Too Chicken to SERVE his country, too cowardly to support Veterans!
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VoteVets.org chairman and Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz says [Sen. Roy] Blunt hasn’t been honest with Missouri voters for 40 years.
Soltz says he doesn’t have a problem with Blunt not serving in Vietnam, buts adds it’s completely ironic.
“Votevets is certainly going to expose the fact that he’s been in Washington D.C. all of these years, voting against veterans. Three or four months before the VA scandal in Arizona, there was a $21 billion landmark veterans bill that would have directly helped Vietnam veterans – the same veterans who went to Vietnam in Roy Blunt’s place – and he voted no.”
U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt is coming under fire for evading service in Vietnam
and for his voting record against veterans.
Senator Blunt Denies Evading Service in Vietnam
Maria Keena (@kmoxmaria)February 10, 2016
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt is coming under fire for evading service in Vietnam and his voting record against veterans.
VoteVets.org chairman and Iraq War veteran Jon Soltz says Blunt hasn’t been honest with Missouri voters for 40 years.
Soltz says he doesn’t have a problem with Blunt not serving in Vietnam, buts adds it’s completely ironic.
“Votevets is certainly going to expose the fact that he’s been in Washington D.C. all of these years, voting against veterans. Three or four months before the VA scandal in Arizona, there was a $21 billion landmark veterans bill that would have directly helped Vietnam veterans – the same veterans who went to Vietnam in Roy Blunt’s place – and he voted no.”
Missouri’s Secretary of State and Iraq War veteran Jason Kander, who also is running for Blunt’s Senate seat, accuses Blunt of misleading reporters today in the senator’s weekly news conference call.
The Kansas City Star reports Blunt received two student deferments during the Vietnam War to avoid the draft.
For years, Blunt has said he had a high number in the lottery draft and was never called to service.
Blunt was asked about the deferments and said, “Anytime anybody ever asked me about that, I would have said I had student deferments, and was then included in the first year of the lottery. And that was always my sense of that.”
KMOX has reached out to Blunt, but has not heard from the senator. His communications director Brian Hart sent us the following two statements:
“Senator Blunt was attending Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar when he turned 18 and became eligible for the draft. He was classified with a student deferral while an undergraduate. He graduated in three years and was then reclassified as fully available for service in 1970 during the first year of the lottery. His lottery number was not called up.” – Brian Hart, Blunt spokesperson
and
Dewey M. Riehn, Legacy Life Member, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Vietnam Veteran ’68-’69: “I am a Life Member of the VFW, The American Legion, and the VVA. I have been working with Senator Roy Blunt since the early 2000s when I was appointed as Legislative Chairman, Missouri VFW, and a member of the National VFW Legislative Committee. Roy has always been a strong supporter of veterans’ issues, first in the U.S. House and now in the U.S. Senate. It has been my privilege to work with Roy advocating for our veterans. Those who work closely with Roy have always known that he had student deferments during the Vietnam War, as many others did, before becoming eligible for the draft upon completing college early. But even though he was never in the military, there has been no stronger advocate and champion for our veterans. Any suggestion otherwise or attempt to politicize our veterans is shameful and only hurts the cause of advancing the well being of our veterans.”
