Should We Be Upset At Those Who “Dodged The Draft”?

Draft dodgers were criminals, but were pardoned after the war. Those who scammed deferments gamed the system. Treat all of them with the same contempt you would for someone who was convicted of a crime but pardoned. I had to work with people who joined the navy to keep from being drafted in the army. There were some contemptible low-lifes in that category too. Judges were giving criminals a sentence choice of jail time or military service. I had to work with criminals serving time in the navy. That made me feel like I was serving time also, instead of serving my country. My contempt is not just for the draft dodgers. Draft dodging was only one way for people to behave badly. My contempt is for the combat shirkers and jail dodgers who's ethics were the same, and who's presence in the navy made my life miserable.

It's Not that I could and you couldn't, it's that I did and you didn't

The draft-dodgers who left the country and stayed gone, as well as those choosing whatever penalty the courts handed out rather than serving, I have no argument, they've served their time. Carter pardoned them anyway. I'm a bit less troubled by Clinton - Rhodes Scholar - than I am with others, like the current occupant of the Oval Office, who avoided service with phony documentation.
The draft is long ago and far away. It's not something I dwell on. I never registered, having enlisted at 17.

I had an occupational deferment 7 years due to the government contracts I was working on. One day, I asked my employer for a raise to which he responded with "Do you want a raise or another deferment?" WTF?? By then I knew that once you had been deferred, your eligibility for the draft went from 26 to 36 years old. So now, the decision was to stay there working for the same money for the next 10 years or go in the military. I told him he could shove his deferment up his ass and walked out. Called my local draft board when I got home and was told that they had pulled my file and that my draft notice would be going out in tomorrow's mail. And so in 1967, I was drafted. Ended up spending 10 years in the Army and ETS'd in December of 1977.

My heartburn over some of those folks who managed to avoid military service during Vietnam is that now some of them now play the role of modern super patriots slobbering all over and pandering to the troops. Let's face it, back than there were countless ways to not be selected for or get called up for military service. It was even that way during both World Wars and the Korean War. So Vietnam was no different in that regard. The biggest difference was the attitude of the country as a whole that eventually played a role in ending active conscription. That attitude against conscription still exists in many people today. CCRs song "Fortunate Son" is very appropriate with regard to the discussion about those who did and didn't serve during Vietnam.

I enlisted in 1964 voluntarily and over my time served with a lot of people who had received draft notices. I went to recruiting duty a couple of months after the end of the draft. It was tough but we did well.
The American citizen has enjoyed freedoms, opportunities, and security that has been the envy of the world. All to many of them believe their luck in being born here gives them all America has and they should not be expected to do anything for what others earned and protected. I believe they are wrong.
The draft is not slavery and if you believe it is, you don't have a singular clue what slavery actually is!!! One of the problems with the draft was the way it was mismanaged. Within my family my dad worked like hell but didn't make a lot. Going to college was beyond our fiscal reach. So I enlisted knowing the draft would get me and wanted to go on my terms. My cousin who was a year older had a father who was a senior executive with TWA. He stayed in college for nearly 8 years after high school. He avoided the draft. The exemption system favored the well off and of course insured the politicians passing the exemptions would not have their child having to serve, just enjoy the benefits of America.
And as far as servitude goes, yup I served my nation and its people and proud of it. If thats servitude color me guilty but don't imply I or any other service member were slaves

Your argument is, IMHO, vey valid for the most part. However, while I don't think that the draft has ever been fair, I believe that like many other choices we face, to answer the call or to avoid it is a matter of conscious. Muhammad Ali, for example, refused to serve and was unfairly ostracized. President Clinton took advantage of the Rhodes Scholarship he had earned and although criticized turned out to be a good president for the nation. The current occupant of the Presidency, however, not only was a "draft dodger", he falsified the excuse to not serve and, to make matters less palatable for those of us who were in uniform during that era, he ridiculed the very people who, by their sacrifices, allowed him to party and chase snatch. He had an opportunity to at least serve the nation voluntarily and he didn't. I have always had a problem with people who are derisive of others because of their service and that individual is no exception. One more thing; How can ANY self-respecting veteran continue to support someone who disrespects a Gold Star family, a former POW or, for that matter, any veteran who has served honorably? I have a litany of issues with any individual who dodged the draft and still insults us who served.

