Military II

The Military II

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PAGE CONTENTS:

Military Trivia

The First Marathon

A Brief History of the Tank

The Korean War

The Shortest War In History

Napoleon Bonaparte Trivia

Audie Murphy

Port Chicago

The Myth of Spitting

Military Service

Military Trivia

Soldiers arrived to fight the Battle of Marne in World War I — not on foot or by military airplane or military vehicle — but by taxi cabs. France took over all the taxi cabs in Paris to get soldiers to the front.

On May 23, 1900, Sgt. William H. Carney became the first black to win the Congressional Medal of Honor, for his efforts during the Battle of Fort Wagner, S.C., in June 1863.

- The parents of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who rose to become one of the few five-star generals in the U.S. history, were pacifists.

- Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

- The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

- George Custer, the commanding officer killed at the Little Bighorn, had a highly decorated brother by the name of Tom. Tom is one of 5 Army men to be awarded the Medal of Honor twice (both times were during the Civil War). George was never awarded the high honor.

Civil War -

- The total number of Americans killed in the Civil War is greater than the combined total of Americans killed in all other wars.

- During the US Civil war, 200,000 blacks served in the Union Army; 38,000 gave their lives; 22 won the Medal of Honor.

- More than 20,000 men were killed, wounded, or missing in action in the battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862. This was the bloodiest one-day fight during the Civil War.

- The Union ironclad, Monitor, was the first U.S. ship to have a flush toilet.

During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of onions to the front.

Has the Medal of Honor ever been won by a woman?

One woman, Mary Walker, has won the Congressional Medal of Honor. She earned it for her work as an assistant surgeon with the US army during the Civil War, when the medal was first awarded. The citation that came with the medal, in something of a backhanded compliment, declared that Walker was receiving it because "by reason of her not being a commissioned officer in the military service a brevet or honorary rank can not, under existing laws, be conferred upon her…" In 1917 the government rescinded Walker's medal, along with medals awarded to several hundred others, because too many had been given out, reducing its value and prestige; henceforth it would be awarded only for valor under fire. Walker refused to return her medal and was vindicated in 1977 when President Carter restored it. Source: THE BOOK OF ANSWERS by Barbara Berliner

WHO ARE THE ONLY FATHER AND SON TO RECEIVE A MEDAL OF HONOR?

First Lieutenant Arthur MacArthur (Civil War) and General Douglas MacArthur (WWII) are the only father and son in his- tory to each receive a Medal of Honor. The award has been presented to five sets of brothers.

WHEN WERE AIRPLANES FIST USED BY THE U.S. ARMED FORCES?

They were used unsuccessfully in 1916 against Pancho Villa in Mexico. In 1917, the First Aero Squadron, the first air unit, fought in World War I.

HOW LONG WAS THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR?

This conflict between France and England for control of France took place over a period of 116 years--from 1337 to 1453--with peaceful intervals of varying length. The French won.

WHAT GREAT RULER DIED OF A NOSEBLEED ON HIS WEDDING NIGHT?

Attila the Hun, in A.D. 453.
Attila the Hun, conquering King of the Huns, was a dwarf.

What were ancient Viking boat sails made of?

You may have seen pictures of the distinctive square-sailed vessels the ancient Vikings sailed across the North Sea and out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was with those sails that Vikings made long journeys as far as North America and the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The Vikings' homeland was not well supplied with plant crops that could supply fibers to weave into sails, but there were plenty of furry animals in that northern climate. Instead of plant fibers, they used wool.

The long, strong outer hairs of the sheep were twisted into thin strands for the warp of the wool twill sailcloth, while the perpendicular weft was made of the soft inner hairs. To make the sails water-resistant, the Vikings added tar and fat to the cloth. Their simple square-rigged sails carried them farther than any previous European ocean explorers.

More about the Vikings and their ships:

Columbus was not the first European to meet Native American people. A much earlier meeting happened when Viking explorers landed in the extreme northeast of North America, around the year 1000.

The landing was part of a great exploratory wave, when the Vikings sailed all around the north Atlantic visiting Iceland, Greenland, and northern North America. They found these lands almost entirely uninhabited.

There are two stories from the 13th and 14th centuries, written records of much older orally transmitted tales, that tell the story of their encounters with Native Americans. They are "The Saga of Erik the Red," and "The Saga of the Greenlanders," both about the explorer Erik the Red and his son, Leif Eriksson.

