Facing draft, Alito joined Army Reserve

Facing draft, Alito joined Army Reserve

Wednesday, November 2, 2005; Posted: 10:42 p.m. EST (03:42 GMT)


Samuel Alito has been an appellate judge for 15 years and is a former U.S.
attorney for New Jersey.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito joined the Army
Reserve while he was a college student because his lottery number had made
it likely he would be drafted for the Vietnam War, college roommates said
Wednesday.

Alito was part of the Army's ROTC program during his years at Princeton --
1968 to 1972 -- a period when the war in Southeast Asia escalated and more
American men were drafted.

In 1971, President Nixon ended student deferments, increasing the pool of
potential military inductees.

Four lottery drawings were held during that period in which a birthday and
366 blue plastic capsules dictated the order in which all men of draft age
would be called.

In the first drawing, held December 1, 1969, Alito received the lottery
number of 32, according to the U.S. Selective Service.

Although the military was calling up men with numbers as high as 195, Alito
had a student deferment.

He participated in the ROTC program and did two summers of training at Fort
Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Annville, Pennsylvania.

With graduation looming, the student deferment gone and Yale Law School
waiting, Alito joined the Army Reserve.

"It was draft-related," college roommate Mark Dwyer said of Alito's
decision. "I joined the teacher preparation program. We were all focused on
the draft lottery when those numbers got called. We thought about where we
were.

"Sam looked like he was sure to be drafted. He said, 'If I'm going into the
Army, I might as well be an officer.'"

Another roommate, David Grais, said he remembered Alito had a low lottery
number. Upon graduating from Princeton, Alito attended Yale and "did active
duty after law school," Grais said.

"Judge Alito is proud to have served his country in the U.S. Army Reserves,"
said Steve Schmidt, a White House spokesman.

Vietnam War service was a critical issue in the 2004 presidential campaign
and has shadowed President Bush since the previous campaign.

Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 after graduating from Yale
University and questions have been raised about whether efforts were made to
get him in the Guard to avoid service in the war.

Vice President *** Cheney received five student and marriage deferments of
service during the war. Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004
nominee, volunteered for the Navy and served two tours of duty in Vietnam.

In the questionnaire Alito submitted to the Senate in 1990, when he was up
for a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he wrote of his
military service:

"I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army upon graduation from
college in 1972. After law school, I was on active duty for training from
September to December 1975. I was in the Army Reserves from 1972 to 1980,
when I was honorably discharged as a captain."

Documents from Princeton show that Alito, then an Army cadet, received six
weeks of "practical application in military leadership at the Army Reserve
Officer Training Corps' basic summer camp at Fort Knox, [Kentucky], June 12
to July 23" in 1970.

"He will train as a small unit leader and instructor in realistic exercises,
and will receive command experience and the opportunity to apply classroom
knowledge in the field," the document said.

Alito delayed entering the service while at law school and then spent time
in 1975 at Fort Gordon, Georgia, for signal officer training.

He was on the inactive reserve for a period and then promoted to captain
before he was honorably discharged in 1980.

The military draft ended in 1973.





http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/02/alito.army.ap/index.html


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