Reason #22: Bone Spurs
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
When we started to look at the early business career of Donald Trump, we skipped over an important fork in the road, that of government service. When Trump graduated from Wharton in 1968, he lost his educational deferment and became eligible for military draft, like millions of other young Americans. We were then embroiled in a highly unpopular armed incursion into Vietnam – that was not going well. Some men and boys openly defied selective service and went underground, to jail or to Canada. Some volunteered or were drafted into the military (by lottery). Some performed alternate government service (in my case, two years in the U.S. Public Health Service). Some were deferred for graduate education. What about young Donald?
He was disinterested in more education and was obviously physically fit, bragging that he was capable of playing major league baseball. He also had four years of military training; his graduation from New York Military Academy at the rank of captain clearly marking him as an obvious choice for officer candidate school. After enlistment, he would have been an obvious choice to be appointed a second lieutenant and deployed in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where his statuesque physique would certainly have offered a tempting target for enterprising young enemy soldiers in black pajamas, armed with the same type of assault rifle that would later nick his ear. Casualties among platoon leaders in Vietnam were very high. How could Donald solve this danger? Faced with the prospect of becoming cannon fodder, he was bailed out by his daddy’s intervention. Who ya gonna call? Why a podiatrist of course!
As recounted by his daughters, Queens podiatrist Larry Braunstein, a tenant of Fred Trump, provided a letter diagnosing disabling bone spurs, that was used to obtain a deferment from military service. A similar letter from another NYC podiatrist Manny Weinstein has also been reported. Braunstein’s daughter Elyse is quoted as saying that after this her father could call on Fred Trump for return favors.
The podiatrist letters help Trump to be classified as 1Y and later 4F, exempting him from service. Although he told an interviewer that his bone spurs would prevent him from marching, it has never prevented him from golfing.
Although Trump has claimed that the reason he did not go to Vietnam was a favorably high draft lottery number, it has been established that he had received the medical deferment more than a year before the lottery.
https://www.cnn.com/…/trump-bone-spurs…/index.html
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-bone-spurs-avoid…
On the occasion of his trip to Vietnam in 2019, Michael Cohen has been quoted as relating, that then President Trump told him “Do you think I’m stupid. I wasn’t going to Vietnam.
During the Vietnam war, such conduct was called “draft dodging”.
More than 58,000 Americans died during the conflict.
https://urldefense.com/…/donald-trump-plagued-by…
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
Fred Grannis
August 7, 2024