The Vikings have really had a bad press. They did more than just plunder, rape and pillage. They also dressed for success. They were even sensitive about putting a crease in their pants and employed an iron that looked like an upside down mushroom to make sure they looked natty. The wealthiest among them wore pleats.

Among Vikings, clothes made the man--along with a sufficient number of smashed enemy skulls on the mantelpiece.

What was the shortest war in history?

When the Sultan of Zanzibar died on August 28, 1896, there was a dispute over who would be the next ruler of the tiny island off the east coast of Africa. The Sultan's cousin Hamoud was appointed Hamad's successor, but his other cousin Khaled felt he deserved to rule. With 2000 followers, he entered the royal palace and claimed the throne.

The British, who had a strong commercial interest in the tiny nation because of spices and other exports, refused to accept Khaled's claim. A standoff ensued, and British gunboats entered Zanzibar Harbor.

The next morning at 9:02 AM, the gunboats opened fire on the royal palace, reducing it to rubble. At 9:40 AM, Khaled surrendered and lowered the flag, escaping to find haven at the German Consulate. The single-battle war lasted only 38 minutes, making it the shortest in history.

WHEN WAS GAS WARFARE FIRST USED?

Chemical and biological warfare have been used long before World War 1. During the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC, Spartans used sulphur and pitch to overcome the enemy. During ancient and medieval times, soldiers sometimes threw bodies of plague victims over the walls of besieged cities, or into water wells. During the French and Indian wars in North America (1689-1763), blankets used by smallpox victims were given to American Indians in the hope they would carry the disease.

WAS THE FRENCH ARMY TOLERANT OF “ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLES” DURING WORLD WAR I?
During World War I, the punishment for homosexuality in the French army was execution.

IN THE NAZI ARMY, WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BROWNSHIRTS AND THE BLACKSHIRTS?

The Brownshirts were the ordinary soldiers; the Blackshirts were members of the army chosen to be the bodyguards for high-ranking officials and supervisors of concentration camps. The latter were also known as the SS, short for Schutzstaffel, or elite guard.

The First Marathon

Elite racers can cover the 26.2 miles of the marathon in just over two hours. Ordinary folks take longer, if they finish at all. Of course, the ancient Greeks ran their Marathon in full battle armor, against an onslaught of Persian arrows raining down from the sky. And that's our story for today.

In 490 BC, it didn't take an oracle to see that Greece was in danger. The King of Persia, Darius I, already ruled an empire that spanned the Middle East. Now he wanted Greece, too. By fall, 20,000 to 30,000 Persian troops had landed on the beach at Marathon, about 26 miles (42 km) from Athens. A force of just 10,000 Athenians marched out to meet them.

The situation looked grim. The Athenians had sent a messenger to Sparta, Greece's most militarized city, asking for help, and the Spartans had answered that they would come--but not until after the next full moon. With only a thousand reinforcements from the city-state of Plataea, the Athenians were seriously outnumbered.

Despite their numerical disadvantage, the Athenians did enjoy advantages in leadership, tactics, and equipment. The Persians had good archers, but the Athenian heavy infantry (called "hoplites") wore heavy bronze armor that greatly reduced any arrow's effectiveness. And the Athenians' long bronze pikes gave them better reach and more killing power than the Persians' short swords and spears.

When the time came to attack, the Greeks fought with great discipline. They approached the Persians in a tightly packed formation called a "phalanx," in which each man's shield helped protect the soldier to his left. An approaching phalanx looked like a moving wall of shields, bristling with long pikes. And the Greeks didn't just plod their way up through the hail of Persian arrows--they attacked in a running charge.

As the two armies met, the Persians pushed their way inward against the Athenian center. The Athenians' flanks closed in like pincers. Nearly surrounded, the Persians broke ranks and fled back to their beached ships. The Athenians pursued and slaughtered them in droves. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (who might have embellished a bit), 6,400 Persians died, and just 203 Greeks.

Though the Persians would later return, the Greek victory at Marathon helped preserve Greek democracy and usher in ancient Athens's golden age. Of course, it also gave birth to the modern marathon. Legend has it that, after the battle, a messenger named Pheidippides was ordered to run the approximately 26 miles back to Athens, bearing news of the great victory. He supposedly staggered into the city, shouted "Nike!" (meaning "Victory!"), collapsed, and died.

