• 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".
		

• 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.