BLOOMBERG AND HIS VIETNAM WAR STORY Probe casts doubt on why he didn't serve

[Boats]

BLOOMBERG AND HIS VIETNAM WAR STORY Probe casts doubt on why he didn't serve
By: LARRY COHLER-ESSES & BOB PORT - NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - 08-19-01
Re: https://www.nydailynews.com/archives...ticle-1.937277

This is an old thread - but you may want to read it?

Mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg claims in his autobiography and in his campaign literature that he "volunteered" for military duty in Vietnam but was rejected for having flat feet. But a Daily News investigation casts serious doubt on Bloomberg's story. Bloomberg never served in the military. He sat out the war, first with a student deferment and then with a 1-Y classification that was tantamount to a deferment. While he applied for Army Officer Training School, Bloomberg never tried to volunteer as an Army enlisted man or seek out duty in one of the other services that might have accepted him with flat feet. After failing his physical for Army OCS in 1966, Bloomberg got the 1-Y deferment. In his 1997 autobiography, "Bloomberg on Bloomberg," the Republican mayoral hopeful describes how he reacted. "I tried hard to secure a '1-A' classification that would get me into the military right away," he said. "I wrote my senators and congressmen for assistance, trying to do the right thing - serve my country - but also trying to maintain a measure of control over my life.

" In a glossy, 12-page "Meet Mike Bloomberg" brochure mailed to tens of thousands of New York voters last month,the media billionaire highlighted his background as an Eagle Scout growing up in Medford, Mass., and said he "volunteered for Vietnam but was turned down for medical reasons.

" The News investigation, based on Selective Service documents, interviews with former draft officials and other evidence, found that the truth about Bloomberg and Vietnam is murkier than the candidate and his campaign aides have claimed. Their explanations of why he didn't serve don't jibe with draft officials' recollections of how the system worked. In his 1997 autobiography, for example, Bloomberg says that three months before completing his Harvard MBA in 1966 - when the 24-year-old graduate's 2S student deferment was within months of expiring - he obtained "a commitment from an Army unit that would make me a second lieutenant.

" However, when asked to identify the Army unit, the Bloomberg campaign first didn't answer the question and then admitted there was no such unit. Campaign officials now say the passage in the book was probably worded incorrectly. What Bloomberg meant, they say, is that he applied for Army Officer Candidate School - which rejected him. "I went for my standard-issue military physical," he wrote in his autobiography. "I was in perfect health. To my great surprise, the doctor told me: 'You have flat feet. You're not going.

'" FUZZY ON PHYSICAL But Bloomberg's account glosses over the fact that failing his officer candidate physical would not have changed his draft status. According to available records and interviews with former Selective Service officials, the Army did not notify local draft boards about Officer Candidate School candidates' physical exams. Yet in March 1966 - around the time Bloomberg said OCS rejected him - his draft board reclassified him 1-Y. This meant he could be called up only in a national emergency and amounted to a permanent deferment. According to the board's own records, it changed Bloomberg's status without ordering its own physical exam. What prompted the change is a mystery. Bloomberg denied in a telephone talk with The News that he had anything to do with the reclassification and said he doesn't know how it happened. However, military officials say it likely was Bloomberg or an intermediary - not the Army - who would have brought a flunking medical report to the board. "They're two different organizations - the Army and the Selective Service," said Col. Leonid Kondratiuk, chief historian for the Massachusetts National Guard and a former Pentagon historian who researched the military records of former Vice President Dan Quayle and ex-President Bill Clinton. "It doesn't seem rational, but that was the way things worked.

" Kondratiuk pointed out that the episode occurred in an era before copy machines were common, making distribution of documents among bureaucracies difficult. Retired Col. Paul Feeney, deputy director of the Massachusetts Selective Service Headquarters in 1966, was even more emphatic. "It was not an automatic procedure that when an individual applied for OCS and flunked, that [Army doctors] would notify his draft board," he said. "It could be Bloomberg presented medical evidence to the local board that he didn't qualify.

" Lewis Brodsky, the Selective Service's current director of public and congressional affairs, said, "1-Ys were often assigned after the local board accepted a note from a personal doctor.

" DENIES USING NOTE In the News interview, Bloomberg denied he used a personal doctor's note. He denied, as well, any suggestion that he might have been the one who brought a medical report to his local board. "I didn't bring the physical to them," he said. "It was either the Army or the draft board.

" Selective Service officials and military experts also stressed that Bloomberg's failure to pass a physical for Officers Candidate School would not have disqualified him from entering the military as an enlisted man. Nor, they said, would it have necessarily persuaded his draft board to exempt him from the draft. "They were two different standards," Feeney said. Standards for enlisted men were lower. "We just wouldn't have [taken the position] on the mere basis that he failed an OCS exam, that he didn't qualify for the draft or enlistment.

