Hillary Clinton claims she almost joined the Marine Corps

Blake Stilwell
Apr 2, 2018 9:38 AM PDT
1 minute read
Hillary Clinton claims she almost joined the Marine Corps

SUMMARY

Is Hillary Clinton that person at the bar who claims they almost joined the military? In 1994, the then-First Lady 

Is Hillary Clinton that person at the bar who claims they almost joined the military?


In 1994, the then-First Lady claimed she tried to join the Marines in 1975, but the Marine recruiter in Arkansas suggested she try the Army because she was too old for the Corps. She reiterated this story in a breakfast in New Hampshire while on the 2016 campaign trail recently.

"He looks at me and goes, 'Um, how old are you?' And I said, 'Well I am 26, I will be 27,'" Clinton said. "And he goes 'Well, that is kind of old for us.'"

"And then he says to me, and this is what gets me, 'maybe the dogs will take you,' meaning the Army."

She meant "dogfaces." In another version of the story, Clinton, then wearing thick glasses, said the recruiter included bad eyesight as a reason for being dismissed.

Maureen Dowd, a reporter for the New York Times, was as skeptical of Clinton's claim as the world is now of Maureen Dowd. She noted Clinton's status as an Ivy League, anti-establishment, anti-war, "up-and-coming legal star" would probably not make the Marines a real consideration for Clinton.

The Washington Post asked Marines who were Judge Advocate recruiters at the time if it would be possible the Marines would turn away a prime recruit with credentials like Hillary Rodham's. The answer was a resounding no. Some lawyers in the Marines at the time "had coke bottle glasses" or "weighed 200 pounds."

Clinton's friends at the time vouch for her story, saying that she was likely to press the military to see how far women could go and what kind of career access she would have.

Of course, the former First Lady's almost-service certainly prepared her for the not sniper who didn't shoot at her in Bosnia.

She could take some almost training from Donald Trump, who feels like he was in the military because he went to a military boarding school.

Clinton isn't the only candidate with a fuzzy recollection of almost serving. GOP candidate Dr. Ben Carson recently admitted he was never offered  a "full scholarship" offer to West Point. Carson was found out when the world realized scholarships to West Point don't exist and the dinner where Gen. William Westmoreland met Carson and would initiate the offer process didn't happen because Westmoreland could not have been in Detroit as Carson claimed.

If the run for the White House doesn't pan out, maybe Clinton and Carson can join the Almost-Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to continue their almost service with Brian Williams.

(Featured image by Keith Kissel)

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