The real story of Sam Alito, ROTC, and Concerned Alumni of Princeton

[kpete]

He can't handle the truth: The real story of Sam Alito, ROTC, and Concerned Alumni of Princeton


We won't accuse the Supreme Court wannabe of lying, because we can't know what is in Sam Alito's brain, or his heart. But his explanation -- that he was motivated by his anger over student protests against the ROTC, where he was an officer -- simply does not jibe with either the facts or the accounts of his Princeton contemporaries.


Alito's explanation doesn't add up, and here's why:

Samuel Alito joined the ROTC at Princeton for one reason, and for one reason alone: So he wouldn't get killed in Vietnam. By 1969 -- Alito's sophomore year -- the Selective Service had gone to the draft lottery system, and were preparing to end the system of educational deferments that had kept people like Alito out of the war. Alito's birthday -- April 1, 1950 -- came up No. 32 that December, which all but guaranteed that the young Princetonian would be called up.

But the ROTC was a way to avoid serving as cannon fodder on the front lines and possibly a pathway to service in the Army Reserve, which -- just like George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard -- would have kept Alito out of the draft and away from the steamy, lethal jungles of the Mekong Delta. So in 1970 -- right after the lottery -- young Sam Alito took a very sudden interest in military affairs.

That summer, he attended a six-week training camp at Fort Knox, Ky. -- which was necessary to catch up with the two years of the ROTC program that he hadn't participated in. And friends say that strong passion for the military he spoke of this morning simply did not exist:

lots more at:
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002637.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. This Account is Wrong

I am of the same vintage. As students, Alito and I both had II-S deferments that lasted until we were graduated, which happened in June, 1972.

As long as we kept our grades up, we were in no danger of being drafted until we got out of school. Alito, seeing that as long as he passed the physical he would be wearing a uniform, signed up for ROTC. Further, when he joined ROTC, he had no way of knowing whether he would have been sent to Vietnam anyway upon graduation.

What he did was a totally legitimate and honorable thing to do.