# Ted Nugent did WHAT to avoid Vietnam? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 19, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043 "2004-09-19T21:23:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/1 "2004-09-19T21:23:00Z")
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=276381), **Tentacle Monster** said: > [@](#): > > You gotta remember this about Ted Nugent: He’s the guy who spent days stewing in his own shit and piss to avoid being drafted for Vietnam. Note-I do NOT want this to turn into a right vs. left debate, nor a smearing of Nugent on his politics or start a rant calling him a hypocrite. I’m merely insanely curious now as to what occurred. I mean, you don’t make a statement like that around here without details! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/2 "2004-09-19T21:30:07Z")
> **[Ted Nugent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nugent)** > > Theodore Anthony Nugent (/ˈnuːdʒɪnt/; born December 13, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist. He initially gained fame as the lead guitarist and occasional lead vocalist of The Amboy Dukes, a band formed in 1963 that played psychedelic rock and hard rock. After dissolving the band, he embarked on a solo career. Nugent is known for his Gibson Byrdland, his bluesy and frenzied guitar playing and his energetic live shows. Despite possessing a distinctive, wid In later yea... > [@](#): > > According to the July 15, 1990 Detroit Free Press Magazine, Nugent claimed that he tried to avoid the draft: > > ``` > "He claims that 30 days before his draft board physical, he stopped all forms of personal hygiene. The last 10 days, he ingested nothing but Vienna sausages and Pepsi; and a week before his physical, he stopped using bathrooms altogether, virtually living inside pants caked with his own excrement, stained by his urine. That spectacle won Nugent a deferment, he says. ‘... but if I would have gone over there, I'd have been killed, or I'd have killed, or I'd killed all the hippies in the foxholes...I would have killed everybody.’" > > ``` ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/3 "2004-09-19T21:33:20Z")
Oh that’s disgusting! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/4 "2004-09-19T21:40:12Z")
Man. I never liked the man to begin with but this cinches it. I have no problem with Draft Dodgers – if I had been of age during that time, I’d’ve probably fled to Canada myself – but to go to those extremes? Pathetic. ---
**Author:** ![testride](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@testride](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/testride)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/5 "2004-09-19T22:42:55Z")
I can only speculate, but I would imagine that his deferment was based on psychiatric grounds, which is not something most people would want following them around for the rest of their lives.There were smarter ways to stay out of Vietnam (ask Bill Clinton, George Bush, Dick Cheney etc). ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/6 "2004-09-19T23:38:58Z")
> [@testride](#): > > There were smarter ways to stay out of Vietnam (ask Bill Clinton, George Bush, Dick Cheney etc). Again-can we not start the political swipes? I mean, Nugent is a guy who is pretty extreme to begin with, but how can he go on about being “manly” when he purposely got out of the military by shitting and pissing himself? Eeeeewwww!!! Couldn’t he just have tried jaywalking or something and gotten arrested for it? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/7 "2004-09-19T23:46:57Z")
> [@testride](#): > > I can only speculate, but I would imagine that his deferment was based on psychiatric grounds, which is not something most people would want following them around for the rest of their lives.There were smarter ways to stay out of Vietnam (ask Bill Clinton, George Bush, Dick Cheney etc). Well, Ted _DOES_ seem at times to be a couple of grains of powder short of a Magnum load, in a kind of a Hunter S. Thompson sort of way, substituting smoked venison for mescaline. So who knows, this was a demonstration that yes, there IS something twisted about this boy. Specially considering his declaration that he would have ended up going FMJ on everyone. The gentlemen alluded to were not just “smarter” but _motivated_ to save themselves for a future climb up the corporate and political ladder. It was a question of access to opportunity: Rhodes scholars and children of politicians and top businessmen could get school deferments, alternate service (NG), or bogus “health” disqualifications; among those not concerned with “ruining their future” those who could count on parents making remittances could bolt for Canada, those who wanted to make a political point would go to jail, and those willing to live as wandering outlaws could do that. Ordinary boys off the street or farm, though, had nowhere to run to and jail would ruin their chances of finding the sort of “regular” Average-Joe work that they would realisticaly aspire to; they were often left to make do with self-inflicted injury or coming across as insane or gay. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/8 "2004-09-19T23:49:57Z")
I don’t think that was much of a swipe, really. And Bipartisan. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/9 "2004-09-19T23:52:44Z")
Agreed… he mentioned both Clinton and Bush (and said both were smart) so it’s not much of a political swipe at all. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/10 "2004-09-20T00:18:44Z")
What did you have to do to back then to convince the powers that be you were gay? I presume you didn’t have to fellate a man in front of the draft board. Whatever it was, it seems like it would have to have been easier. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/11 "2004-09-20T00:47:02Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘… but if I would have gone over there, I’d have been killed, or I’d have killed, or I’d killed all the hippies in the foxholes…I would have killed everybody.’ Yeah, it’s much easier to kill animals by the hundreds. They can’t shoot back. