Posted on 09/20/2004 5:27:26 AM PDT by DJ Taylor
Dan Rather is Not an Ex-Marine
Dan Rather cannot call himself an Ex-Marine, and he must stop referring to himself as such. To be a Marine, a recruit must graduate from boot camp, and Dan Rather did not; he was medically discharged before graduation. According to him, he was medically discharged from the Marine Corps due to a medical disability caused by a childhood case of rheumatic fever.
I went through Marine Corps boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) San Diego about the same time Dan Rather was there, and here’s my take on his brief tour in the Marine Corps. First of all, I find it highly unlikely that the Marine Corps would allow Dan Rather to enlist in spite of a known disability. At the time, a childhood case of rheumatic fever would have made him ineligible for enlistment in the Marines. So, if Dan Rather did not simply medically "wash out" through no fault of his own, as he says, then how did he manage to enlist and then leave the Marine Corps in such a short period of time (three months)? I cannot say with certainty that I know how he did it, but here is how I saw others do it at the time:
I remember well that my recruit-training platoon consisted of about 50 recruits. About 20 of us were high school graduates, about 20 were high school dropouts and about 10 were college boys in their third or fourth year of college. However, come graduation day, none of the college boys were there for graduation; they had all dropped out along the way, as did Dan Rather. I knew at the time how they did it, but I had to think about it for a while to figure out why.
In the Marine Corps of the 1950s, it was not easy to simply quit once you entered recruit training. A recruit quickly learned that it was much easier to go through to graduation than it was to attempt to quit. For a recruit to attempt to quit, he revealed that he lacked motivation. If a recruit required additional motivation, he was removed from his platoon and sent to the Special Training Platoon (STP). In STP, a recruit’s life was a living hell until he could show that he was properly motivated, and then he was sent back to a training platoon. All that attempting to quit would gain a recruit was an additional few weeks in STP before he could return to a training platoon, complete training, graduate and leave.
A medical discharge from recruit training due to a preexisting disability was seldom attained, simply because the enlistment physical was so thorough that very few recruits were admitted with existing physical defects. A medical staff who had seen it all could easily identify recruits who attempted to fake injuries or infirmaries, and these recruits quickly found themselves doing time in STP. So how did Dan Rather receive a medical discharge from the United States Marine Corps in May 1954? In all likelihood, he did it the same way the college boys did in my recruit-training platoon.
There was one so-called medical condition that the Marine Corps would not put up with, or even question, and that was bed-wetting. If a recruit wet the bed, you never saw him again. He was gone, out, no STP, no second chance, no counseling, he was quickly medically discharged and sent home, as was Dan Rather.
The reason for these rapid medical discharges for bed-wetting was simple. If a man truly could not control his bladder, he did not belong in the Marine Corps for obvious reasons. If a man wanted out of the Marine Corps so badly that he would wet the bed in order to leave, then no Marine wanted to breath the same air that such a man breathed. He was removed from the Marine Corps and good riddance.
I believe Dan Rather received one of these bed-wetter medical discharges just as the college boys did in my recruit-training platoon, and he probably did it for the same reasons. The college boys in my platoon had avoided the draft throughout the Korean War by claiming student deferments, as did Dan Rather. Now, they were soon to graduate from college and would no longer be eligible for a student deferment. However, if they were to obtain a medical discharge from the Marine Corps, they would no longer be eligible for draft into the U.S. Army. So, they dropped out of college for a semester, enlisted in the Marine Corps, wet the bed, received a medical discharge and no longer had to worry about the draft after graduation from college.
If you ask why these bed-wetters didn’t simply allow themselves to be drafted and then receive a medical discharge for bed-wetting, it just didn’t work that way. You must remember that, at that time, the Marine Corps was all volunteer and it was into the U.S. Army that a draftee was inducted. If a draftee wet the bed in Army basic training, he was simply issued rubber sheets and he continued on with basic training. There was always a job in a unit somewhere in the vast U.S. Army that even a bed-wetter could do, but he Marine Corps was too small and too proud to even consider trying to place such a person in any Marine unit.
In my over 30 years of military service, I found only one type of man more scurrilous than a bed-wetter, and that was a man who would feign wounds in combat in order to receive Purple Hearts. Yes, any man who will use fake awards to abandon his comrades in combat is even more shameless than a man who will wet the bed in order to avoid service to his country in time of war. Dan Rather is in his true element defending John F. Kerry’s traitorous conduct while amateurishly and feloniously forging official U.S. Government documents in an attempt to damage the reputation of the President of the United States during an election year.
I believe that Dan Rather is a bed-wetter, and I will continue to believe that until he releases his medical records and proves me wrong. If he has nothing to hide, he will fill out and sign Standard Form 180 and release his military records to the news media just as he has demanded of our Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush.
