Is it true that Rush Limbaugh got out of Vietnam due to an ingrown hair on his buttocks?

Question

I am totally serious about this, I knew even though he is pro-war he had never served and had avoided the draft - but is this true? How can that give someone a pass on service/the draft?

Answer 1

No, that is not true.

Answer 2

Claim:   Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was disqualified from the Vietnam-era draft due to a pilonidal cyst.

Status:   True.

Rush Limbaugh, the ferociously bellicose radio personality,  allegedly had either "anal cysts" or an "ingrown hair follicle on his bottom". It is not my custom to mock others' ailments, but anyone who has listened to Limbaugh's programm can imagine the dripping scorn he would bring to the revelation that a prominent Democrat had skipped a war over something like that. Also, in his case, a pain in the **** is peculiarly appropriate.

What was the basis of Limbaugh's 1-Y classification? The Selective Service System records still available indicate that the classification was not assigned on psychological or moral grounds, but because of a physical problem. And since there are no records indicating that Limbaugh was ever examined by a physician at an Armed Forces Entrance Examining Station (i.e., he never underwent a pre-induction physical), the 1-Y classification was almost certainly assigned based on a report Limbaugh had his own doctor prepare and submit to his draft board. (No implication that the report was fabricated is intended; the point is merely to note that Limbaugh's deferment was based upon an examination conducted by a private doctor, not one administered by an Armed Services physician.)

According to the Military Entrance Processing Command, a pilonidal cyst was then and is today a so-called "disqualifying condition" for induction. It's a congenital incomplete closure of the neural groove at the base of the spinal cord in which excess tissue and hair may collect and cause discomfort and discharge. The malady can be corrected by surgery, but short of that it is viewed by the military as a needless risk amid unsanitary conditions in the field.

(Limbaugh critics have maintained that his pilonidal cyst was a "simple-to-treat condition" easily corrected through minor surgery, and that it was not a legitimately debilitating condition that precluded his serving in the armed forces but simply an excuse he seized upon to avoid military service.)

Answer 3

No, he got a medical deferrment for something.  I'll do some research for you and let you know why he didn't serve his country.

EDIT (13 minutes later):

Your answer is essentially, yes.  I'm suprised I didn't follow up on this up to this point, but you're right.  As a young American considering enlistment, I'm shocked and appalled, but not suprised.  Any naysayers, check the source (which cites references).

Answer 4

No that was John Kerry and he got a purple heart and a bronze star for it.

Answer 5

Nope.

Answer 6

Rush Limbaugh  is a drug-addicted, anal retentive, woman-hating coward.

The party and the movement and interest groups he represents can be most boastful of his fine example, and leadership, can't they?

The man who told us anyone doing drugs should go to jail for 15 years. and then we find out he has an oxycontin drug RING no less.

The man who taught people to hate.

To parrot ignorance and falsehoods without questioning ("ditto heads")

The man who made people say "feminazi" and "treehugger" and "f*g got"

If he DOESNT have an ingrown hair on his buttiocks I think perhaps humanity itself owes it  to get SOMETHING stuck up there!

Answer 7

who cares rush is not running for office he is just a blow hard.

just like hanity combs and airhead America. what does that have to do with helping America

Answer 8

Please. This is an image I'd rather not visualize.

If the hair folicle excuse failed to work, Rush would have some some other way to dodge the draft.

Remember, conservatives don't want government involved in their lives and the military is government. They don't owe society anything.

It's too bad he didn't go. The Viet Cong would have died laughing when they saw Rush.

Answer 9

Yes it is true.

I was in the USMC, and there was a guy in my outfit in Viet Nam who had flat feet - and he was in combat. Flat feet is or at least was a medical deferment. Another guy was drafted into the Marine Corps and blind in one eye. He was being processed for a medicial discharge when I met him - he hadn't been sent to VN, but he had been through basic training and ITR.

Too bad they didn't have the money / connections that the chickenhawks all enjoyed!

Answer 10

I don't know if he had an ingrown hair but he sounds like he always has a hair up his a**. I don't think an ingrown hair will keep you out of the draft. Maybe it was just the size of his butt that kept him out of the service.