How Rush Limbaugh Dodged the Draft... 11/20/2006 1:27:09 PM
. As men in their 50s — men of America's "Vietnam generation" are now the most predominant figures in American politics at a national level, service in the Vietnam War is a "litmus test" issue that comes up often in political debate. And since talk radio host Rush Limbaugh is one of the most popular media proponents of the conservative political viewpoint and has been a rabid and vociferous critic of a young Bill Clinton's efforts to avoid the Vietnam-era draft, it's not surprising that the question of Limbaugh's own military status should be a common one.
When Rush Limbaugh first came of draft age he held a 2-S (college deferment) Selective Service System classification as a student at Southeast Missouri State University in 1969-70, but after he dropped out of college at the end of his first year he no longer qualified for a student deferment and was subject to being reclassified as 1-A (available immediately for military service) and drafted. Selective Service System records show that Limbaugh was reclassified as 1-Y (qualified for service only in time of [declared] war or national emergency) on 24 November 1970, which effectively ended his draft eligibility and ensured that he would not be called for service.
What was the basis of Limbaugh's 1-Y classification? The Selective Service System records still available indicate that the classification was not assigned on psychological or moral grounds, but because of a physical problem. And since there are no records indicating that Limbaugh was ever examined by a physician at an Armed Forces Entrance Examining Station (i.e., he never underwent a pre-induction physical), the 1-Y classification was almost certainly assigned based on a report Limbaugh had his own doctor prepare and submit to his draft board. Limbaugh's deferment was based upon an examination conducted by a private doctor, not one administered by an Armed Services physician.
What was the physical problem that disqualified Rush Limbaugh from the draft? Limbaugh biographer Paul D. Colford notes that: As for Limbaugh himself, the broadcaster stated that he was not drafted during the Vietnam War because he had been classified 4-F after a physical found that he had an "inoperable pilonidal cyst" and "a football knee from high school." He added: "I made no effort to evade it (the draft) or avoid it."
Which of the two stated medical reasons was the primary one behind Limbaugh's 1-Y classification is difficult to determine directly since individual medical files held by his draft board have long since been destroyed. Some, such as Limbaugh biographer Paul Colford, imply that Limbaugh's knee injury was minor or non-existent: Asked about Limbaugh's "football knee from high school," [Ryland] Meyr, the coach during his lone year of play, said he did not remember any injury.
However, that Limbaugh did indeed have a pilonidal cyst seems indisputable, as he himself, his mother, and his brother all maintain that he did: Yet, for all his father's patriotism, and deep-rooted fear of Communism, Rusty (Rush) did not enlist to preserve those ideals. The official explanation, David Limbaugh said, is that Rush had a student deferment and, like his father, had a pilonidal cyst on his ass which qualified him for a medical deferment.3 Limbaugh's mother said in 1993 that she did not know if her son had a physical or not, but she added that he did have a pilonidal cyst like his father.
Limbaugh critics have maintained that his pilonidal cyst was a "simple-to-treat condition" easily corrected through minor surgery, and that it was not a legitimately debilitating condition that precluded his serving in the armed forces but simply an excuse he seized upon to avoid military service.
That the disqualifying condition was a pilonidal cyst and not a bad knee seems to be borne out by Limbaugh's own comments on his draft status: Limbaugh's draft status arose during a 1992 appearance at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in Manhattan. ABC newsman Jeff Greenfield, acting as moderator . . . posed to Limbaugh a written question from the audience about whether he had ever served in the military. In response, Limbaugh chose his words slowly and cautiously. He seemed to be saying that he had not known ahead of time that whatever physical condition he had in 1970 would free him from draft consideration. "I had student deferments in college and, upon taking a physical, was discovered to have a physical, uh, by virtue of what the military says, I didn't even know it existed, a physical deferment and then the lottery system came along, when they chose your lot by birthdate, and mine was high. And I did not want to go, just as Governor Clinton didn't."
It's highly unlikely that Limbaugh only "discovered" he had a high school football knee injury several years after the fact or was unaware that a bad knee was reason for a physical deferment, so the pilonidal cyst is the far more probable explanation. When asked about this issue nowadays, in true Limbaugh fashion of ignoring facts that do not conform to his belief of how the world should be run and those in it should act, according to Rush Limbaugh, he dismisses it as "Internet BS," as in this excerpt from a transcript of a December 2002 call to his radio program:
CALLER: And Rush you never mentioned how you dodged the Vietnam draft.
LIMBAUGH: I didn't.
CALLER: Yes, you did. You claimed you had a boil on your butt . . .
LIMBAUGH: No, you see, (sweating heavily) that’s part of popular mythology that is out there that I have not whined nor complained about, Greg. But that is just a bunch of internet BS and hyperbole. Never happened. Was not the cause, wasn’t the case.
Why not just give a straightforward answer to the question, like he demands from others on his target list? After all, "I had a knee injury" is a simple explanation (and hardly an embarrassing one), but dismissing the issue as "Internet BS" and railing against "Internet conspiracy theories" sound too much like the response of someone who is evading the question.
Instead, Limbaugh provides non-responsive "answers" when queries are posed by quickly steering the focus away from himself and claiming that "the message is that unless you've been a member of the military, you have no right to support it" (which isn't the message at all — the message is about whether it's hypocritical for those who escaped the draft to criticize others who did) but he doesn't address the issue of his own draft status in the least.
There is, of course, a huge difference between draft evasion (or "draft dodging") and draft avoidance: The former involves the use of unethical or illegal means (e.g., bribing a doctor to falsify a medical report, fleeing the country) to escape military service; the latter involves taking advantage of established legal means (e.g., college deferments, conscientious objector status) to avoid or delay military service. The issue discussed here is clearly not one of draft evasion, and the matter of who is justified in criticizing whom for not serving in Vietnam is a gray area to be hashed out in the public arena. The only conclusions drawn here are that Rush Limbaugh was ineligible for the draft due to a physical condition, that he had a pilonidal cyst (a boil on his ass), and IF (a big IF) there's an explanation for his draft status other than the cyst, he has yet to offer it.
