Looking back, local Selective Service Boards spread the obligation. The 1960s draft seemed democratic and just. The burden was shared, although class introduced an element of inequity.
Along came an eligible lad with millions of dollars in his personal account. He could, as they did in the Civil War, buy his way out. Adjusted for inflation, father Trump made it happen … a “medical” excuse, while the rest of us, the “others,” dug foxholes and slogged through the leaches and mud. We occupied body bags or considered the odds of shipment home.
POTUS in his youth was safe from service, at ease with gaming the system, with cheating and deception. That’s the way the family worked. The Don’s Aryan genes were not designed for risk or discomfort.
Perhaps the average Conservative white male veteran equates reality TV with two years in uniform. They give him a pass, or believe in his 1-Y/4-F ailment, a fake exemption, a status as trustworthy as Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, he would deport my VA doctor, first generation Vietnamese, whose country our country drenched in chemicals. Regardless of their politics, veterans who find this duplicity acceptable have forsaken decency. Leave her family alone, Mr. President. Deport yourself for making up stuff on government forms, for deceiving average vets, who fulfilled their commitment.
Every wartime president since Washington has seen a combat zone. Nixon joined the Navy, although “I’m not a crook,” fell short of the truth. Truth, the first casualty of this administration, has gone Absent Without Leave.
It was my privilege to serve an exceptional captain. The current commander-in-thief, the self-identified “very, very great, terrific genius,” is, by comparison, a rank embarrassment.
Alexander Lyall
Middlebury