It's a great story, but probably only that. It first shows up in the writings of Plutarch, who lived 500 years after the battle. According to Herodotus, who wrote just a few years after Marathon, Pheidippides was the messenger dispatched to Sparta to ask for help before the battle--and his feat was, if anything, even more remarkable. He reportedly ran the 150 miles (240 km) in two days. Now that's a long run.

Jeffery Vail

The Korean War

by Denis Mueller

Long time diplomat Averill Harriman called it "a sour little war." General Omar Bradley said, "It was the wrong war at the wrong time and in the wrong place." Korea was a turning point in American foreign policy. Korea has been called the key to Asia and its misfortune has been located in such a critically important area. All this has helped lead to its long bloody history.

The United States felt that an invasion of Japan would result in a staggering amount of causalities. So at the Yalta Con- ference, the Soviet Union agreed to join the fight against Japan and invade Korea. What no one figured on was the emer- gence of the atomic bomb and its terrible destruction, which would make the Soviet invasion unnecessary.

The Soviets soon set up their own Puppet State and the United States did the same. Both North Korea and South Korea's Syngman Rhee were determined to unite their country. In 1949, the communists gained control of China and critics of the Truman administration cried out "Who lost China?"

The truth was far more complicated. The Nationalist Chinese led by Chiang Kai-shek were a hopelessly corrupt government. The United States felt that with the French and the British out of the way, due to their exhaustion from World War II, China would become ours. But the communists were fighting for an ideal and the Nationalist government represented the old order. They were no match for Mao's armies.

Now, the stage was set. Stalin, for whatever the reasons, gave a go ahead for North Korea to invade the south. Massive troop movements by the North Koreans began. It is hard to believe that Rhee and the Americans did not know about these movements. But the North Korean invasion caught the South Koreans by surprise and the communist forces advanced forward. The war consolidated support for the American military build up by the Truman administration and the United Nations voted, with the Soviets boycotting the proceedings, to come to the aid of South Korea.

UN forces were soon driven back to the tip of the island. Now, allied commander General Douglas MacArthur planned a daring amphibious assault at Inchon. He would attack behind the enemy lines and cut the communist forces in half. The plan was stunning success and the UN forces soon had the North Koreans on the run. The question became would the allied forces cross the 38th parallel and follow the retreating communist forces?

For MacArthur, it was never a question. He felt the time was right to destroy the communists and crossed into North Korea even though the Chinese warned him against such an attack. MacArthur drove all the way up to the Yalu River. His public pronouncements defied Truman and seemed to be aimed at provok- ing a larger war. While the Chinese warned MacArthur they would attack, MacArthur steadfastly maintained that they wouldn't. As Chinese poured across the Yalu River into Korea, UN forces suffered terrible hardships and were forced to re- treat. Truman met with MacArthur and told him that whatever the general felt about Truman, he was still President and his commander-in-chief.

MacArthur amazingly refused to understand the serious nature of the problem and seemed more intent on fighting with Presi- dent Truman. When the state department intercepted a cable that MacArthur had sent promising a larger war. Truman, left with no other choice, fired MacArthur for his insubordination. The country was livid and when MacArthur returned home, the American public, unaware of his refusal to obey orders, gave him a hero's welcome.

The UN forces finally stiffened and the war became a stalemate. In 1952, former allied commander Dwight David Eisenhower became President. Ike promised to go to Korea and end the conflict. In 1953, a shaky truce was signed and the line of demarcation became the 38th parallel. After three years of fighting every- one was right back where they started. There were no winners in the Korean War, only losers.

Sources, Korea: MacArthur's War, Videocassette

The Shortest War In History

On the 25th of August 1896 Sultan Hamad died and his cousin Hamoud was declared as his successor by the acting British Consul, Sir Basil Cave. This appointment was not met with agreement by Khaled, another cousin of Hamad who, as the son of Barghash, considered that he had the rightful claim to the accession. By the time that Cave reached the royal palace Beit el Sahel, the doors were barred. Khaled had gained access through a broken window, along with around 2000 supporters and had proclaimed himself Sultan, raising the Zanzibar flag.

The British authorities refused to recognise Khaled's claim and tension rose as a potentially explosive stand-off ensued. Cave had marines from the three British ships in the harbour stationed around the town, evacuating Europeans to the British Consulate under heavy guard, where they gathered excitedly on the roof to watch the drama unfold.

