Biden and Vietnam
Posted on August 31, 2008
AP: Deferments, asthma kept Biden out of Vietnam
DOVER, Del. – 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.
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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.
Oh really now…run out of those student deferments, come up with some decade-gone asthma.
Didn’t Biden vote to send young Americans into harm’s way when he himself refused to serve? Oh wait, I don’t believe that not having served in the Armed Forces disqualifies a lawmaker or a CINC from making war and peace and troop deployment decisions. As a Marine Corps vet myself, I don’t subscribe to the “chickenhawk” smear, but let’s see if the Leftroots treat Biden like they have treated Vice President Cheney. Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick…
» Filed Under Elections, News, Obama/Biden, military
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During the Vietnam War the Selective Service did not give out student deferments for attending law school.