Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Religion and Spirituality
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:02 PM
 
1,481 posts, read 2,149,364 times
Reputation: 883

Advertisements

I'm curious why it seems Mormons seemed to get a pass in a lot of ways from military service when the Vietnam war was on.
I was a regular grunt with the Aussies and meet a US 82nd grunt who was from Utah who was not a Mormon.
Both he and his brother were drafted but his neighbors who had four sons and were Mormon had none drafted.
If it happened as he said, why did it happen ?

Why was so called missionary service more important than serving in the military for some ?

Is there many Mormons from the Nam era with the CBI ?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:11 PM
 
31,387 posts, read 36,899,935 times
Reputation: 15037
Quote:
Originally Posted by nzrugby View Post
Why was so called missionary service more important than serving in the military for some ?
My understanding is that a deferment for missionary service was only of a temporary nature. Enlistment was deferred just for a two year period of their missionary service. Was their deferment any less fair than those granted the Amish, the Mennonites or the Quakers?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:15 PM
 
Location: Salt Lake City
27,880 posts, read 29,679,246 times
Reputation: 13052
Quote:
Originally Posted by nzrugby View Post
I'm curious why it seems Mormons seemed to get a pass in a lot of ways from military service when the Vietnam war was on.
I was a regular grunt with the Aussies and meet a US 82nd grunt who was from Utah who was not a Mormon.
Both he and his brother were drafted but his neighbors who had four sons and were Mormon had none drafted.
If it happened as he said, why did it happen ?
People serving missions for their church were given deferments. It was the law, and it was not designed to give special priority to Mormons, even though they clearly benefited more from it than did young men of most religions. Practicing Mormon men typically serve a mission from the time they are 19 years old until the are 21. It has been that way for years and years. Many young LDS men served a mission and then served their country. The deferment would have been for only 24 months.

Quote:
Why was so called missionary service more important than serving in the military for some?
I'm not sure what the difference is between "so-called" missionary service or just plain missionary service. Maybe you could clarify.

Quote:
Is there many Mormons from the Nam era with the CBI ?
What's the CBI?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:16 PM
 
Location: The Cascade Foothills
10,942 posts, read 10,206,120 times
Reputation: 6476
Yes, our own mormon presidential candidate managed to avoid the war because:
Quote:
never served in south-east Asia because his status as a Mormon missionary exempted him from the draft.

Read more: [url="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083002/Mitt-Romney-19-demonstrated-favour-Vietnam-War-draft.html#ixzz1rhKMHEmF"]Moderator cut: off topic

Thirty months on a cushy missionary assignment to France? Or fighting in the jungles of southeast Asia? Nice that he had a choice when so many others didn't.

Of course, if you read the above article, not only did he avoid the draft, he protested IN FAVOR of the draft - for others.
Moderator cut: off topic

Last edited by june 7th; 04-11-2012 at 07:49 AM.. Reason: Not a political thread about Mitt Romney.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:33 PM
 
Location: Salt Lake City
27,880 posts, read 29,679,246 times
Reputation: 13052
Many, many people got deferments during the Viet Nam War. Among them are Kareen Abdul-Jabbar, Muhammad Ali, Michael Bloomberg, George W. Bush, Richard Carpenter, Howard Dean, Bobby Fischer, Steve Forbes, Arlo Guthrie, George Hamilton, Stephen King, Joe Namath, John Stossel, Garry Trudeau, and Steve Wozniak. Getting a military deferment doesn't exactly make you a bad person. People have reasons for requesting deferments, and governments have reasons for granting them. None of these people were draft dodgers; none of them broke the law. Somebody needs to lighten up.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:38 PM
 
Location: The Cascade Foothills
10,942 posts, read 10,206,120 times
Reputation: 6476
Don't forget Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:40 PM
 
31,387 posts, read 36,899,935 times
Reputation: 15037
After the 2008 election I thought for sure that we had finally moved away from fighting the Vietnam War all over again. I guess I was wrong.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 10:55 PM
 
Location: 30-40°N 90-100°W
13,809 posts, read 26,449,485 times
Reputation: 6783
There were missionary deferments, but there were some notable Mormons in the Vietnam War as Mormonism is not pacifistic so far as I know. (The Community of Christ, then called something like "The Reorganized Church of LDS", I believe is something of a "peace church" but they're different and based in Missouri)

Vietnam War | Saints at War
Famous Mormons in the Military - See Bernard Fisher and Robert Oaks in particular
Eni Faleomavaega, United States Congress - Representative from American Samoa
Yost, Paul A., Jr. (1929- ) | U.S. Naval Institute
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-10-2012, 11:31 PM
 
1,481 posts, read 2,149,364 times
Reputation: 883
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katzpur View Post
People serving missions for their church were given deferments. It was the law, and it was not designed to give special priority to Mormons, even though they clearly benefited more from it than did young men of most religions. Practicing Mormon men typically serve a mission from the time they are 19 years old until the are 21. It has been that way for years and years. Many young LDS men served a mission and then served their country. The deferment would have been for only 24 months.

I'm not sure what the difference is between "so-called" missionary service or just plain missionary service. Maybe you could clarify.

What's the CBI?
Interesting, that is what this grunt said that Mormons stated they had to serve their mission before their military service.
Of course getting married and having a pregnant wife during the Mission time would help one avoid those nice little walks in the Jungle humping the pig other wise known as the M60.
Mistake, that should be CIB.

I believe in NO deferments for any reason at all, MY CSM had four kids and having a family should give one more reason to serve.
Giving kids deferments for being at university was obscene, it lead to the USA having the so called project 100,000 and ended with kids whom could not read nor write being Mortar crews, which ended with blue on blue incidents ie US mortar bombs impacting on US troops.

The only deferments should have been for the uneducated or for medical reasons.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-11-2012, 12:10 AM
 
224 posts, read 637,133 times
Reputation: 233
During at least some of the Vietnam years wards were limited in the number of missionaries called each year. There could only be two men who got that deferment. I know it was an issue with my brother and brother in law.

My brother had a high number and was not drafted and my brother in law joined the reserves. I had sunday school teachers head out on deployment, two brother in laws joined and served in the phillipines. My husband's draft number was 3, and he would have gone, but by the time he was old enough the draft was suspended. We have a couple Vietnam vets in my current ward.

I don't believe the Mormons were any less a part of the war than any other group of people.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Religion and Spirituality
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top