Quayle Denies He Joined Guard to Evade Viet War : He Phoned His Parents on Decision

Sen. Dan Quayle today denied that he joined the Indiana National Guard in 1969 to avoid serving in the Vietnam War, said he broke no rules to get in, and would do the same thing again.

At a heated outdoor news conference at his hometown where townspeople booed reporters, Quayle acknowledged that a family friend who was an employee of his grandfather’s newspaper and a former commander of the Indiana National Guard probably interceded on his behalf.

The controversy swirling about Quayle’s wartime service was punctuated Thursday by the disclosure that former Indianapolis News Managing Editor Wendell C. Phillippi, once a major general in the Indiana Guard, had been asked by Quayle about entering the National Guard.

“Wendell Phillippi knew that I wanted to get into the National Guard and I hope that he helped me and I think he did,” Quayle told reporters today. “I would hope that he helped me and I expect that.”

Quayle said he initially called his parents to discuss his desire to enter the National Guard when he was about to lose his college student deferment.

Questioned About Approach

Asked why he did not just go down and fill out papers if his entry into the National Guard was as routine as he suggested it was, Quayle said:

“I do what any normal person would do at that age. You call home. You call home to mother and father and say ‘I’d like to get in the National Guard.’ ”

He said he also talked briefly to Phillippi. “I told him I wanted to get into the National Guard. I would assume calls would be made. I talked to Mr. Phillippi very briefly. I hope that he helped me and I think he did.”

Quayle said he saw nothing wrong with what he did.

“I got into the National Guard fairly,” he said. “I did not ask anyone to break the rules and so far as I know no one did.”

Asked to assess the way he proceeded as a 22-year-old, he said, “I would not have done anything differently” if he had known he would be running for vice president one day.

Quayle’s service in the National Guard consisted mostly of writing press releases and articles for the Indiana Guardsman magazine, a Guard spokesman said.

There were conflicting assessments on whether it was hard to get into the Indiana National Guard at the time. Jerry Johnson, an assistant to the commanding general of the 38th Infantry Division in the early 1970s, said, “You either got in from the waiting list or you knew somebody.”

Vacancies Existed

He said there were vacancies but that they depended on the type of duty involved. He said the infantry units had openings but finance or public affairs positions, viewed as desirable, were hard to get into.

Former Democratic Sen. Birch Bayh, whom Quayle defeated in 1980, said, “My office was inundated with requests from constituents who wanted help in getting their sons into the Guard so they would not have to go to Vietnam.”

But John Owens, who was adjutant general of the Indiana National Guard at the time, said there were “vacancies galore.”

Quayle received two months of basic training in 1969 at Ft. Bragg, N.C., and then trained as a welder at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. But he did not work as a welder. He returned to Indianapolis to work in the 120th Public Information Office.

James Newland, a reporter for the Indianapolis Star who served with Quayle, said:

“This was a very, very small unit--only about a dozen guys, and that includes the officers. Our job was really so limited, a lot of puffy-type stories. It was fair to say that we worked hard when we had to, and played hard.”