Hannity claimed Kerry “didn't fully volunteer” for military service

Written by Jeremy Cluchey

Published

On the August 24 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show, host (and FOX News Channel host) Sean Hannity cited a 1970 Harvard Crimson article to bolster his scurrilous claim that Senator John Kerry (D-MA) “didn't fully volunteer” for service in Vietnam. The Crimson article stated that Kerry “approached the draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris,” and then asserted that “the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy.”

From the August 24 edition of the nationally syndicated Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: [After playing a clip of Kerry saying: “I volunteered for my country. I volunteered to go to Vietnam. I volunteered for the duty that we had.”] Apparently he didn't. It was only after he was denied what he really wanted which was a deferment. Now it's a matter of whether or not he's gonna tell the truth. ... How many of you before this program today knew that he had sought a deferment and didn't fully volunteer as he said he did?

While Kerry has said that he considered studying abroad after graduating from college, a June 15, 2003, Boston Globe article reported Kerry's explanation of his decision to volunteer for service in Vietnam:

“My draft board ... said, 'Look, the likelihood is you are probably going to be drafted.' I said, 'If I'm going to be drafted, I'd like to have responsibility and be an officer.'”

Hannity's claim that Kerry “didn't fully volunteer” for service in Vietnam is indefensible: Kerry was inducted into the U.S. Navy on February 18, 1966; on February 10, 1968, he requested swift boat duty in Vietnam. In contrast, on May 28, 1968, President George W. Bush checked the box on his “Application for Extended Active Duty with the United States Air Force” that read “Do not volunteer for overseas.”

Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry co-authors John E. O'Neill (co-founder of the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) and Jerome R. Corsi also cited the 1970 Harvard Crimson article in their book to claim that “Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment,” although the article did not say that he “petitioned” for a deferment.