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)
Amen.
He said he liked people who weren't captured. That was a whole lot more than one. Regardless, where does Trump get of criticizing McCain's time, or anyone else's time, as a POW when he made sure he'd stay safe at home?
So Smoking Gun, where’s your info on draft dodger Bill Clinton?
He was referring to McCain.If anyone else who was a POW is offended,let them speak up.
And you just know the MSM types are out there trying to find them.
Would you ever dream of making disparaging comments about anyone who did serve, even McCain, and who went to war, even McCain, and who was shot down and spent time as a POW? If not then not only are you smarter that Trump but you probably could carve out a better political career than he will.
I don't particularly care if a candidate served in the military or not; let's face it we may never see another veteran in the Oval Office ever again. But I do expect those who didn't serve not to criticize the military service of those who did. Political positions, yes. But not military careers.
Oh i see. OK, let’s all vote for Hillary. At least she was under active fire in a war zone (Bosnia)
NOTHING is beneath them.
Regardless of its pretensions, the Left has no ethics and no morality. It represents only Western Decadence, the soulless dungheap of human delusions at their worst.
Vietnam was another democrat war fiasco.
My boyfriend got 263 and he turned to me and said “women and children will go before me” He was right. Half the guys I knew got student deferments to attend college . My cousin got one to go to law school. They were handed out left and right. It was no big deal. Bashing Trump for getting deferments is total bull hockey.
He said People who are captured. That’s just not McCain.
I honestly don't care if it was just McCain. Where does Trump get off criticizing the military service of any POW when he did all he could to make sure he wouldn't have to serve along side them? Criticize him for McCain's position, yes. Criticize him for all Trump supporters wackos, sure. But military service and time as a POW is a new low for Trump. But I expect he'll stoop even lower than that before this campaign is done.
You know that he was talking about McCain when he said that.Or do you want everybody to take offence?
How many of your friends and family who got deferments and didn't have to go to war have publicly insulted anyone who did? I think that's why this is of interest in Trump's case.
I give up.And I don’t even like Trump.
at least trumps SS is not completely fraudulent like odumbo in chief’s is.
So really your gripe is class warfare.....hatin’ on the rich
What year was that she was 27?
You are correct my FRiend. I said earlier that I have no idea how Trump can survive this and I have other Posters calling me a quitter, or something.
Heck I’m a Cruz guy and I have said that at this point in time, before these latest Trumpisms, that I would have no problem with Trump as Cruz’s V.P. choice.
I can’t wait until Obama milks this for all its worth when he attends the VFW Convention. Bank on it.
As an aside, Two of my Nephews. Air Force and Marine served in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are all very proud of them.
Unfortunately, our Marine Nephew was killed in a Motorcycle Accident after coming Home. He had just Graduated College and had a wonderful new Job he had started just two weeks before his Death.
He survived Two Tours in Afghanistan and all it took was one Moronic Woman who decided to make a Left Turn right in front of him. He was killed instantly. His Mother will never recover. She has been damaged for Life losing her only Son.
Notice how Obama can turn our Military into a Social Experiment for Deviants and he gets no criticism whatsoever?
Just an observation.
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