Asthma Keeps Biden out of Vietnam but Not High School Football

[e-brake]

Biden received 5 deferments before being declared medically ineligible for Vietnam

By RANDALL CHASE |Associated Press Writer1:32 PM EDT, August 31, 2008 DOVER, Del. (AP) _ Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden received five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War, the same number of deferments received by Vice President Dick Cheney, and later was disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager.

Officials with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign released Biden's Selective Service records at the request of The Associated Press. Less detailed records were available from a National Archives facility in Philadelphia.

According to the documents, Biden, 65, received several deferments while he was an undergraduate at the University of Delaware and later as a law student at Syracuse University. A month after undergoing a physical exam in April 1968, Biden received a Selective Service classification of 1-Y, meaning he was available for service only in the event of national emergency.

"As a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified 1-Y and disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager," said David Wade, a campaign spokesman.
In "Promises to Keep," a memoir that was published last year and became an instant best-seller after he was tapped as Obama's running mate, Biden never mentions his asthma, recounting an active childhood, work as a lifeguard and football exploits in high school.

The Obama campaign pointed to media interviews from 1987, when Biden was making his first bid for the presidency, that mention his asthma.

Military service and questions about which presidential ticket would be stronger on national security are intertwined in the presidential race. Republican John McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent 5½ years in a Vietnamese prison, has argued that he has stronger background to be commander in chief. Democratic nominee Barack Obama counters that McCain would continue a wrong-headed foreign policy from the Bush administration.

Biden has had extensive experience with national security issues in the Senate. McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, has been Alaska governor for two years and before that was a small-town mayor.

Biden's five student deferments equal the number given to Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been quoted as saying he had "other priorities" than military service in the 1960s.

According to records AP obtained from the National Archives, Biden registered Feb. 15, 1961, with the Selective Service, when he was an 18-year-old student at Archmere Academy in Wilmington. The archives documents do not include any information about his classification or physical exam.

Documents provided by the Obama campaign indicate Biden received a classification questionnaire in October 1963, when he was enrolled at the University of Delaware, and received his first 2-S student deferment a month later. Additional deferments were granted in roughly 12-month intervals, the last coming in January 1968, shortly before he graduated from law school at Syracuse University.

Then in April 1968, when he was 25, Biden was disqualified from service due to asthma.

[matias]

it was a memoir - not an autobiography:

memoir vs autobiography:
http://www.sanjuanislander.com/colum...rary/289.shtml

[BigBallinColin]

shit I don't blame anyone for not wanting to get killed in some shitty war that we really didn't need to be in. it's just ironic that they send other people off later to do the same thing...except they volunteered.

[Sex Offender]

The military likes to use paying for college now as a means of getting the underprivaleged to join. I read an article in GQ a year or two ago that talked about how they aim at minority groups for recruiting, it was highly racist. Yeah but on topic I grees with bigballin"corrin"

[KING SIZE]

draft dodgers should not be allowed in politics. regardless of political party.

[BradH]

Shit... if there was a draft for the war on terror stuff I would most definitely not go. Vietnam was the same. No reason to be there.


Scenarios like WW2 and a real enemy would be a good purpose for a draft, not some bullshit conflict.

[BradH]

Originally Posted by Sex Offender

The military likes to use paying for college now as a means of getting the underprivaleged to join. I read an article in GQ a year or two ago that talked about how they aim at minority groups for recruiting, it was highly racist. Yeah but on topic I grees with bigballin"corrin"

Of course they target minorities and poor, dumb people. Who the fuck else would want to join the military anyway? If you are semi-smart and have some connections then you end up at the academy and such. Anyone enlisted is just being preyed upon by the government. Throwing incentives in their face all the while cutting veterans benefits and healthcare. woot.