Walter Mondale, former Vice President and US Army veteran, dies age 93
Walter Mondale (Official VP portrait 1977)
We have to be the bearer of the bad news that former Vice President Walter Mondale has passed at age 93. In addition to being the 42nd Vice President under Jimmy Carter, Mondale was Attorney General of the State of Minnesota, Minnesota’s Senator for two terms, and US Ambassador to Japan.
Before that lengthy career in public service, Mondale served in the US Army. He enlisted in 1951 during the Korean War. He served for two years, rising to the rank of corporal. His service was all stateside at Fort Knox.
Category: Veterans in politics, We Remember
Rest well, Mr. Vice President.
Thanks for your service.
Wow…who’d of thought that he’d be part of the last Democratic Administration to have military service? Carter was a bubblehead post WW2, and Fritz was in during Korea. No Dems in 40 plus years and 3 administration which is “suprising” since they wrap themselves in the flag to “protect democracy”.
The party who made treason and draft dodging fashionable only started trying to be patriotic when Trump’s draft avoidance became an easy target. They worship draft-dodger Clinton and dance around Obama’s failure to volunteer. The vets they tout, like Buttigieg and Duckworth, well, let’s just say are not military role models.
Al Gore served in Vietnam as an Army journalist. It was nakedly political but he still went.
How can someone join in wartime and never deploy?
What was his MOS? X-ray machine operator?
Ted Kennedy Enlisted during the Korean War. He was deployed to the front lines. Of Paris France. And now he rests among the other warriors in Arlington National Cemetery who have left us.
To add to Hacks’s post:
In June 1951, Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army and signed up for an optional four-year term which was shortened to the minimum two years after his father intervened. Following basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he requested assignment to Fort Holabird in Maryland for Army Intelligence training, but was dropped without explanation after a few weeks. He went to Camp Gordon in Georgia for training in the Military Police Corps. In June 1952, Kennedy was assigned to the honor guard at SHAPE headquarters in Paris, France. His father’s political connections ensured that he was not deployed to the ongoing Korean War. While stationed in Europe, he traveled extensively on weekends and climbed the Matterhorn in the Pennine Alps. He was discharged after 21 months in March 1953 as a private first class.
“The Lying (lion) of the Senate” /s
He was as good a soldier as he was drunk driver.
Recruiter: I can guarantee you will get stationed at Fort Dix.
Ted Kennedy playing the part of Butthead: Huh, huh. Is that anywhere near Fort Nuts?
Slow Joe,
Many join in wartime and never deploy.
Or get deployed elsewhere than a war zone.
Not everyone ended up in 40s Germany, the Pacific, 50s Korea, 60s Vietnam,
Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, or Afghanistan.
It’s a major part of the reason we have
Stolen Valor liars, embellishers, and blatant phonies.
The guys and gals stuck (?) at Drum, LeJeune, Pendleton, Subic, or recent Germany want the (since 1991) newfound glory, too.
For this reason, Les Brown (and many other departed) live on,
and not in a good way.
Yep.
FWIW: even during Vietnam, less than 4 out of 10 personnel in the US military served in-theater during the conflict, and less than 31% served in-country.
Including offshore service, 3,403,100 served in the defined Vietnam theater, while 2,709,918 served in-country. Since 8,744,000 individuals served on duty during the designated period of active conflict (5 August 1964 to 28 March 1973), that works out to approximately 38.92% who served in-theater and a hair over 30.99% who served in-country during the conflict.
You can only go where DA/DON/DAF sends you. Sometimes it’s where you want to be, and sometimes it’s not.
And then there was even a smaller percentage of those serving in country that ever went outside the wire of the large combat bases. Once inside our division and brigade base camps no one even carried a weapon unless they were about to depart on a combat mission. I regularly traveled around inside three major infantry division base camps with no weapon. So, it is likely that only about a third of those in country were exposed to the hazard of combat, either in the air or on the ground
And to be perfectly clear there is nothing wrong with serving as a FOBBIT …..MAJOR Beau Biden served as a JAG lawyer as a chair borne ranger far, far ,far away from any sort of danger or that burn pit that joe says gave him brain cancer…anyway, the way creepy joe talks all that honor and distinction shot about beaus service leads you to believe Beau was kickin in doors slayin Haj and wrasslin IEDs on route Irish….Biden very misleading and paints Beau as a hero when his toughest thing to do was walk to the chow hall
Well, Gropey Joe has told lies for over 50 years, and does so whenever it serves his purpose. He knowingly and repeatedly said his first wife and baby were “killed by a truck driver that drank his lunch.” He has also said she “was killed by a drunk driver, when he knows the extensive accident investigation showed his wife pulled in front of the truck that had the right of way, and the driver had not been drinking.
