XPost: calgary.general, can.general, can.politics 
 XPost: edm.general 
 From: shhh@donttell.org 
  
 In <3d7mu053phdlbingcjoifiq6hta4psekfe@4ax.com> John Fleming  wrote: 
 > On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 01:30:27 GMT, while chained to a desk in the 
 > scriptorium, Jon Flamming  wrote: 
 >> $In  John Fleming  wrote: 
 >> $> On 16 Jan 2005 13:40:28 -0800, while chained to a desk in the 
 >> $> scriptorium, bcpg@canada.com wrote: 
 >> $> 
 >> $>> $"Press your nose and make a buzzer sound" Glen 
 >> $>> $ 
 >> $>> $The question was: "How many Presidents have fought in combat in 
 >> the $>> $last 200 years?" $>> $. $>> $The answer is still "zero". No 
 >> Presidents have *ever* been in combat. $>  $> Maybe not while sitting * 
 >> in* the oval office as President of the US. $> However, as Glen does 
 >> point out, many have served their country in a $> military capacity 
 >> at some point during their careers.  This can  $> include time in a 
 >> theatre of combat operations. $ $However, many a President and member 
 >> of Congress has invented military  $careers for themselves. There is 
 >> the famous case of President Kennedy,  $who many believe was a war 
 >> hero while commanding a PT boat in the  $Pacific during WWII. 
 >> Recently, there has been doubts cast on that tale.  $Kennedy did 
 >> command the PT boat as it was supposed to be a low potential  $for 
 >> combat opperation. However, when Kennedy's boat was lost, the tale 
 >> $emerged about how he saved two crew members. It was revealled years 
 >> $later that it was two other crew members who did the rescue work, 
 >> while  $Kennedy was incapacitated. It was Kennedy's father who helped 
 >> created  $the story about his son's heroics as a means to build a 
 >> political career  $for him. And, it is believed, he bought the 
 >> silence of all who survived  $PT 109, so as to make sure that there 
 >> would be no complications for his  $son later on. 
 > 
 > So the story was allegedly embellished a bit.  As long as the core 
 > details are correct, that Kennedy captained a PT Boat in the Pacific 
 > during WW2, it supports my contention that many presidents served in 
 > some branch of the US military at some point during their lives. 
  
 The core of the story is correct, in that Kennedy was on a PT boat in 
 the Pacific, and it was hit by a Japanese vessel of undetermined type. 
 However, the embellishment is not uncommon. Sen. McCarthy claimed to 
 have been a tailer-gunner in a bomber, when he was a desk clerk at an 
 airfield. And there was another member recently who claimed to have been 
 in the Navy during WWII, only to have it discovered, after he was buried 
 in the Veterans' area of Arlington Cemetry, that he really was in the 
 Merchant Marine during WWII. I wonder if they dug him up? 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)