" Feeney termed "very dubious" the notion that flat feet would be enough for Bloomberg's local draft board to have rejected him for enlistment or induction. "His condition - it doesn't sound extreme," he said. In 1966, as the war escalated, the quotas of men called up for the draft were the largest of the Vietnam era. Callups for Massachusetts, for example, more than doubled between October and November 1965 and continued to climb steadily. In early 1966 - about the same time Bloomberg claims he was fighting to become 1-A - Massachusetts Selective Service headquarters ordered local draft boards to reexamine all men classified 1-Y and make more of them eligible for callup. Bloomberg's local draft board, like thousands across the country, had encouraged men to volunteer for the draft since World War II. Such volunteers, including men with 1-Y status, were among the first called up. But Selective Service records show Bloomberg never volunteered to enlist or be drafted. "Many did volunteer for the draft," said Kondratiuk. "The minimum enlistment was three years in the Army. If you volunteered for the draft, you'd only get two years.

" Bloomberg's Harvard classmates were probably not among them. Being called up was the big fear among his business school friends. "All of us were trying to avoid getting drafted," recalled Jim Blume, one of Bloomberg's closest friends in Harvard's MBA program. Whatever the 1966 truth about Bloomberg and Vietnam, by the time he turned 50, the question had become a source of humor. In a celebratory book of Bloomberg quotations compiled for the occasion by his employees, he says: "During the Vietnam War, I was classified '1-Y' because of flat feet - not as good as being [medically deferred], because 1-Y meant you were on standby and could be called up at any time.

" Bloomberg joked that when he graduated from Harvard, "I had a great agreement with the draft board - they never called me, and I never called them.

" "I'm trying," was Bloomberg's punch line, "to make the same arrangement with Death.

" MIKE ON MIKE "After college, Mike volunteered for Vietnam but was turned down for medical reasons.

" -Campaign brochure "I expected to go straight to Vietnam after graduation...

I certainly didn't relish the idea of getting shot in the jungle, but in those days the thought of rebelling against our country never entered our minds.

" --Bloomberg on Bloomberg "During the Vietnam War, I was classified 1Y because of flat feet -not as good as being 1F* because 1Y meant you were on standby and could be called up at any time. I had a great agreement with the draft board that summer-they never called me and I never called them.

" -The Portable Bloomberg, The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Bloomberg *Bloomberg apparently meant 4F, a classification meaning "not qualified for military service," typically because of a physical handicap. (There is no "1F" classification.) BLOOMBERG DRAFT CHRONOLOGY * February 1960 - Bloomberg becomes eligible for the draft. * April 1963 - Local draft board opens file on Bloomberg. * January 1964 - Bloomberg receives first 2-S student deferment while a student at Johns Hopkins. * August/September 1964 - Receives second student deferment and enters Harvard Business School. * October 1965 - Massachusetts draft boards more than double monthly callups after President Lyndon Johnson orders increase in the draft. Medford, Mass., triples its callups. * December 1965 - Bloomberg receives renewal of student deferment. * March 1966 - Is rejected for Army Officer Candidate School because of flat feet. * March 1966 - Receives 1Y classification from draft board. * June 1966 - Graduates Harvard with MBA.

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Personal note: Anyone who was Drafted or Enlisted during Viet Nam - knew new the French took an ass kicking fighting them early on. The Cong were some of the greatest jungle fighters then and knew their country better than anyone. I enlisted in 63 my Mom had a fit! - but what Mother wouldn't at that time. Many of the guys in the neighborhood were either drafted or enlisted. My brother Larry also enlisted the following year.
Mom had two stars in the front window which indicated she had two sons serving. My best friend George also enlisted not long after me. George was killed in Nam and Larry later died from AO. Many guys in the neighborhood didn't make it back. But we felt it was the right thing to do at that time. My wife's brother Jimmy enlisted and also went to Nam only to later die from AO as well.

I recall how many local families had influence and money and tried to keep their kids out of the draft. Some did - and we know from later days gone by - money got many rich kids out of the draft or enlisting.

We also know after the war we weren't exactly greeted with jobs or welcome home. But that's all water over the dam. As be the posting - Bloomberg said - he tried to get in - but we all know how that works. Influence and money go along way to climbing the ladder of success. Ask old flat foot Trump - his Daddy's money and position kept sonny boy at home. His Military School didn't exactly glorify his grades - but again with Daddy's influence and money he skated through.

But that's all history. Today we have men and women who are still doing dangerous tours. Once again - we suffer losses and wounded. Bravery is in the person and his will to prove his worth to his country. Every branch of the service has honorable men & women serving - both yesterday and today. Our history of sacrifice goes way back. Something all service folks can relate to. Our Flag and our People are strong willed and not built from fear rather for the betterment of our people and our society.

It's not say we aren't fearless - but the Brotherhood of All Service People is a bond that last all their remaining days. We take pride in our commitments and our Brotherhood of Service Members. Time does not lessen the degree of losses - but it reminds us of the potential of those we lost that could not bloom further in our society. Their contribution's opened the doors for further Democracy in other lands. Our Freedom is not just a word - it comes with sacrifice - blood - and guts to stand up against terrine. And to help protect our Allie's - Homelands - Families and Country.

If we loose those values - We will surely fail!

Boats