Al Gore
demonstrating Gun Safety in front of a hopeful
class
Having
posted a little tickler in last week's Digest
about Al Gore's 141 days in Vietnam," The
Federalist Editorial Board was inundated with
inquiries from Vietnam vets. Most went
something like this:
"Gore claimed in his convention speech: "I
enlisted in the Army because I knew if I didn't
go, someone else in the small town of Carthage,
Tennessee would have to go in my place." Since
he wasn't KIA or wounded, how was it that his
Army tour was far shorter than all the rest of
us?
Our astute veteran readers took the bait
Gore's campaign launched a multimillion-dollar
ad campaign this week to tell his "life story."
The ads will include references to his service"
in Vietnam-however brief. Gore spent less than
five months of a typical twelve-month tour in
Vietnam. He spent every minute of his "tour" as
a "rear-echelon...." (call any combat veteran
and they can complete that phrase for you). He
was classified as a military journalist after
telling recruiters he was a newspaper trainee"
(read "copy boy") for the New York Times while a
student at Harvard. He was assigned as a
noncombatant "information specialist" to the
Army's 20th Engineers Brigade headquarters at
Bien Hoa military base near Saigon. Gore's
immediate supervisor in Vietnam has confirmed
that his posting there came with explicit
instructions to baby-sit him and make sure he
was never in any danger. That fact
notwithstanding, Gore has claimed to the
Washington Post that he was "shot at" and "spent
most of my time in the field." He later told
the Baltimore Sun that "[I] pulled my turn on
the perimeter at night and walked through the
elephant grass and I was fired upon." He has
since backed off these exaggerated claims
On May 22, 1971, not five months into his "tour
of duty," Gore was given special dispensation
and a one-way ticket home to attend divinity
school in Nashville. He dropped out of
Vanderbilt shortly thereafter.
As for the seven months cut from Gore's tour of
duty in Vietnam, we suppose "someone else in the
small town of Carthage, Tennessee" had to finish
his tour "in his place."
