Military Power

I've heard several people talk about how John Wayne dodged the draft (either by getting deferments or, as I've heard by some, moving to Canada). Well, I wanted to know the truth so I did a little research myself. Here is a brief summary to set the record straight.

John Wayne was exempted from service due to his age (34 at the time of Pearl Harbor) and family status, classified as 3-A (family deferment). Republic Studios was emphatically resistant to losing Wayne, especially after the loss of Gene Autry to the army. Correspondence between Wayne and Herbert J. Yates (the head of Republic) indicates that Yates threatened Wayne with a lawsuit if he walked away from his contract, though the likelihood of a studio suing its biggest star for going to war was minute. The threat was real, but whether Wayne took it seriously or not, he did not test it. Selective Service Records indicate he did not attempt to prevent his reclassification as 1-A (draft eligible), but apparently Republic Pictures intervened directly, requesting his further deferment. In May, 1944, Wayne was reclassified as 1-A (draft eligible), but the studio obtained another 2-A deferment (for "support of national health, safety, or interest"). He remained 2-A until the war's end. John Wayne did not "dodge" the draft, but he never took direct positive action toward enlistment. Wayne was in the South Pacific theater of the war for three months in 1943–44, touring U.S. bases and hospitals as well as doing some "undercover" work for the OSS. Wayne's failure to serve in the military during World War II was the most painful experience of his life. His widow suggests that Wayne's rampant patriotism in later decades sprang not from hypocrisy but from guilt. Pilar Wayne wrote, "He would become a 'superpatriot' for the rest of his life trying to atone for staying home."