The night passed off without event and the following morning two further ships arrived in Zanzibar harbour to reinforce the fleet. At dawn Rear Admiral Rawson turned his guns on the palace and issued Khaled with an ultimatum. Either he was to surrender and walk out to the customs shed by 9.00am or the fleet would open fire.

At 8.00am Khaled sent a message asking for talks, but his request was curtly turned down. As the seconds ticked by the sweat must have stood out on the brows of all involved. At 9.02am the fleet opened fire a barrage of shells on the palace and when the dust settled the building was in ruins, with up to 500 bodies strewn amongst the rubble. At 9.40am, the flag was lowered as Khaled surrendered, escaping through the maze of streets to seek sanctuary at the German consulate. From there he escaped to Mombasa, where he lived out his life in exile.

The battle is officially listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest war in history

Napoleon Bonaparte Trivia

Although most people think that Napoleon was short, he was actually five feet, six inches tall (1.676 meters), an average height for a Frenchman in those days. However, this fact will probably not keep people from continuing to make fun of him because he's short.

Napoleon Bonaparte loved white horses so much, he owned at least fifty.

Napoleon Bonaparte was always depicted with his hand inside his jacket because he suffered from "chronic nervous itching" and often scratched his stomach sores until they bled.

He had conquered Italy by the age of 26, but he was an ailurophobe, meaning he had an irrational fear of cats. (If he even thought there was a cat in the room, he was reduced to a quivering wimp!) He he!

During his reign, Napoleon commissioned 3 scientists to invent something that would properly store food supplies for his army as they invaded Russia. Their invention: canned foods. One of the scientists was Louie Pasture, the scientist responsible for the pasturization process. Their version and process for the canned food is almost exactly the same to this day. The only draw back was that no one had a good way to open the rather thick cans, so the soldiers used their knives, bayonets and sometimes rocks. This resulted in some pretty serious injuries, like cutting off one's finger!

WHERE WAS NAPOLEON BORN?

Not in France. He was born on the Mediterranean island of Corsica of Italian parents.

Did Napoleon invent canned vegetables?

Sort of - Because Napoleon believed that armies marched on their stomachs, he offered a prize in 1795 for a practical way of preserving food. The prize was won by a French inventor, Nicholas Appert. What he devised was canning. It was the beginning of the canned food industry of today.

The name "pumpernickel" was coined by Napoleon's troops during the Napoleonic Wars. His men complained that although they were often poorly fed, there was always bread for Napoleon's favorite horse, Nicoll. Thus the word "pumpernickel" was coined--pain (bread) pour (for) Nicoll.

Napoleon suffered from ailurophobia, which is a fear of cats.

How did Napoleon Bonaparte finance his invasion of Russia in 1812?

With counterfeit money. After printing it at a factory he set up in Paris, he used it to purchase military supplies.

Why were Napoleon's laws his legacy?
Napoleon took 14,000 French decrees and simplified them into a unified set of seven laws. This was the first time in modern history that a nation's laws applied equally to all citizens. Napoleon's seven laws are so impressive that by 1960, more than 70 governments had patterned their own laws after them or used them verbatim.

What was the first item made of aluminum?
The first known item made from aluminum was a rattle - made for Napoleon III in the 1850s. Napoleon also provided his most honored guests with knives and forks made of pure aluminum. At the time, the newly discovered metal was so rare, it was considered more valuable than gold.

Audie Murphy

Audie Murphy

Audie Leon Murphy (June 20, 1924-May 28, 1971) was an American soldier in World War II. In 27 months of combat action, he became the most decorated soldier in the history of the U.S. Army. Murphy received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award for valor, along with 32 additional medals awarded for bravery and service.

Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Murphy - then just 17 years old - tried to enlist in the military, but the services rejected him as underage. Shortly after his 18th birthday in June 1942, Murphy was finally accepted into the United States Army, after first being turned down by the Marines and the paratroopers for being underweight. During basic training he passed out during a close order drill. His company commander then tried to have him transferred to a cook and bakers' school because of his apparent youthfulness and physical weaknesses, but Murphy insisted on becoming a combat soldier. His wish was granted; after 13 weeks of basic training, he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for advanced infantry training.

