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Notes -
The devil is always in the details and the PMC loves to build its special statuses.
Pete Buttigieg joined the Navy through what's called a Direct Commission Officer program when he was 37 years old. Specifically, he joined a Reserve Intelligence Officer program that is notorious for being the place that politically or just generally striver minded over-acheivers go to tick off the "military service" box. That Navy program has an insanely high proportion of Harvard grads, lawyers, masters degree holders etc. And they often are commissioning in their mid 30s whereas your normal ROTC grad is in at 22 with enlisted being 18,19, or 20 usually.
And it's a Club Med of an assignment. First off, it's the reserves. When they do deploy, they're treated like retarded children (because they are). I won't get into the Mayor Pete Afghanistan stories (plenty to Google there). But it's all basically a farce.
Elite Blue Tribers understand that military service (especially post 9/11) has a ton of bipartisan cultural cache. So they've done what they always do and created as special carve out that, to the general public, looks great. This is actually the same thing that the Harvard Kennedy School does - they admit anyone, or give them some sort of status as a Fellow or something.
Contrast this with a kid at Harvard, Yale etc. who, on day one, goes for a NROTC scholarship with a signed contract for active duty Marine Corps ground officer (which likely means he ends up in infantry, artillery, etc.) That can and will get Mummie and Dad-da out of their recliners in Montpelier and on the train to the dorms. Think about the ssssssscandal if junior had deferred his entree to Yale and enlisted as a common phoot-soldier in the Army. Perish the thought.
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