Donald J. Taylor Semper Fi
“Fascinating! I love the personal experiences that Freepers bring to news analysis!
Thank you for your service to our country.”
I’m seconding that one, Miss Marple.
Good insight my friend...thank you for your service.
Thank you for your article and thank you for your service from a 65 to 69 USAF vet. The reason that Rather could get away with this in the past is that all the media types covered up for each other. Now with the internet ordinary citizens can have input directly to other citizens and we can all access previously censored news that the MSM did not want out in the public. Dan Rather is not fit to shine any Marines boot.
BTW when is John Kerry going to release his 180 info?
Hi Appy,
When I joined the Navy in 1965 my company hung out washing windows and swabbing decks in the recruit barracks in San Diego for weeks before several companies were filled with the requirered 80 newby swabbies per company. We hung out I believe for 21-days before beginning training, then about half way through what seemed like an endless boot camp our training was accelerated when Lyndon Johnson announced the troop buildup in Viet Nam.
After weeks and weeks of training for the graduation parade thing, one day they lined us up on the grinder and told us we were sailors now, gave us our orders and kicked us out the gate. If I recall, (not easily done these days) my boot camp was over 3-months.
If Rather was being mustered out, he may have spent some time picking up butts while waiting for his, “UNSUITABLE” discharge papers.
I vote for the Bed-Wetter theory.
He was a fraud then and he's just a bigger fraud now.
Oh, happy 3 yr. anniversary DJ. ;-)
I’m pretty sure it was 180 days.
Plausible hypothesis.
Training back in the 50s in boot camp still focused upon lessons known first hand to WWII and Korean War vets who ran the depots.
The main reason for inducing the high stress environment was not so much to induce a harassment package, which unfortunately less mature generations later perceived the training to entail. Rather, the harassment was inflicted specifically to contrive absolutely no-win environments with high stress and physically demanding tests, so as to identify those who would not hold up in a combat environment where other Marines and the mission depended upon their performance.
There are some elements of endurance which are endemic to human makeup which are no fault of the individual’s volition, but in their spirit may indeed cause them to freeze up in combat.
Bed wetting probably was one of those indicators of that trait to seniors.
Once it appeared to become a trend, then obvious measures had to be taken against those who simply wanted to not keep their contract and bail, hence the stories of how DIs handled such cases in later years.
The best example I can think of to communicate this was a WWII film a few years back with Sylvestor Stallone as an American in a German WWII POW camp. (Lousy film, but had a unique aspect in that action scene, which was actually fairly realistic regarding human nature.) The movie theme centered around a large scale breakout attempt. When the time came to breakout during a morning formation/roll call, the plan changed and everybody scrambled to breakout as best per plan as possible.
During the moment of mayhem, POWs without weapons, initial hand to hand and slaughter of unarmed POWs, the natural response would have been to take cover or attack, but not remain in the open. In the film, about 5-10% of those in formation simply remained still, frozen, not moving, or deeply dedicated in prayer.
There actually is a percentage of the population which will respond to combat situations in that fashion, they simply freeze up. They easily become casualties and can take others with them who attempt to protect them. Those of whom have that trait, aren’t necessarily cowards or freaks. Maybe its spiritual, maybe its a deep psychological response, but it occurs in a small percentage of the population and might not get observed unless a similar high stress, life threatening, environment is thrust upon them.
The more seasoned vets with wherewithal, after a full national effort of total war in WWII and Korean War somewhat recognized this. I’ve encountered that wherewithal from seasoned grunt officers from that time period, but not as much from grunts from Vietnam through the 90s. And perhaps my perspective has been somewhat unique than that of others.
But from my perspective, your hypothesis is plausible.
Semper Fi, my friend.
LOL!
Dan Rather, bed-wetter.
I wonder if that applies to Walter Cronkite?
As someone who had childhood rheumatic fever...
the only time I was disabled was when it was diagnosed and I spent my sixth year in bed not allowed to walk even to go to the bathroom. It has never been a disability since, as I played sports in school, had three kids, and am still active but graying lol...
If Dan passed the initial physical then he had no long term damage as can be seen by the kind of life hes led.
Dan is a self-indulgent self-obsessed phony jerk.
There is some excellent stuff in the archives.
Fun to read.
Thanks.
Potential MORON ALERT.
Hey GOBUCKS: you're right, a Marine is going to chime in. I say YOUR post doesn't pass the smell test. Anyone I know spells Marines with a capital "M", so I find it dubious that you ever knew anyone that served in my beloved Corps and you can piss off!
IIRC, 180 days is when VA benefits kick in.
Sure, I served with some real retards but that was more the exception than the rule.
My response was meant for GoBucks, not you. I do sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding.
Ahhh, it happens.
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