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? Naval aviator training, Naval Air Station Pensacola,
Florida.
? United States Navy 1958-1981, Pilot, Captain, with service
in Vietnam;
? Prisoner of war, Vietnam, 1967-1973;
? Awards: Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and
Distinguished Flying Cross
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• President Barack Obama has not served in the military
but has a family of war veterans with impressive military
records.
• His grandfather, the late Stanley Dunham served in
combat and "marched in Patton's Army" while his grandmother
"worked on a bomber assembly line".
• Obama's uncle was part of the American brigade that
helped liberate Auschwitz concentration camps.
• Obama's claim that his grandfather had got himself
enlisted in the Army the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, is
contradicted by Army records that show Stanley Dunham had
signed up six months after Pearl Harbor.
• During a Memorial Day speech in New Mexico, Obama
remarked "I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so
many of you" and "I cannot know what it is for a family to
sacrifice like so many of yours have."
• The military was "an ennobling... honorable option"
for Obama. During his teen years in Hawaii, Obama enjoyed
attending the parties at Army bases and had once considered
serving in uniform as well.
• He confided about having to sign up for Selective
Service when he graduated from High School in 1979.
Unfortunately, the Vietnam War had come to an end and "we
weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point",
thus ending Obama's desire to pursue the military option.
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