Forgot to add this above: rest in peace, Mr. Vice-President. Didn’t much agree with your politics, but unlike most politicians you seemed to be both basically decent and to have some common sense.
Agree.
Unlike the military records of all presidents
since (and including) Bill Clinton.
Bush note,
VP Quayle got a gravy slot, and so did W.
Amazing that the GOP totally hid W’s questionable 1LT service in 2000, and then attempted to squash the reveal and truth in 2004.
Worse, that Americans chose Clinton over GHWB in 1992.
The beginning of the decline.
Ugh.
What “truth in 2004;” are you a believer of Gunga Dan’s October surprise based on irrefutably forged documents? Cuz that hoax was debunked within hours of its broadcast.
rgr769,
No.
But George the son pissed away his flight status,
and squandered duty time between Texas and another state, all to campaign for some guy (who lost),
all while he was fully protected by his old man, GHWB,
who by that time was US Ambassador to the UN,
and the Chairman of the RNC.
Shitty politics at it’s finest.
Both parties do it,
and pretending that W wasn’t a shitbag 1LT is disingenuous.
I’ll say this (as the father of a pilot)….
1 side of civilian politicians claiming he was AWOL
is just as bad as the other side of civilian politicians claiming his service was honorable, when his honorable discharge was largely a political paper whip,
and MY son or other pilots certainly would never get that privileged escape hatch,
or parachute.
Yes, Hunter Biden is much worse.
A total turd.
So don’t go there, with the apples and oranges.
I’ll say this (as someone who lived in a suburban community out the back gate of NAS Pensacola for thirteen years where 80% of my neighbors were aviators) George W. Bush was a cocky, good-looking, wise-cracking playboy, fighter pilot.
So I’m shocked…shocked I tell you to discover such behavior in one who flies jet interceptors!
I remember that back when this was going on, Bush’s fellow pilots were interviewed and indicated they liked him and credited him with being a convivial, courageous, skilled aviator. Their squadron was flying a particularly dangerous aircraft, the F-104 Starfighter, which had a well-earned reputation for being difficult and risky to fly.
Being that there are multiple comments in this thread attesting to the reality that such home-front service is indeed necessary and honorable, just what do you see as dishonorable in Bush’s service?
That he came from a wealthy, politically prominent family that pulled strings for him, while not admirable, was certainly not unusual, not in any war and especially not in that unpopular war.
So just what is it about him that you think made him a shitbag 1/LT?
I thought he flew the F-102. Those century model fighters seemed to have a widow maker reputation.
Correct, on both counts I believe. His ANG unit indeed flew the F-102, not the F-104.
I’ve also read that Bush (43) initially declined to volunteer for Vietnam, but later (1970) volunteered for the Palace Alert program. In that program, ANG pilots volunteered to be ordered to temporary active duty and sent to overseas (typically Europe or Thailand) to relieve regular USAF pilots. He was turned down – and I’ve seen two different versions of why.
One version was that he was F-102 qualified and the USAF didn’t need F-102 pilots in SEA. The other was that he didn’t have enough flight hours in the F-102 to meet the minimum requirements of the program.
Dunno which is correct, or if it was due to some other reason.
Bottom line is that there were no F-102 pilots sent to the RVN in 1970 because there were no F-102’s in RVN after 1968. (There was one squadron in Da Nang from 1965 to 1968.) Bush did not go to flight school until 1970. And his flight records (available on line) show he was only qualified to fly the F102, the aircraft his TANG unit had.
Poetrooper,
The little bang for the big buck, makes W a shitbag 1LT.
Million$ were put into W’s aviator training, and then then more on equipment he utilized (not that often).
Today’s pilots are given the heavy hand of expectations and guilt, due to the cost of training them, and then the cost of the aircraft and mission support.
They are periodically reminded NOT to F it up,
and how to KEEP their flight status intact (important note here) for the ENTIRE DURATION of their service commitment.
Well, W F’ed it up.
Voluntarily.
He should have put in the hours, the duty, the requirements of his term as a trained pilot, and he didn’t.
That’s being kind.
Having friends, and the old man as political cover,
doesn’t diminish his shitbaggery.
