The doctor who signed the waiver was a tenant of Fred Trump.

Last edited Fri Jun 13, 2025, 06:23 PM - Edit history (1)

It's not like it was a huge secret what the wealthy were doing to avoid the draft.

You were apparently in the draft class of 1972, but I wonder if the decision for the ’73 class had an impact on your reclassification.

and the notice was very specific as to the reason.

Thank you for doing the right thing even though it may not have been what you wanted to do.

I would have been proud to serve with you.

Army, 1967-1995.

He said that he never understood why he was flying those missions because all he was doing was making the rubble bounce. He went on to put in 20 years in the Navy before retiring.
I had no quarrel with the military, having grown up in Washington, D. C. surrounded by military families. My dad did not serve in World War II because he had 20/200 vision in one eye and 20/100 vision in the other. He also had a federal government job that was considered essential. My mother's brother took shrapnel to his head in the Pacific during World War II and did not even remember being there. He spent the rest of his life with a metal plate in his head and suffering from epilepsy. It's just that my doctor was correct - I really was physically unfit for service.

The draft board didn't want to have to deal with a bunch of lawsuits filed by super rich daddy Besides, a 5 minute interview with him would have showed the military a guy they did not need, no matter how desperate they got for junior officers.

that people like Trump believe they are DUE, but the rest of us aren't.

... I got a 1Y because I was too light for my height. Hard to believe, looking at me now ( I've dropped 60+ pounds!) Then I got a high lottery number.
I thought sure I was headed for 'Nam, but I lucked out. Lotta friends didn't.

... Luck of the draw.

He said he had a heart condition, and a few other debilitating things I forgot.

I told him to see a doctor.

He replied: "I AM a doctor"

I was too fucking healthy to pull any wool, so I ended up serving. This year marks 50 years since I finished my enlistment and started my career mostly in aerospace, with some crazy detours into education, computing, sales, finance, quirky startups and other stuff I forgot.

Where Vulgar the Flatulent and I differ is that I made an honest living, and service buddies, employers as well as colleagues, family and friends, were all better off for my work and trust. And that is good and satisfying.

My dad died while on active duty in 1968 and I was the sole surviving male of my family. All my cousins with my last name were female. I was initially 1A but I later received a letter from the SS notifying me of my reclassification. That second letter scared the crap out of me until I read it.

There truly needs to be more spotlight shown on those times.

"Trump’s Former Doctor Says Office Was Raided and Files Seized"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/us/politics/trump-doctor-harold-bornstein.html

Football and lifeguard. Trump got a friggin' 4 deferments! The bastid!

Now, imagine an asthma attack while running down the field or actually helping somebody at risk of going under.

Still, this president--let's call him a hypothetical president--got a deferment for asthma. And this purely hypothetical paragon of athleticism got 5 deferments. Except this wasn't a hypothetical president. Just ... one that's really inconvenient to know some facts about.

A doctor wrote a note for each athlete or there was a student waiver. Like a doctor can write a note for a 504 with consequences for a school, or for a concussion, or for all sorts of things. Don't know how many times one of my HS students were exempted from tests or work that involved a screen--and spent all the exempt time ignoring the paper review still being worked on because, well, "extended time" was necessary, but instead scrolled and texted on a cell phone.

Seriously. Goose. Gander. If what they do is bad, when "we" do the same it's no better.

If you can find advantage, you take it--that's a human thing. We all want to avoid unpleasantness, and Vietnam, for the US military, was chock-full of unpleasantness. (Full disclosure: I'm old enough and young enough to be in that donut hole where I never had to register for the draft; at the same time, my big brother volunteered for the air force in '66 because he figured his number would be called and he'd have some say about where he was placed ... He chose Air Force. But he was royally pissed when he was told he wouldn't have been drafted. Still, it (a) gave him a profitable, marketable, employable skill ... He was an airplane mechanic, meaning he also machined parts ... And it got him settled 2500 miles away from a toxic family and in a place where he met his wife and established his own.)

Donald Trump beat the draft because he couldn't run as he had a silver spoon shoved up his ass!