Carson is not my guy because I don’t think he is good at dealing with unreasonable and evil people like a President needs to—but the article’s headline and opening implies he lied outright about something central to his life story. While the supporting details relegated to deeper in the article paint a picture of him getting a few things wrong about something that was incidental to him.
If this was about him being told he would get in for free if he applied to hairdressing school, and he said in his autobiography that he was given a scholarship, he could maybe walk it back a little. But you just don’t lie about your military ANYTHING when you are asking to be elected commander in chief,