The Jon Stebbins Thread
busy doin nothin:
Quote from: Jon Stebbins on May 15, 2006, 08:47:38 AM
The story I always heard about Dennis is that he tried having a friend pee in his jar and he got caught, they questioned his mental stability as a result. But this is anecdotal.
Dave Marks was drafted in '67 and was all but sure that he was going to Vietnam, but when he got his military physical a serious ulcer was found in his stomach lining.
Carl was drafted around the same time and of course was a well publicized conscientious objector.
Brian had nearly 100% hearing loss in one ear, he was in the clear.
Mike had at least two children by the mid-sixties, maybe more.
Al, I'm not sure, however since Mike, Brian and Al were all in their late twenties by the late sixites they weren't as much at risk as David, Carl and Dennis...who were all prime age at the peak of the Vietnam draft.
Bruce...no clue...he came from a wealthy family...a fortunate son....maybe that helped.
Thanks, Jon. Interesting information.
It seems that if Dennis was caught getting a friend to pee in his jar he would not be exempted from service on that ground, because it would be a pretty easy way for anyone else to get out of the draft too.
Dennis was born on December 4, 1944, so he would have come up for the draft in 1963 or 1964. Maybe at that time the draft boards were more likely to be lenient with a member of a famous rock group. When Carl (and David) came along a couple of years later, Vietnam was heating up, demand for manpower was much greater, and evidently the draft boards were becoming much stricter, even with celebrities such as Carl (or Muhammad Ali).
As you point out, Brian, Mike, and Al, all being a couple years older than Dennis, would have been even safer. I guess the idea with Brian is that he might not have been able to hear an order yelled at him from his deaf side, which could be a problem . . .
Andrew G. Doe:
Double post. 8o
Andrew G. Doe:
Quote from: Jon Stebbins on May 15, 2006, 08:47:38 AM
Quote from: busy doin nothin on May 15, 2006, 07:54:36 AM
Jon --
I have a question that has long intrigued me, and I thought you might be the best candidate to know the answer. My question is how each of the Beach Boys specifically resolved their status under the military draft.
I believe that Carl formally asserted conscientious objector status, was arrested at one time for not appearing before his draft board (or something similar), and then eventually negotiated some kind of a settlement with the government in which he got CO status and had to do community service. I don't know if this is correct, however.
I have always assumed, without ever seeing any documentation, that Brian was 4-F because of his ear, although it would be ironic to have hearing good enough to be one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time but not good enough to serve in the military!
I have no idea what happened with Denny. I'm not aware of any physical or medical condition that would have exempted him.
Mike, I'm guessing, was exempted because he was married with a child by age 20 and the draft at that time (around 1961) was not calling up as many conscripts because Vietnam hadn't heated up yet.
I don't know about Al . . . .
Anyway, if you can shed any light on this issue I would greatly appreciate it. It is a subject that has always interested me, but is not really discussed in any BB bios I've read. I deeply admire Carl's principled stand on the issue. The 60s were a tough time to be a young man in many respects.
The story I always heard about Dennis is that he tried having a friend pee in his jar and he got caught, they questioned his mental stability as a result. But this is anecdotal.
Dave Marks was drafted in '67 and was all but sure that he was going to Vietnam, but when he got his military physical a serious ulcer was found in his stomach lining.
Carl was drafted around the same time and of course was a well publicized conscientious objector.
Brian had nearly 100% hearing loss in one ear, he was in the clear.
Mike had at least two children by the mid-sixties, maybe more.
Al, I'm not sure, however since Mike, Brian and Al were all in their late twenties by the late sixites they weren't as much at risk as David, Carl and Dennis...who were all prime age at the peak of the Vietnam draft.
Bruce...no clue...he came from a wealthy family...a fortunate son....maybe that helped.
This is real late, but...
I heard the 'pee-in-the-jar' story too. Also heard that he stormed into the doctor's office, thumped the desk, told the medic that he was gay and that if they drafted him, they'd (quote) "be the sorriest mo'fos on earth" (unquote). Another reason I recall reading was because he had flat feet... and of course he was married to Carole by then, thus technically had a child.
Bruce was exempt because he had a dependant widowed mother. Now, given that his (adoptive) father was a VP of the Rexall Drug Co., that sounds kinda fishy.... but that was the official reason. My source is impeccable. (no, not him)
Alan... I have no idea. Too short, maybe ?
Bob Hanes:
the draft was only really crazy from '64 to about '70.
Mike was older'n that so was Al and Brian. Though as has been pointed out Brian's hearing would have made him 4F, and Mike did have kids.
Dennis was even old enough to have "gotten lucky". Carl is a year older than me, and was "ripe" for drafting. Our few years in there was a cannon foder festival.
There was nothing "democratic" about the conscription. The draft boards were made up of citizens of your town where you registered for the draft. If Dennis registered in Hawthorne and a couple of people on the draft board "felt" it wasn't "appropriate" to draft Dennis, he could have been passed over for all kinds of bogus or legit reasons.
The local draft boards were given quotas to meet. If it could be done without bothering "a favorite son" they did. At least early in the "conflict".
As the quotas became larger and more needful, fewer people "caught a break" and that's when middle class white boys started to "resist".
The David Harris founded "Resistance Movement gained momentum and so finally a lottery system was instituted. When even that failed to stop the Selective Services flow of dollars in litigation, Conscription was finally abandoned.
Sympathy for a "Draft" ended in the hearts of the middle class when so many middle class white neighborhood boys came home in body bags.
Every night on TV both at Dinner and 11pm a large portion of both local and national news showed the fighting, the dying and arrival home in body bags along with stark footage of Napalm attacks on the "living jungles" of S.E. Asia.
Bobby Darin wrote a song that featured the line: ".... I tried to watch TV, but they were showing the same war they had on last Tuesday...."
jeffh:
Body counts, don't forget the body counts. They would show the daily "kill" totals on the newscasts; total VC killed that day and total US soldiers killed that day. I swear to god. It was like they were showing baseball scores or something. It was totally unreal!!!
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