• 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.

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