Honestly, I didn't think that you could go through MS III at all unless you were already contracted / committed to going to camp. I was surprised they let her stay in as long as they did.

With respect to extra VMI instructors. One thing that I've gotten a kick out of is the fact that they have their own version of the Texas State Guard called the Virginia Militia.

HollywoodBQ said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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I was always skeptical of some of the Vietnam era medical deferments. I'm sure we can all name public figures with those that seem questionable.

But when our daughter put in her medical papers, we had to have a doctor modify a chart entry for "sinusitis " to "common cold", because sinusitis could have been disqualifying.

This was around 2006, and they were apparently having lots of trouble with the dust in Iraq

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Best Vietnam Medical story I've got was the full timer E-8 who worked at our Armory.

Apparently he had some family lineage going back to Prussia where everybody in his family were warriors. His father was a big WWII hero.
(I was told these stories in the mid-1990s and just now looked them up. Fascinating. I met the man a few months before he passed away in 1996)
https://www.shsu.edu/academics/military-science/cadets/organizations/ranger-company.html
https://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/1996/Schuder.html

So, this fellow goes to enlist and gets disqualified at MEPS in Dallas.
He rushes home, enlists in the National Guard and gets an all clear physical from the local hometown doctor and goes on to serve a career in the Guard. Never got deployed to Vietnam but at least he got to serve.

So, yeah, some of those Vietnam era medical records are definitely questionable.

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My father got drafted and opted to commission into the AirForce instead of being enlisted. After commissioning he was disappointed to receive a navigator slot.

He spent a lot of time playing basketball at the rec center waiting for his navigator school class to start. And it was on the court that he became friends with one of the flight surgeons on the base.

One day during PT he saw a bunch of gimps walking back from the obstacle course and fell in with them to get out of PT. He feigned a back ache when asked by whatever the AirForce equivalent of a corpsman is. He was sent to the clinic for evaluation where he was evaluated by his flight surgeon friend.

The doc knew my father's heart wasn't in the Air Force and offered him a 10% disability and a medical separation. He gave my father 10 minutes to decide. My father accepted and received a disability check of about $40 per month for the rest of his life.

So yeah, Vietnam era medical records are definitely suspect.

HollywoodBQ said:

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Honestly, I didn't think that you could go through MS III at all unless you were already contracted / committed to going to camp. I was surprised they let her stay in as long as they did.

With respect to extra VMI instructors. One thing that I've gotten a kick out of is the fact that they have their own version of the Texas State Guard called the Virginia Militia.

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Those who are not commissioning are not really going through the "real" MSIII course, as they are taught by the VMI civilian instructors, who teach everything but tactics. In lieu of tactics they are taught the VMI "Leadership" classes which go toward their minor in Leadership. They get by with this relationship only due to VMI providing the additional instructors to make it worthwhile. It works well for them.

Norwich also has the Vermont Militia, which all of their tenured professors must be a part of to teach there. It was pretty laughable to see these old timers with hair galore, beards/mustaches and guts wearing the old Army green Class A and B uniform.