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/12 "2004-09-20T01:34:40Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > What did you have to do to back then to convince the powers that be you were gay? I presume you didn’t have to fellate a man in front of the draft board. > > Whatever it was, it seems like it would have to have been easier. Back in the old days there was something called “checking the box” Allegedly there was question that asked if you were homosexual. Check the box yes, and you were out. So to speak. I was a couple of years too young for Viet Nam. I turned 18 in 1972. There was a lottery, but no one was drafted. When I registered for the draft, I don’t remember any such question. But several friends said it existed. Maybe it came up when a person was actually drafted. Or maybe gay urban ledgand ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/13 "2004-09-20T01:55:00Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > …but how can he go on about being “manly” when he purposely got out of the military by shitting and pissing himself? Eeeeewwww!!! Eww, indeed. How many people would be tough enough to be able to put themselves through that? Compared to what he supposedly did (and who knows, the guy could say anything…and often does 😉 ), how many people would take the (relatively)cowardly way instead and just sign up? As far as why he wanted out, it could be due to any number of things. The Vietnam war was widely regarded, even by those who favored what we were _supposed_ to be doing there, came to regard it as a pulled-punches war where as long as three of their guys were killed for every one of ours, everything was copacetic. (We didn’t want to hit them too hard and piss off China, you know.) And besides, it was the era of hippiedom and free love. Who wanted to go off to a hot, humid, sweaty country and get shot at with all that going on? But seriously, say what you want about Nugent, but he is a tough guy. I doubt cowardice was the motivation for whatever it was he did. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/14 "2004-09-20T03:25:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Back in the old days there was something called “checking the box” Allegedly there was question that asked if you were homosexual. Check the box yes, and you were out. So to speak. I can’t imagine that it was just that easy. I mean, I can understand why people didn’t want to claim to be gay, especially back in the late 60s/early 70s. But it also seems like a pretty easy thing to do, compared to what many people did to get out of 'Nam. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/15 "2004-09-20T05:08:02Z")
“Make a pass at your commanding officer?” “Done and done! And I mean _done_!” 😃 **Starving Artist** , I get what you’re saying, but for godsakes, there’s got to be a better way. That’s just…eeeewww! Who was it who purposely got himself arrested-was it Arlo Guthrie? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/16 "2004-09-20T05:21:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Eww, indeed. How many people would be tough enough to be able to put themselves through that? > > Compared to what he supposedly did (and who knows, the guy could say anything…and often does ), how many people would take the (relatively)cowardly way instead and just sign up? > > As far as why he wanted out, it could be due to any number of things. The Vietnam war was widely regarded, even by those who favored what we were supposed to be doing there, came to regard it as a pulled-punches war where as long as three of their guys were killed for every one of ours, everything was copacetic. (We didn’t want to hit them too hard and piss off China, you know.) And besides, it was the era of hippiedom and free love. Who wanted to go off to a hot, humid, sweaty country and get shot at with all that going on? > > But seriously, say what you want about Nugent, but he is a tough guy. I doubt cowardice was the motivation for whatever it was he did. Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Are you saying there are people who went to Vietnam because they weren’t brave enough to dodge the draft by shitting in their pants? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/17 "2004-09-20T06:13:54Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Are you saying there are people who went to Vietnam because they weren’t brave enough to dodge the draft by shitting in their pants? No. I doubt many people would have thought of it in the first place. But I am saying that if you gave someone who would like to stay out of the service advice to the effect that if they stopped all their hygiene and shit and pissed in their pants for weeks that they would be rejected for the service, they would rather sign up than do it. As to the implication of your question, I suppose a certain number of those who would have opted to sign up would eventually wind up in Vietnam, but they wouldn’t have known it at the time of their draft physical. **Guinastasia** , I’m not sure if it was Guthrie. I do seem to remember something to that effect but I’m not sure. As a side note, I remember my father telling me that people could be denied induction during WWII if they had flat feet, and that he knew of several people who tried to collapse their arches by jumping barefoot off their roofs over and over again. 😛 (And no, my father wasn’t one of them. He avoided the draft by joining the Navy. :D) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/18 "2004-09-20T06:18:32Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > What did you have to do to back then to convince the powers that be you were gay? I presume you didn’t have to fellate a man in front of the draft board. > > Whatever it was, it seems like it would have to have been easier. _cf. **Guin** ’s reference to Arlo Guthrie)_ Take off all your clothes in the induction center and dance around singing _Alice’s Restaurant_. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/19 "2004-09-20T06:38:40Z")
How about taking all your clothes off in the induction center, and walking around like a duck? :eek: That’s what we had to do when I was inducted into the Marines. I checked out Nugent’s draft status. He was born on [December 13, 1948](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nugent), and men born on that date between 1944 and 1950 were indeed among those called up for induction in the [draft lottery](http://www.sss.gov/lotter1.htm) held in December 1969. He had already done three albums with the Amboy Dukes by then. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043/20 "2004-09-20T13:49:26Z")
> [@Guin](#): > > Couldn’t he just have tried jaywalking or something and gotten arrested for it? Littering. “I’m sittin here on the Group W bench ‘cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein’ a litterbug.” > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _cf. **Guin** ’s reference to Arlo Guthrie)_ > > Take off all your clothes in the induction center and dance around singing _Alice’s Restaurant_. > > 😃 No, no, no. Two of them do it together, “in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-nugent-did-what-to-avoid-vietnam/265043.md?page=2)