Some of the many interesting statements made by Vice President Al Gore concern his tour of duty in Vietnam. He claimed in a Washington Post interview he was “shot at” and “spent most of my time in the field.” Later he told the Baltimore Sun, “I pulled my turn on the perimeter at night and walked through the elephant grass and I was fired upon.”
Both of these statements are totally false. He was a “rear-echelon” information specialist assigned as a noncombatant to the Army’s 20th Engineers Brigade headquarters at Bien Hoa military base near Saigon. His entire tour of duty consisted of 141 days and on May 22, 1971, he was given a special dispensation and a one-way ticket home to attend divinity school at Vanderbilt University. He dropped out of Vanderbilt shortly thereafter.
While American men and women were fighting and dying in Vietnam, Vice President Gore was safe and sound at home, out of harm’s way. And this is the man who thinks he should be our next president.
Edmonds
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