiled racist "birther" comments.


Unless your father now sports a lipton adornment on his ball-cap and hates the thought of a black-man in the White House, he deserves no disrespect for not serving in Viet Nam. This from a member of the 1st Air Cav.

[Appenzell Wars]

17. Still it is wrong plenty of good people didn't serve for the same reasons/ nt

[leftynyc]

19. My dad "dodged" Korea

by having my twin and myself. It's only the chickenhawks I call draft dodgers - not those who simply didn't believe it was a just war and didn't want to die for it (a position I have no problem with at all).

[Gormy Cuss]

20. Some men did dodge Vietnam by getting married

as in, that was their intent when they married. I knew one.I also knew several who committed crimes to avoid the draft, figuring that jail or prison was a better bet. I've met many men who told me straight up that they went to college and stayed in college to avoid the draft.They weren't really in college for an education, it was just the byproduct. So while "dodged" may not be appropriate for all, it is appropriate for some. Whether Trump acted to avoid the draft or to further is education is unclear.

[varkam]

14. But war would be a lot scarier if you had to go fight it yourself!

GFY, Trump.

[Obamanaut]

27. With that in mind, maybe The President and/or congress should bring

all those troops fighting home.

A lot of people who authorize the funding and escalation haven't been under fire.

[leftynyc]

16. And the hits keep on coming

donnie is sure going to regret opening his sewer of a mouth. Seems Trump Management got sued by the Justice Department for refusing to rent to "the blacks".


http://www.alan.com/2011/04/29/in-the-70s-trump-management-got-sued-by-the-justice-department-for-refusing-to-rent-to-the-blacks/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+liberaland+%28Alan+Colmes+Liberaland%29

[JoePhilly]

23. "Word on the street" ... "some say" ... "people wonder"

These are the phrases to use when discussing Trump's history on finances, wives, Vietnam, everything ... obscure non-references.

Those are his stock and trade, we should drop those same sources on his head 100 fold.

[KamaAina]

25. Who knew you could get a deferment for a butt-ugly combover?

Lots of people could have taken advantage of that.

[Obamanaut]

26. I believe other folks got deferments as well. Clinton comes to mind. As I

recall, there were a lot of folks who didn't think the conflict in Viet Nam was something the US should be engaged in, and so, many got deferments. Some for school, some medical, and so on. It was not uncommon.