TV & VIDEO - Aug. 30, 1988
On the heels of GOP vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle’s National Guard controversy, actor Tom Selleck said Monday that he used his father’s influence to enlist in the California National Guard to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam in 1967. Interviewed on the set of his next film, “Her Alibi,” by ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Republican Selleck said his father rang up some state officials and voila ! Selleck was in the Guard.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Sept. 8, 1988 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday September 8, 1988 Home Edition Calendar Part 6 Page 2 Column 3 Entertainment Desk 3 inches; 92 words Type of Material: Correction
An Aug. 30 Morning Report item on Tom Selleck incorrectly stated that the actor, interviewed on a television show, had said he had used his father’s influence in 1967 to enlist in the California National Guard to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. According to the transcript of the interview, Selleck said that in 1967 he had just signed a contract with Fox and wanted to join the National Guard, but there were few openings and it was hard to get in. Selleck said that his father wasn’t rich and had no connections, “but he did call some friends and a state assemblyman and it helped me get in” because decision makers are impressed when “people show initiative.”
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