His time in the cockpit was more important than his time exploiting the campaign trail (skipping duty to do so)…
Our nation spent a ton to train him,
and he didn’t give a shit then.
For blatant dereliction of flight duty (expectations and requirements),
he was protected from embarrassment, for 30 years, until 2004.
My son gets it,
much more than W ever understood, or bothered to care.
Hey, I voted for him. I’m GOP.
But the whole carrier landing stunt, the “noble cause” gaffe, and then the “Gold told me to (invade Iraq)”, really soured me on the exploits of George W Bush.
Poetrooper,
Oh, I forgot,
the “crusade” gaffe,
which cost (more than) a few American lives.
Nothing like telling Middle East Muslims that the USA is now taking religious sides and taking part in a “holy war.”
Okay, I get it–you don’t like him and nothing I can write here is ever going to change that. My father-in-law hated the Bush family, claiming they screwed him out of many thousands of dollars when he drilled some oil wells for their Zapata Drilling Company out in West Texas.
My only response to him was, “Imagine that, unethical treachery in the totally corrupt oil business.”
I would likewise say to you, “Imagine that, political shenanigans pulled in a family political dynasty.”
You can’t reason with people who believe what they want to believe. I am not a great fan of either of the Bush’s, but they both served their country and risked life and limb in the process, flying combat aircraft. According to his flight records he flew multiple sorties in flight school, amassing 579 hours of flight time. His final academic grade from the USAF flight school was 94.95 out of 100. His flying final grade was 92.6. So the stories he did poorly in flight school are bullshit. He was not trained to fly the F-104; he was trained to fly and mostly flew the F102 Delta Dart. It was the aircraft with which his Texas ANG squadron was equipped. It also was a very complex high altitude fighter/interceptor. All single seat jet aircraft can quickly become one’s coffin when something goes wrong. Although the F-102 was easier to fly than the F-104, it was an aircraft that could easily kill you. The charge that Bush was AWOL is a total lie. As anyone who served in a reserve or NG unit knows, one is not AWOL for missing a weekend drill. I missed a number of mine for one reason or another. I came in and made up the time, so my pay wouldn’t be docked the next month for missing a MUTA. When GW left the ANG he had more points and hours than needed to complete his military obligation. As Reserve and ANG pilots know, they frequently come into the base and fly when the unit is not having a MUTA. In fact many reserve component pilots miss MUTA’s because they are airline pilots. Finally, GW would never be sent to the RVN even if he was in the regular Air Force for four or five years because the high altitude interceptor he was trained and qualified to fly had no function in the Vietnam War, as the NVA had no bomber aircraft. He served two years of active duty for training and completed hundreds of flights successfully. He did not take a flight physical that… Read more »
rgr,
Here we go again.
Who said AWOL?
Only you.
Who pulls Rather out of his ass, repeatedly?
Only you.
I have specifically discussed what pilots are meant to do, what they should do, the expectations and requirements of their duty,
and then what Bush CHOSE to do.
If you (all) buy off on celebrity pilots getting a pass,
well, that’s on you.
I call bullshit.
Again, my son is doing great.
That said, he gets NO pass if he pulls W type bullshit.
Some of his past classmates are not flying.
1 in in Marine Infanty.
1 got OJT on a Navy ship.
1 got booted.
There are others, but I know full details of these 3.
Do you really need me to tell you why?
Answer. Bush type shit.
Done.
Bush did what countless other pilots have done in history. When his ANG unit converted to another aircraft he declined to take the full time out of his life to train in yet another airraft.
Doing so would have required a full time active duty to acomplish the RTU/RAG and the additional man-days to achieve maintain currency once complete. Anyone who thinks you can maintain proficiency as a relatively inexperienced fighter aviator one weekend a month and two weeks in summer is fooling themselves.
Thank you USAFRetired for pointing out reality in response to somebody’s conflicting feelings. People who are not pilots, civilian or military, don’t understand the requirements of model\type qualifications and currency requirements in the aircraft one is authorized to fly. Since Bush did not complete his flight training until August 1971, and he was only qual’d to fly the F-102A, there is no way he could have flown in Vietnam without going Active Duty for Training and learning a new fighter aircraft, such as the F-4, assuming the USAF would have agreed.
Ok, Ok.
Here’s the deal.
I liked GHWB, W’s old man.
Gulf War CIC.
