By "washing out"--Maybe Dan was talking about laundering his sheets daily?
I was in Army Basic Training at Ft. Benning in 1968. Some folks just can't handle the stress and 'wash out' or get sent to those 'motivational companies'. Rather's story is very suspect. You got screened pretty well if you were enlisting.
Rather and Kerry are "wannabe's". They should be outed. I just have never have met real vets and real combat vets who wore it on their sleeves for public display like that.
Cripes, it took me 35 years to finally wear a baseball cap with "Vietnam Veteran" on it. I wear it so people won't forget the sacrifices that were made.