BONE SPURS

A man who never served in any branch of the military is finally going to get his parade. Complete with tanks. His five deferments for bone spurs in the Viet Nam era have been a running joke. But I got to thinking while watching this travesty of a fourth grow like poison mushrooms.

America's growing involvement began at a time when serving in the military was seen as an asset. And face it. The son of a millionaire was not going to end up slogging through the jungle in Nam. So, why the bone spurs?

I did a little tip  toeing through the net this morning. A regular enlisted has to take tests for aptitude and general knowledge. Money will make sure you are never a private.

You can become an officer in one of the following ways. Graduate from one of the military academies. Getting in is hard.  Graduating is a lot harder. West Point takes pride in graduating engineers.Or a BSc. in liberal arts. Take ROTC in college. It is a four year program. Graduate from college and go to officers candidate school.

We've heard how the schools Trump attended have been pressured to not allow access to his academic records. He boasts that he doesn't read and goes with instincts to make decisions.

So why the bone spurs. He had college degrees. OCS was a possibility. Son of a millionaire he could have spent his time riding a desk somewhere. The U.S.has bases all over the world. Or get himself assigned to a staff position. Dad could have pulled some strings. Some place fairly cushy.But I just cannot picture him taking orders from anyone, any time, anywhere.

I believe Trump could not cut the mustard as they say. Probably figured nobody would dig deep enough for reasons for those deferments to become public. Better than admitting he just could not pass the tests. Even then his ego probably would not have allowed anyone to know that about him.

And given the story about the kid he nearly shoved out the window while in military school he probably would have washed out of boot camp. If military school couldn't help with impulse control I guess nothing else would work.