Disappointed that he lost re-election to the likes of Bill Clinton, who we knew had a dick for brains back in 1992, but watched that get covered up (we all saw how THAT turned out), while Dems hammered Bush Sr. on “Read my lips, no new taxes.”
Then the Bushes played the same game in 2000, and I voted for W, too.
After all, Gore was a total nut, but half the nation was voting for a nut.
Meanwhile, Giuliani’s own dirty drawers dick scandal cost him a US Senate seat in New York, the vacuum filled by a GOP youngster, who lost to the carpetbagger from Arkansas, outgoing victim shamer women destroyer sexual assault hubby defender 1st lady Hillary Clinton.
Which of course, led to the next 20 years of political de-evolution (DEVO).
To me, watching someone try to glorify W is just as bad as watching someone try to glorify Hillary.
It’s the thrill of my life to see my son fly as a Marine.
But also knowing, that others who slipped along the way, shot their 1 chance they had to fly, in a uniform, right in the ejection seat.
Thank you, for tolerating my current “haves and have nots” rant.
Poppa Stone’s good friend Enlisted In The Marine Corps during WWII. Spent the entire war stationed at a hotel in San Francisco. Poppa Stone received his draft notice shortly after turning 17. A month after his birthday, he was in the Army, and was in The Philippines until 1947.
Wiki says he was a armored recon vehicle crewman and then went to work handing out study guides at the MOS library.
Less than 10% of the military dodges a bullet in combat. But someone has to do all the admin, ship the ammo, etc. to keep the triggerpullers supplied and fed.
“Less than 10% of the military dodges a bullet in combat.”
That’s why my Combat Infantryman’s Badge is my most cherished award.
I am more curious as to how he “enlisted” for two years.
I enlisted in 1987, there were still 2 year enlistments in some MOS’s then.
My guess is he was a draftee vice a voluntary enlistee. Seems to me that I’ve read that draftees during that time frame had two year AD obligations. And as SFC D notes below, it’s also possible he was allowed to enlist for 2 years.
Draftees have only had a two year active duty obligation from the 50’s up until the draft was ended. All my draftees in the RVN only had to serve for two years unless they qualified for and early out.
It was also possible to volunteer for the draft, but the media will say “enlisted.” The only way to tell if he actually enlisted is by looking at his serial number. It will be prefixed by “RA” if he enlisted instead of volunteered for the draft or was drafted. We had serial numbers until 1969 or ’70 when they were replaced with social security numbers.
Rest in peace Sir. God e with your family.
Pops was a MN native & democrat, and voted for Mondale in ’84. Minnesota would be the only State (and DC) Fritz would carry, and it was a squeaker – by just 3761 votes over Reagan. RIP, sir.
While I didn’t care for his politics either as a solo act or as part of Fritz and Grits, the fact he served rates.
My favorite Mondale story involved a campaign stop in my claimed hometown The local Dem party put on a lowcountry boil (better known locally as Frogmore Stew) that included sausage, shrimp, new potatos, onion, and seasoning.
In his remarks after eating Fritz remarked that the shrimp was a little crunchy. It seems the landlocked Minesottan didn’t know you were supposed to peel them before eating.
RIP Mr Vice President.
I’m from Minnesota, most folks there peel the shrimp before eating it. Shrimp is also served already peeled. He probably was just joking.
Also, Minnesota has a shoreline adjacent to Lake Superior. Duluth, MN, and Superior, WI, are one metropolitan area and are collectively known in that area as the “Twin Ports”.
Gordon Lightfoot’s “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” is about a ship that left the Superior side during its final voyage and ended up sinking due to a storm.
Try going to Asia; they think we’re playing with our food or something by peeling shrimp – they eat it as is. To be fair: some peel, some don’t.
David,
Heads on, or heads off?
I’ve seen plenty of both,
although many Americans couldn’t identify a shrimp head
if it looked up and spit on them.
Not in Japan; shrimp [ebi] are boiled then peeled before eating.
Lobster too … well — kinda-sorta. I had a lobster served to me, cut in half. It kept looking at me and moving its antennae. The top half wasn’t peeled, the bottom half was opened and thinly sliced.
Tasted goooooood!
Hey! Does anybody else think of shrimp as “ocean cockroaches”??
I don’t know about that but a Chief told me that a crab would wrestle a dinosaur to eat a turd.
Walter Mondale stopped by to give a lecture during one of my political science classes when I was a sophomore at the University of Minnesota. I remember drawing him, the podium, and the stage on one of the pages of my notebook.
RIP PFC Mondale.