• Mike Huckabee had not voluntarily signed up for military service and came of age as draft
was ending. A brief explanation on why a stint in the army is missing in Huckabee?s resume, states
the reason as 'flat feet'. 

• Huckabee had all the traits of a natural leader and longed to be of service to his people
but his flat feet became a roadblock. "These flat feet have bothered me all my life" he is quoted as
saying. 

• When he was a freshman in college, Huckabee had enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training
Corps (ROTC) and looked forward to serving in combat. On noticing his flat feet, the ROTC Director
discouraged him from joining the army.  Huckabee remembers, "He told me there was no point in my
continuing because the army wouldn't have me anyway."

• The Vietnam War came to an end, thus ending Huckabee's desire to pursue a career in the
military. Perfectly understanding that every chapter in his life had been God's doing, Huckabee is a
wee bit cheerless when he says, "My flat feet ended what I'm sure would have been a heralded
military career in the post-Vietnam 1970s."

• President Barack Obama has not served in the military but has a family of war veterans with
impressive military records.

• His grandfather, the late Stanley Dunham served in combat and "marched in Patton's Army"
while his grandmother "worked on a bomber assembly line".

• Obama's uncle was part of the American brigade that helped liberate Auschwitz concentration
camps.

• Obama's claim that his grandfather had got himself enlisted in the Army the day after Pearl
Harbor was bombed, is contradicted by Army records that show Stanley Dunham had signed up six months
after Pearl Harbor.

• During a Memorial Day speech in New Mexico, Obama remarked "I cannot know what it is to
walk into battle like so many of you" and "I cannot know what it is for a family to sacrifice like
so many of yours have."

• The military was "an ennobling... honorable option" for Obama. During his teen years in
Hawaii, Obama enjoyed attending the parties at Army bases and had once considered serving in uniform
as well.

• He confided about having to sign up for Selective Service when he graduated from High
School in 1979. Unfortunately, the Vietnam War had come to an end and "we weren't engaged in an
active military conflict at that point", thus ending Obama's desire to pursue the military option.

• Sarah Palin, mother of five children has not served in uniform but has a son enlisted in the
U.S. army

• Sarah Palin's 19-year old son Track was assigned to an infantry brigade and deployed in
September 2008 for twelve months to one of the most dangerous corners of Iraq.

• Palin had donned the role of Commander-in-Chief of the 4,200-member Alaska National Guard
when she was the state's Governor.  Though she has not fought in combat, Palin's two years of
military command experience as Commander-in-Chief of Alaska National Guard has made her keenly aware
of how her military decisions or the decisions she influenced would affect the men and women serving
in the armed forces. 

• Alaska is the first line of defense in the missile interceptor defense system. The 49th
Missile Defense Battalion of the Alaska National Guard is the unit that protects the entire nation
from ballistic missile attacks.

• As the Governor of Alaska, Palin was briefed on highly classified military issues, homeland
security, counter terrorism and is privy to military and intelligence secrets that are vital to the
entire country's defense. Her exposure to classified material is pretty high compared to her
rivals.

• Mitt Romney has not served in the military.

• Before joining college, Romney had received a deferment from the draft as a Mormon
'minister of religion' for the duration of his missionary work in France, which lasted two and a
half years.  At the time, there was an agreement of sorts between the church and the Selective
Service allowing exemptions from the draft for missionaries.

• Before and after his missionary deferment, Romney also received nearly three years of
deferments for his academic studies 

• In April 1965, Romney registered with the Selective Service but was not considered readily
available for military service until December 1970.  When he became eligible for military service in
1970, he drew a high number in the annual draft lottery and at that time no one drawing higher than
195 was drafted.

• Romney once disclosed in an interview that he would have served if he had been drafted. 

• Romney said that he was supportive of his country and "I longed in many respects to
actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there and in some ways it was frustrating not
to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam."

• It is a fact that none of Romney's five sons have ever served in the military and when
questioned about this, Romney said that his sons were showing their patriotism by "helping me get
elected".

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