Posted on 07/18/2015 11:37:29 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned.
During a TV interview Tuesday morning, Trump--who spent his high school years enrolled at the New York Military Academy--said, “I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life.”
He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.
However, Selective Service records reveal that Trump, the fortunate son of a multimillionaire real estate baron, took repeated steps to avoid serving in Vietnam.
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.”
The 1-Y classification came a month after Trump underwent an “Armed Forces Physical Examination,” according to Selective Service records, which note the results of the exam as “DISQ.” While the military records do not further detail why Trump was granted the 1-Y deferment, a 1992 biography of the businessman by journalist Wayne Barrett reported that Trump received a medical deferment following the September 17, 1968 exam.
Trump’s 1-Y classification stayed in effect until February 1, 1972 when it was changed to a 4-F classification (which covered registrants not qualified for military service). The change in classification was likely prompted by the military’s December 1971 decision to abolish the 1-Y classification.
The Selective Service records also include a copy of the registration card signed by Trump in June 1964, 10 days after he turned 18. The possible future Commander-in-Chief, it turns out, has birthmarks on both his heels. (3 pages)
Oh, shock, horror. He got deferments. How many others got them? Of course, Hillary wanted to be a Marine but her eyesight was too bad.
Now we’re really getting down and wallowing in the mud.Millions sought to avoid the draft back then.Trump’s situation is no different.
Did he write any letters to his college ROTC commander?
They stopped the draft for Vietnam a month before my 18th birthday. I have to say that I actually respect the intelligence of anyone older than me that found a creative way to avoid being canon fodder for Johnson.
In 1969, his father bought him 2-S, and now he attacks our POWs.
Getting drafted did not make one a patriot.
A lot of people got draft deferments. In fact, most people got them.
If only McCain wasn’t the POS that he’s proven himself to be.....
That’s for poor kids.
How did Bill Clinton avoid Viet Nam?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Very True. But he did risk his life for his country.
GOPe working overtime - too bad they didn’t try when they were supposed to be opposing that stinking muslim communist.
Link for that “attacking POWs” thing?
This important message brought to you by the committee to elect Hillary Clinton.
And what about Jeb?
At 356 he never would have been called up. The medical and student deferments aren’t relevant in any case.
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