Senator DeMint,
His Chicken-Hawk day's in the Vietnam War draft, or a full time college student, you decide!
From the fall of 1969 thru the spring of 1973, Sen. DeMint supposedly was a full-time student at the University of Tennessee. He graduated on time in the spring of 1973, after spending 4 years at the U of T., so his bio claims.
I FOIA'ED Senator DeMints Selective Service Classification Record and received it on Jan 19, 2010. I was curious on how the Senator faced the draft, after he turned 18. What I found out led me to the conclusion that the Senator was either the dumbest 18 - 22 college kid in the land at the time, or wasn't attending the U of Tenn.
Here's why:
James Warren DeMint
Selective Service No: 38-23-51-1505
Date of Birth: 9-2-1951
He returned his Classification Questionaire on Nov. 10, 1969 and was classified 1-A on Dec 24,1969.
A 1-A classification means the following: Available for military service.
In otherwords, DeMint wasn't in school and had no other deferments, this according to his own local Draft Board. Now if he was attending college like he claimed he was, the Selective Service would have classified him as,
1-S - Student deferred by statute (H) high school) (C) college or,
2-S - Registrant deferred because of activity in study
Demint had neither of these deferments, even though he claims he was attending the Univ. of Tenn at very time, full time!
On June 24, 1971 Demints "Own" local draft board orders him to take a Pre-Induction Armed Forces Physical Examination. That's bad news for the boy genius cause his own little world is fixing to come crashing down on him. What did DeMint do knowing if he passed this physical, it was a all-expense paid for trip to Southeast Asia? Demint "FTR's" or he blows off the orders and "Fails to Report!" Yup, he just ups and ignores the lawful order, hoping he can hide till he's 26 and then be too old to draft!
The Draft Board sees through Demint's cowardice and orders him to report again on Aug 18, 1971, which he does and promptly flunks his physical. After this physical he is given a 1-Y classification on Sept 15, 1971 or "Registrant qualified for service only in time of war or national emergency." For some reason that his classification record does not bear out, he was reclassified again on Dec 22, 1971 as 1-A again. By then the draft for all purposes, was over!
We'll never know what caused Demint to flunk his second physical as all medical records of Registrants were destroyed by Presidential Order after the war was over!
Was it a mental deficiency or a physical one? Does it affect the Senator today? Only the Senator knows and he won't tell!
My questions for the Senator is:
Were you as a 18 -22 year boy that ignorant in not knowing that attending college full time gave you a legal out in the draft? You had 4 years to figure it out, what happened?
Or Senator, did you really attend the Univ of Tenn full time, for those four years?
Which is it?