Due to his fragile physical appearance, Murphy still had to fight the system to get into combat. His persistence paid off in early 1943 when he was shipped out to North Africa with his combat initiation coming when he took part in the liberation of Sicily in July 1943. Murphy distinguished himself in combat on many occasions while in Italy, fighting at the Volturno River, at the Anzio beachhead, and in the cold, wet, desolate Italian mountains. While in Italy, his instinctive skills as a combat infantryman began to earn him promotions, increased responsibilities, and decorations for valor.

Audie Murphy was credited with killing more than 240 German soldiers during World War II which made him a legend within the 3rd Infantry Division. His principal U.S. decorations included the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Star Medals, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Star Medals with Valor device, and three Purple Hearts (for the three wounds he received in combat). Murphy participated in many official campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany, as denoted by his European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one silver battle star (denoting five campaigns), four bronze battle stars, plus a bronze arrowhead representing his two amphibious assault landings at Sicily and southern France. The French government awarded Murphy their highest award, the Legion of Honor. He also received two Croix de Guerre from France and one from Belgium. In addition, Murphy was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge. Murphy spent 29 months overseas and just under two years in combat with the 3rd Infantry Division, all before he turned 21 years of age.

Murphy's 1949 autobiography To Hell and Back became a national bestseller. In the book Murphy modestly describes some of his most heroic actions -- without portraying himself as a hero. Instead, he chose to praise the skills, bravery, and dedication of the other soldiers in his platoon. Murphy played himself in the inevitable 1955 Universal movie of his book. The film grossed almost ten million dollars during its initial theatrical release, and became Universal's biggest hit ever, holding the record until surpassed Jaws. Murphy went on to make a total of 44 feature films, most of them Westerns. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Audie Murphy has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1601 Vine Street.

Port Chicago

Joe Small joined the navy in 1943. He was stationed at Great Lakes Navel Station, just outside of Chicago. After his stint at Great Lakes, Small was assigned to Port Chicago, California. Port Chicago was an ammunition depot throughout the Second World War. All of its petty officers were white and the munitions handlers were black. The men's job was to take the boxes of ammunition from the train and then pack them onto the ships, which were sent to the Pacific for the war effort.

Joe Small learned that the work was hard and dangerous with each division being pitted against one another. The navy re- fused to employ union stove handlers because the union men would demand safety precautions, with the black sailors; the navy would not have to worry about that. The officers bet against each other on who would win, punishing the losers, rewarding the winners. Any complaints about the conditions were met with threats of KP or extra duty. When a boxcar came in it would be filled to the top. Someone would have to crawl up, build a ramp, and then slide the ammunition down the ramp. The navy assured them, because the bombs lack detonation devices, that there was nothing to worry about. Still the men worried, many going AWOL, with one sailor even going so far as to fake a section 8. This meant he was men- tally unsound. But unlike Klinger of MASH, this was no joke.

On July 17, 1944, Joe Small was awakened by a tremendous blast that could be heard all the way to the Berkeley Hills. Some 320 sailors were killed, the base destroyed and the town of Port Chicago, over 1 1/2 miles away, was heavily damaged. The scene was horrendous, with arms and legs scattered every- where. At first the men who survived did nothing. But they were very afraid, and with good reasons, for ten days later they were sent back to work.

The men were given no indication that any safety precautions had been taken. The men held a vote and Joe Small was elected as their representative. He gathered petitions and it was decided that the men would not go back. They refused the order and over 300 of them were thrown into the brig. The marines shouted racial slurs and threats at them and many fights broke out. Fifty of the men, including Joe Small, were charged with mutiny. The military trial was a sham. They were found guilty and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor but their case was taken up by future Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, who had observed the case.

The case had aroused the ire of the black community. Walter White, who was then chairmen of the NAACP, and Thurgood Marshall raised a public outcry until the navy was forced to rescind the sentence and give the men dishonorable discharges. The discharges were later up-graded to discharges under honor- able conditions. This meant that they would receive no benefits, no insurance and would not be able to partake in the up- coming GI bill. It was the largest mutiny trial in the history of the United States and one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in military history. Joe Small, however, considered himself lucky. He had survived.

Source: Studs Terkel, The Good War

The Myth of Spitting

by Denis Mueller

One of the lasting myths of the Vietnam War is that veterans, upon returning home, were spat upon by anti-war protesters. This is simply not true. There may have been some isolated incidents of this kind of conduct but the record shows that this type of abuse by the anti-war movement did not occur when veterans returned. This is not to say that some members of the anti-war movement were not hostile, but by and large, the anti-war movement viewed the veteran as a victim of our government's policies.

