Where were you in 1973, Arne? Do you remember that by 1973 US public opinion had turned radically against the war. Everyone who had the least plausible excuse to get out of the draft in the years just before had. The draft was over and that everyone one knew the war was essentially over. I took a entrance physcial in Bentonville, Arkansas that year. Never seen any thing military as lax as those guys were. It was enough to keep me from volunteering. I hear the same story from guys where in the Guard in those years. By 1973, there was no risk they were going to get called up. No one is ever going to shock me by telling me that the Alabama National Guard didn't exactly keep up with all their people and misplaced some paper work in the summer of 1973.

1968 when Kerry was in 'Nam was a different year. The country was still sharply divided. Even Kerry still thought the war was a good thing and didn't go anti-war until later. Out in my part of the world parents still expected their kids to volunteer and no one dodged the draft other than trying to get a college deferment. The five years between 1968 and 1973 changed the country more than anyone who didn't live through it could imagine. By '73 even the military families I grew up in small towns like mine with were trying to keep their kids out.

Kerry should be respected to for serving, but he faced his choice in a different time when most people supported the war.   Then he turned against it, and if you believe some Vets, against those who served.   Even if you think Bush played hookie from the Guard one summer, he did it when the country had already turned away from the war and we were doing everything possible to get out of it.

Now, if you want to compare Kerry's service in 1968 to what Bill Clinton was doing in 1968... ;)