My response to this issue is deeply personal and is going to take a lot of time to tell. So i apologize in advance for taking up so much room. Those of you who did not grow up with the draft cannot really understand what it was like. From the time I was old enough to comprehend such things, I knew about the draft. If you were male and physically fit you were going into the Army when you were 18. The only way to avoid it was to join one of the other services first. Growing up we never heard anything about deferments or draft dodgers. I was a Boomer, my Dad fought on Iwo Jima. He was awarded the navy cross and a purple heart. He and his brothers volunteered after Pearl Harbor. My Mom worked in a defense plant during the war. My Grandfather was an Air Raid Warden with Civil Defense. Before my mother met my Dad the first man she was engaged to was killed on the beach at Anzio. No one ever told us we had a choice, just turn 18 and serve period. I remember being quite young and hearing on the Radio that the war in Korea had ended. I thought okay there won't be a war when I serve. Ironically I heard on that same broadcast that said the president was sending troops to somewhere called Vietnam.
Fast forward to 1963 I turned 17. I went for my physical. At this time we were hearing about draft dodgers, draft card burners, deferments etc. We also heard about people going to Canada to avoid the draft. At my physical I was told that I was physically unfit for service. I asked am I 4F, we all knew what that meant. I was told no you are 1Y. I said what's that mean. I was told that I would only be called if a state of National emergency was declared. I did not get that either so the Sargent explained. He said it was like WWII where guys with glasses and other minor physical problems were not called until we needed men badly. The draft age was raised and the married exemption was revoked. Then he said look at it this way kid, if the Cubans invade Florida we'll give you a call.
Well I thought if someone invades America, even if you don't call me I'll buy a gun and fight. So I had already quit school to work full time, my Dad left us when I was 12. I was going to school and working too, it got rougher and rougher. Then they told me I would have to repeat my senior year, because I failed one subject. I said okay I'll go to summer school again, they said there was no summer school in our town that year. So I knew college was not for me, we did not have the money and my grades were never good enough for a scholarship. I was never good enough at sports for one of those either. So I quit school and got a good paying full time job to help support my Mom and me.
Okay so I am 17 and working full time. My Mom got remarried and did not need my money anymore. Well I was not going to be drafted and I met a girl we got married, got an apartment and set up a life.
President Johnson wanted to increase the troop level in Vietnam.
At this time the draft only had physical exemptions and educational exemptions. There was no Lottery. If you were in college you did not go. This was a choice made by the government under President Johnson not by college students. Was that fair to non students, of course not, but I already knew life was unfair. Other kids had 2 parents and nice houses and did not listen to the rats running through the walls as kids.
I get a letter to go down for another physical? I go and they run me through. I see guys from my neighborhood who were rejected at 17 because of their criminal records. Now they are over 18 and are being drafted because juvenile records don't count. At the end of the day they tell me Johnson declared a sate of emergency, all 1Y's are being drafted. I thought , oh shit who expected this. I knew guys were running away to Canada. Would I do that? Would I give up my citizenship as an American? Would I become a man without a country? Like hell I would, I'll go but the college boys still did not have to go. Those were the breaks it is what it is. Later that day we went to the reception center at fort Dix for processing. When we got there I spoke to a couple of other older guys an found out they were 1Y also. One of them had a heart murmur, 2 days in we double timed to the mess hall. This guy had a heart attack and I was later told he got a medical discharge.
Okay, so here I am pissed off, confused and worried about my wife, she had no job there were bills to pay , what was I to do.
We go in and fill out some paper work. One of these is a wish list, that's where you put what overseas posting you would like. I never have really figured out why I did what I did next. I looked at that thing and said " you people re-qualified and drafted me because of Vietnam so Damn it that's where I want to go!". I put Vietnam at the top of my list.
We had been told we would take basic at Dix because they had a basic school there. Next day 30 of us were told we were going to Fort Riley Kansas. The 30 of us talked and it turned out that each of us had put Vietnam on our list. When we arrived we were told we would train there with officers and NCO's who would go to Vietnam with us. The ninth was the last to go by ship as a division.
So now I come to the part where I think that an indiscriminate draft is not such a great idea. We were in a forward fire base. I was communications Artillery, I ran the board that relayed the coordinates for firing missions to the Firing batteries. This board was manned day and night the lives of the grunts in field depended on the ability of the artillery to fire the missions they called in. Men's lives depended on me doing my job. Many of these men I knew and respected. It was important and I was proud to do it. On two separate occasions two different men took over the night shift from me. Both of these men had made it clear they did not want to be here. Both times I was rousted out of the sack to take over the board. Both of those men had been drunk and sound asleep when calls need to go to the firing batteries to support grunts. I stood witness at both their court martial's for dereliction of duty in the face of the enemy. Men died because of these two, I can think of no greater crime. In addition they were 3 men on perimeter guard who were found stoned out of their minds when infiltrators came into the camp. They too received court martial's. The draft puts men like these in control of the lives of others that can't be right.
I read a book once that said all people in service should be volunteer combat troops. All other non combat jobs, truck drivers, cooks etc were civilians. I don't know if it would work but it sounds good.
So do I disrespect men who had legitimate deferments? Of course not they did not create the system, that would be as stupid as hating people that were born rich when I was born poor. The people I hate and have no respect for is the Government Administration that created such a system and started a war they never intended to win.
Okay all that said, I feel that those who gave up their citizenship to go to Canada made a legitimate choice. What I hate is the politicians who let them come back when it was over. More than 56,000 American's died so these people could come back and be citizens again? That is so wrong on so many levels. The ones that did not come back have my respect but not the slime that came crawling back.
I have all the respect in the world for those men and women volunteers out there serving us now. God Bless them all and God Bless America!!