How does one disprove a myth? Well, one of the things that can be done is to look at records of the time. Do any incidents of spitting on veterans appear in either the Los Angeles Times, New York Times or the San Francisco Chronicle?

No, they don't! In fact, a look at articles in magazines of that time period find no references to anti-war protesters spitting on veterans. Neither are there any pictures of these supposed incidents. Logic would dictate that if this occurred, at the level that is said, then some photographer would have taken a picture. In fact, there aren't any existing pictures offered by the FBI, the army, news services, the returning veterans themselves, all of whom had the power to record incidents of this type. Furthermore, there isn't even written proof of these veterans reporting these alleged incidents to the proper authorities.

Ask yourself this question, why are there not police reports of spitting incidents? If veterans returned home and were greeted by angry protesters don't you think someone would have been arrested? Yet there are no records of this to be found anywhere.

So how has this become part of our national myth? John O'Conner, a marine chaplain who would go on to become Cardinal O'Conner speaks of anti-war protesters spitting on soldiers at the Pentagon protests of 1967. This too is a lie. There were hundreds of camera people there at the time. We see pictures of protesters putting flowers in the barrel of rifles, we see protesters and the police battle, but no pictures of spitting. When asked to be specific O'Conner declined. That's because it never happened and O'Conner is a liar.

When Dr. Robert Lifton began giving psychiatric evaluations of returning veterans, his work would serve to pave the way for the recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS.), Dr. Lifton reported that no veterans gave any examples of this kind of behavior. The fact of the matter is that the most abusive treatment of veterans did not come from hippie girls but from the administration and VFW halls across the nation.

Many veterans that I have spoken to remember being abused by VFW members who often ridiculed by them. They did this by telling the returning veterans that their war was not a real war or often asked them, "why they couldn't win their war?" The other group to abuse veterans was Richard Nixon's administration whose VA refused to treat them for Agent Orange poisoning. Nixon also used informants against the veterans that opposed the war and turned the FBI loose to disrupt their activities.

There was, however, one group that did indeed spit on veterans. It was the young republicans who spat on Ron Kovic and other veterans at the 1972 republican convention. The veterans were protesting and calling for an end to the war in Vietnam and were greeted by the young zealots of the GOP who cursed and spat upon them. Let's get the record straight once and for all. It was the administration who abused veterans by sending them to fight and die and then not taking care of them afterward, not the anti-war movement.

Sources: Interview with veterans for the documentary, Citizen Soldiers: The Story of the VVAW.
The Spitting Image: Jerry Lembcke

Military Service

A partial list of congressmen and senators who served in the military and who did not:

Prominent Democrats

Chuck Robb, US Senator from Virginia, served in Vietnam.

Howell Heflin- Democrat... Silver Star

George McGovern, famous liberal, awarded Silver Star & DFC, dozens of missions during WWII.

Former President Bill Clinton - avoided the draft through student deferments; in the
autumn of 1969, Clinton entered the draft but received a high number (311) and was never called to serve. (CNN article.) "...it was his doubts about the morality of the
war and the Selective Service system that led him to abandon the ROTC idea and to subject himself to a draft lottery. Only the luck of the draw - a high lottery number
- kept him out. " (Jeff Greenfield, ABC News, quoting Gov. Clinton.)

Former President Jimmy Carter, most recent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, seven years in the Navy. "Except for his fellow service-academy graduate Dwight Eisenhower, no President of the twentieth century spent more years in uniform than Carter." (New Yorker Magazine).

Former Vice President Walter Mondale, U.S. Army 1951-1953

Former Senator John Glenn, D-OH (1974-1999) - Served in WWII and Korea; extensive military commendations include the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions,
and the Air Medal with 18 Clusters.

Congressman Tom Lantos, D-CA - Did not serve in the US military; did serve in the
Hungarian anti-Nazi underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg, is the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.

Representative Jack Murtha (D-PA) - distinguished 37-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts, retired from the Marine Corps Reserve as a colonel in 1990.

Representative Richard Gephardt, former House Minority Leader - Missouri Air National Guard, 1965-71.

Representative David Bonior - Staff Sgt., United States Air Force 1968-72

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle - 1st Lt., U.S. Air Force SAC 1969-72