Military service begets good presidents and better politics

After a half-a-century of voting in presidential elections, it has become painfully obvious to me that there are no pre-requisites to becoming the Commander-in-chief

(CIC) of the nation’s armed forces. A candidate can be an inveterate liar, a tax cheat, an egomaniac, a philanderer, etc. and still get elected. But, on Veterans Day, I am reminded of one particular sobriquet that should certainly disqualify a candidate from high office: draft-dodger. In fact, if I were to pick one single prerequisite to becoming CIC, at the top of my list would be having served in uniform. It is emblematic of the hollow state in American politics that we have been repeatedly electing certifiable draft dodgers as president and vice president.

We Baby Boomers came of age during the time of a universal draft and a shooting war. The perfect proving ground for a wannabe CIC. However, a soldier, sailor or airman of my generation would not necessarily have had to tote an M-16 in the jungles of Vietnam to qualify as a Cic-worthy veteran. To the contrary, serving in Korea, Europe or the Mediterranean would absolutely fulfill this qualification. Recall, if the Cold War had gone hot in any of those theaters, Vietnam would have been a side-show.

And, let’s make an important distinction: there is a difference between a draft dodger and a conscientious objector (CO). Focusing on the Vietnam War

(the crucible for my generation), the former supported this military intervention, but shed their hawkish feathers when their draft numbers came up; while the later stood firm in opposition to the war — and were often carted off to jail. I have absolutely no bone to pick with the CO.

So why the prerequisite? Ask any citizen-soldier of my era, and they will confirm that they matured into adulthood (sometimes very quickly), while being inculcated with the concepts of discipline, duty, honor, loyalty, and service to country. Almost subliminally, we absorbed valuable precepts that instilled confidence, taught teamwork, inspired pride and forged bonds of comradery. Obviously, this has not been the case for many of our country’s top leaders — and for many aspiring top leaders. Ditto for the corner offices in Wall Street and in Corporate America!

For my generation, the first of this cowardly ilk was Vice President Dan Quayle, who after four 2-S (student) deferments (all earned while underperforming as a college student) availed himself of his daddy’s political connections to land a cushy sinecure in the Champaign Unit of the Indiana National Guard — where he edited a monthly magazine.

Then came President Bill Clinton, who was awarded four 2-S deferments while at Georgetown, graduating in 1968 — a year in which 382,000 of his fellow Americans were drafted. Ironically, when Clinton was kicked out of Oxford, he should have reported immediately to his Selective Service Board. Instead, he pretended to join an ROTC unit in Arkansas while stalling long enough to score a high lottery number — after which he attended law school, which was no longer eligible as a source of deferments.

Clinton was followed by two of the most hypocritical chicken hawks of my generation: President George Bush and Dick Cheney. Bush received four 2-S deferments at Yale before using his daddy’s political connections to score a coveted and cushy position in the Texas Air National Guard. Cheney received five 2-S deferments, boasting that he had “other priorities” than serving in Vietnam. Somehow, Cheney avoided the draft — even after he had flunked out of Yale and lost his 2-S status. Clearly, had either of these two shirkers served in Vietnam, we might not have found ourselves bogged down in the quagmires of Afghanistan and Iraq.

And then we had President Donald Trump — winner of five 2-S deferments while an undergraduate at University of Pennsylvania. When those deferments came to an end in 1968, Trump scored an eligibility ending 1-Y deferment for allegedly debilitating bone spurs. And now for what I presume will finally be the last time for my generation, we have elected yet another septuagenarian draftdodger as our CIC. President Joe Biden earned a record-tying five 2-S deferments as an underperforming undergrad and law school student. When his education deferments expired in 1968, Biden sought (and received) a final 1-Y deferment based on the fact he had asthma as a teenager.

Incidentally, when I received my commission in 1968, I had spent many long nights struggling to breath due to asthma while in high school and I had real bone spurs — to the degree that I had to cut holes in the heels of my track shoes so that I could wear them.

Note the ivy league schools in these draft-dodgers’ backgrounds. It is indicative of the privileged status of those scions with the wherewithal to avoid the draft — or, actually, any service at all. The downside to exempting America’s privileged kids from service was tragic. Take for example, Project 100,000 (also known as Mcnamara’s Morons), designed to meet the escalating manpower requirements of the Vietnam War by allowing the enlistment of more than 325,000 men who had scored far below previously acceptable levels on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (80% were high school dropouts). By the time I got involved, the results of this gaping dichotomy in backgrounds and qualifications was becoming obvious: collapsing morale, spiraling disobedience, rampant drug use, racial unrest, civilian murders, sabotage and fraggings.

So, fellow Vietnam era veterans, on this Veterans’ Day, turn up the volume and play Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.” But remember that Springsteen admitted in an interview with Tom Hanks that he was a “stone-cold draftdodger.” At least he has fessed up and tells us that he wrote his hit song to “assuage” his guilt. Don’t hold your breath for similar lyrics from Quayle, Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Trump or Biden.

Jeff Dumas was a Navy Aviator, having flown over 100 reconnaissance, patrol and interdiction missions during his three combat tours in Southeast Asia from 19701973.

Jessica Aldama

We are all guilty

Thursday night I attended a vigil for Jessica Aldama and her newborn baby. It was heartbreaking. As reported by the Camera, she and her infant were recently found dead in a field, but no “foul play” was suspected. Boulder County Coroner IDS woman found dead Monday in Boulder, Oct. 15. Are we now to just accept that mothers and their infants may routinely die outside, alone in our city? I think our entire society is guilty of foul play here.

We must support mothers. Housing is a human right, especially for a mother who needs to take care of not just herself, but a newborn also. In a city with