The military isn't for everyone. That having been said, there should be national service of some kind. If not in a military uniform, there should be the option to work on our environment. Whether it be planting trees, or helping out during a natural disaster. I don't believe there should be any free rides, regardless of where you think you stand in our social system. As for the draft dodgers of the past. I did three combat tours in Vietnam, including over 900 days in the Mekong Delta. The past should be left in the past---life goes on---let it go.

First of all, I am going to state what might be obvious, but I never take for granted. Service is something that is our privilege. Not everyone can do it. Not everyone should do it. But those that do so honorably earn every benefit that our country gives them in compensation.

My dad would have been drafted; he enlisted in the Army instead. They sent him to Korea, not Vietnam, because the Army still needed watchmen at other posts. To this day, he has trouble looking me in the eye about his service - that it was somehow less because he didn't go to war like his son did. Even though he spent ten years in and got out as a SPEC-7. I told him I was proud of him and glad he pulled his post in Korea, Ft Belvior (where I was born), and Germany.
Many of his friends weren't so fortunate.

I was blessed to serve in an all-volunteer force, and one that has been at war in some form for most of my 27 years in. For us, the closest moral equivalent to a draft dodger are those who signed up for the benefits and when the deployment comes up, find ways to get into a school, a TRADOC assignment, pregnant, or some "medical issue" suddenly arises that keep them from going. When my unit first received notice we were headed to Afghanistan in 2002, a number of these cropped up. To me, those who do things to avoid their duty are beneath contempt. They deserve the scrutiny. They deserve the questions they get when they are one of a very few who have been in for a while without a combat patch in formation, and they deserve the consequences that has for their careers or more when their leadership determines that they did not do their part.

I remember and honor Soldiers like MAJ Charles Soltes, who left his pregnant wife and his thriving Optometry practice to command a company in Mosul, Iraq. He only got to do so for 15 days, before being killed in action. I also remember a young SPC I had who was 90 pounds of kick-ass and motivation (man, I miss Jonesy) and how utterly heartbroken she was when part way through mobilization training, she started getting sick and found out she was pregnant.

I was never prouder to be in the Army than I was in 2013 as I stood in front of MY company, the one I had trained with and built up for years, as I called the roll to go to Africa and every name on that roster had been on it for a year or more. Every last one of them knowing they were going, every last one of them WANTING to be there, every last one of them a patriot, and a whole lot of wives, husbands, new babies, and very pregnant wives standing in the rain to see us off.
That is what patriotism looks like.