Viking pundit also points to an article by David Limbaugh on The Bizarre Candidacy of John Kerry.
A good read but there has been something bothering me like a tick since the Kerry has beaten us almost senseless with it.

He has personally attacked President Bush's National Guard Service and V.P. Cheney's "five deferments" and contrasted it with his volunteering for two tours of duty in Vietnam. But he hasn't answered John O'Neill's charge that his first tour was 100 miles off the shore of Vietnam and he didn't volunteer for service until he was about to be drafted.

I know it is quibbling, a matter of semantics, but is what I italicized correct? Wasn't it the case, at the time, that you were drafted and got your notice that you were drafted but had the opportunity to volunteer before the deadline for reporting? He was drafted along time before he volunteered, he just had what is called a deferrment. My guess is when he requested the additional deferrment, the response he received in the mail was, essentially, 'no' and 'you are to report NLT such and such a date' (I wonder if NLT was spelled out, yuk yuk.)

It seems to me, if I am right, that is having been drafted, not about to be drafted. Of course, there was still a little time left. If you volunteered before the reporting date, then you did volunteer but the picture is a little different. I'd honestly appreciate any comment on that from those in the know.