ProgressTV: Both Ways Bob: The Draft
| By Jen Caltrider - May 9th, 2006 at 2:47 pm EDT |
| Also listed in: Colorado Citizens for Accountability | Veterans for Progress | COSprings Progress |
Click to watch our Both Ways Bob video! Did Bob Beauprez dodge the draft?
Bob Beauprez claims that he was not "physically fit" to serve in Vietnam. Yet new research and the first of our "Both Ways Bob" video series shows that while Beauprez continues to parade around in a military uniform, the facts show that he may have dodged the draft.
Beauprez came up for the draft based on his lottery number for the 1970 drawing. His draft records indicate, however, that on August 6, 1970 he was "excused" because of a "physical reason."
Beauprez claims that the physical reason was a "bout" with an "ulcer" he had in 1965. This claim was never scrutinized.
After his "bout", Beauprez was an All-Conference high school football player and heavyweight wrestler.
How can Beauprez have a 'bout' with an ulcer, then play football, then wrestle, then major in physical education at CU, and then later use that 'bout' to get out of the draft?
Click here to call on Beauprez to disclose the information he gave to his doctor in order to receive a deferment from serving in Vietnam.
Please forward this around to all of your friends and family. Let's get the word out about "Both Ways Bob"!
Watch our Both Ways Bob video!
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Colorado veterans must be proud . . .
The answer is, “Easy!”. Universally, for good reasons,, the military rejected people with ulcers. I am sure exceptions could be found, but standard practice was to reject draftees as well as those who tried to enlist.
The military did not want the risk of a soldier with a known medical condition entering combat when the condition might put other soldiers at risk. If the ulcer flares up, the soldier becomes less effective; meaning, he (during Viet Nam, it was always a “he”) would not be as effective when defending the other soldiers in the field with him, and his condition might require attention, care, and physical carrying, thereby removing another soldier from combat while the soldier with the ulcer is carried to safety thereby putting them both at additional risk. (The reverse is also true, the soldier with the ulcer may not be able to carry another wounded soldier to safety.) The military took the position that it was better to reject the draftee than to place him and his fellow soldiers at risk from a known medical condition.
Additionally, the military does not want the expense of treating a known condition.
Even though Beauprez was an All-Conference high school football player, heavyweight wrestler, and majored in physical education, the military would have rejected him because of an ulcer or because of a previous bout with an ulcer. Beauprez could have been one of the most physically fit specimens we have ever seen and the military would still have rejected him. Too bad Muhammad Ali didn’t have an ulcer.
Your answer sounds pretty good, except you missed the entire point, AND, you don't understand what was going on with the draft at the time. I was #67 in the second draft, and taken on 2 Dec 1971. Young men were actively searching for anything that might disqualify them, and rumors were plentiful about things that would. I have never heard of an ulcer being enough to disqualify someone, but wouldn't begrudge Beauprez for it if it did. What I do take serious issue with is that Beauprez is now playing tin soldier, all dressed up in a flight suit trying to con us into believing he's some kind of hero! If Beauprez dodged the draft, he should SAY SO! Don't play me, and everyone else, like we are fools! A lot of guys like Larry served, and still live with the scars. I was lucky, drafted but never sent to Viet Nam. AND A LOT OF GUYS NAMES ARE ON A BIG BLACK WALL IN DC THAT NEVER CAME HOME! Once you have been through something like that you don't forget, you can't play tin soldier, and you can't forgive those who do. Beauprez needs to be honest about how he avoided the draft, and recognize that the next generation of veterans with scars and worse is now being created in Iraq and Afganistan. How many more scars are needed, and how big will the next black wall become before our politicians stop dressing up like tin soldiers?