Did John Edwards serve in Vietnam? He is 51.
No. He drew a high draft lottery number and was never called.
He would have graduated from high school in 1970 or 1971 and, assuming a student deferment for college, would have missed the opportunity to serve. By 1975, the military was negotiating with ROTC new-grads to forgive the commitment to provide a commission and in return they forgave the tuition; a very sweet deal. Remember, at that point in Nixon's shut down the officer pipeline was still full and we stopped losing our young 2nd lieutenants and pilots.
I suppose you could make a case for his enlistment right after high school but that would ignore the realities of college deferments taken by the majority of his classmates. It is an approach that would backfire for sure.
"Did John Edwards serve in Vietnam? He is 51."
Nope. In fact, he was never in the military, although he may have had a GI Joe doll when he was in college.
No, Edwards did not serve in the Military. The DEMS are covering their tracks on this issue already.
Edwards had a high number in the draft Lottery and therefore did not serve his Country in any branch of the Armed Services.
It's not going to be an issue, unless he goes to Iraq and shows his cute little face to the real men and women who defend our Country. It would be probably the only time he would be even close to Military personnel.