Military Service of Key Politicians


 
by Jack Dresser, Ph.D.
Capt., Medical Service Corps, USAR (1962-65)
A Veteran for Kerry
 

Military Service of Key Democrats, Republicans & Right-Wing Cheerleaders

 
Democrats 
John Kerry
John Edwards
Tom Daschle 
Al Gore 
George McGovern
Bill Clinton
Jimmy Carter
Walter Mondale
Richard Gepardt
Ted Kennedy
Bob Kerry
Daniel Inouye
Max Cleland
Tom Harkin
Fritz Hollings
John Glenn
Wesley Clark
Charles Rangell
Gray Davis

Republicans
Ron E. Paul
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney *
John Ashcroft
Don Rumsfeld *
Dennis Hastert
Tom DeLay
Bill Frist
George H. W. Bush
Ronald Reagan
Jeb Bush
Karl Rove
Paul Wolfowitz *
Richard Perle *
Douglas Feith *
Elliot Abrams *
Newt Gingrich
Trent Lott
Phil Graham
Antonin Scalia
Clarence Thomas
Rudy Giulani
George Pataki
Mitch McConnell
Rick Santorum
Colin Powell **
John McCain **
A. Schwartzenegger

Cheerleaders
Sean Hannity
Rush Limbaugh
Bill O’Reilly
Michael Savage
Michael Medved
Bill Bennett *
George Will

 

Service 
Lt.j.g., 1966-70, Vietnam, Silver Star, Bronze Star
None
1st  Lt, Air Force 1969-72 
Army journalist, Vietnam 
WWII, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross
None
Annapolis graduate, Naval officer, 1946-53
Army, 1951-53
Air National Guard, 1965-71
Army, 1951-53
Lt.j.g., 1966-69, Vietnam, Congressional Medal of Honor
Army, 1943-47, Congressional Medal of Honor 
Capt., Army, 1965-68, Vietnam, Silver Star, Bronze Star, triple amputee 
Lt., Navy, 1962-67
Army officer, WWII, Bronze Star, seven campaign ribbons 
WWII, Korea, Six Distinguished Flying Crosses, Air Medal with 18 clusters, Astronaut
West Point graduate, Army, 1966-2000, Silver Star, 4-Star General 
Army, 1948-52, Korea, Bronze Star
Gray Davis  Capt., Army, Vietnam, Bronze Star

Service
CPT, USAF 1963-1965, Air National Guard 1965-1968  (added 12/07)
Texas Air National Guard (during Vietnam, thereby avoided combat)
None
None
Navy aviator, 1954-57 (between Korean and Vietnam wars)
None
None
None
Navy aviator (youngest), WWII, Distinguished Flying Cross
Army Air Corps Intelligence 1st Motion Picture Unit, WWII, made pilot training films
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
Army, 4-Star General, Chairman of Joint Chiefs
Vietnam POW
None (emigrated here in 1968 during Vietnam War but not a citizen until 1983)

Service:
None
None
None
None
None
None
None

 

* Neo-conservative hawks
* * Foreign policy moderates, used as front-men with advice ignored
It appears unambiguously clear that those who aggressively wave the flag masking belligerence as patriotism, those who loudly proclaim what Henry Miller called “pale, attenuated ideas which have to be fattened by slaughter,” those most ready to send others to kill, to wreak destruction upon families, homes and cities in another land, perhaps to die, perhaps to suffer disabling, lifelong physical or psychological injuries, are people who lack, in the words of civil war veteran Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, “the incommunicable experience of war.”
 

Add your comments, or read more in our blog...

Copyright 2004 Jack Dresser, Ph.D.

Read a related short fiction story by Vietnam Veteran Rich Raitano "Veterans at the Wall"

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