Jack Dempsey, Draft Dodger

[ShoulderRoll]

An interesting read.


“Crowds booed him in the ring against French contender and war hero Georges Carpentier. The press beat upon him relentlessly, questioning Dempsey’s patriotism and manhood. The nation’s leading sportswriter, Grantland Rice, declared “Dempsey is the champion boxer, but not the champion fighter.” He continued: “It would be an insult to every young American who sleeps today from Flanders to Lorraine, from the Somme to the Argonne, to crown him with any laurels built of fighting courage.”

[Willie Pep 229]

It was Willard's fault. If he hadn't tried to play loose and cheeky with the newspapers about the War no one would have looked so closely at Dempsey.

When the newspapers asked Willard if he would serve, his cheeky reply didn't go over well

He remarked they didn't have a uniform big enought to fit him. A recruting office in Chicago called Willard out and invited him to come and enlist and guaranteed Willard he would have a uniform for him.

Willard blew off the newspaper challenge and went on his already planned Wild West show.

When the American bodies began to pile up, patriotism soared. In this atmosphere Willard ******ity tried to stage a defense with Fred Fulton.

But the populace and the newspapers remembered. Willard had so soured the soup with his dismissive remarks about serving, that the newspapers staged a nation 'clip and mail-in' vote on the Willard-Fulton fight.

The Governors of Michigan and Colorado both pulled back their offers to host the fight after the vote-in results were overwhelmingly against the fight.

I know some on here are going to say that it was the War, and that it was tradition not to have title fights when at war. But that's crap. It applies only to WWII.

This prohibition was directed at Willard and Willard alone.

P.S. Dempsey was a 'slacker' (draft dodger) no doubt, but I say it wouldn't have been at issue if Willard hadn't made it an issue with his big condescending mouth.

[QueensburyRules]

- - One of the biggest hatchet jobs by Kearns in history.

Jack had a legit deferment. Moreover, all the US did was mostly mop up duty. The HORROR was 95% complete.

[Willie Pep 229]

- - One of the biggest hatchet jobs by Kearns in history.

Jack had a legit deferment. Moreover, all the US did was mostly mop up duty. The HORROR was 95% complete.

53K combat deaths and 63K by disease. 100K plus wounded and the coining of the vicious term term "basket case."

All in about 11 months of fighting.

Not a mopping up effort. Total war.

As a Dempsey fan I say he was a draft dodger. He wasn't doing what he claimed he was doing, supporting a family.

It wasn't a war of national defense; it was an expeditionary force.

He really didn't have an obligation IMO.

There was quite a few "draft dodgers" in the day. Lots of questionable exceptions available just like Vietnam.

[Willow The Wisp]

53K combat deaths and 63K by disease. 100K plus wounded and the coining of the viscous term term "basket case."

All in about 11 months of fighting.

Not a mopping up effort. Total war.

As a Dempsey fan I say he was a draft dodger. He wasn't doing what he claimed he was doing, supporting a family.

It wasn't a war of national defense; it was an expeditionary force.

He really didn't have an obligation IMO.

There was quite a few "draft dodgers" in the day. Lots of questionable exceptions available just like Vietnam.

100% Correct on each point sir.

[Willow The Wisp]

Let me add.
The French and British were barely hanging on in 1918. By year-end 1917, France had lost 3 million men in the war, Britain 2 million.
Without the backing of American weaponry, munitions and loans, the Allies would have been forced to abandon their goal of the knockout blow. It is possible that the war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with a negotiated peace based on the mutual admission that the conflict had become a stalemate, had the U.S. opted not to join. Far more likely however, Germany would have continued their push and won World War I, had the U.S. Army not intervened in France in 1918.

I had a great uncle who was gassed in France. Revisionist historians are scumbags.

[GhostofDempsey]

Kearns defended Dempsey's war record. When the draft started in 1917, Dempsey was placed in class 4-A. This was because he was a married man and was supporting a mother and invalid brother and sister. Dempsey never made any claims for exemption, he just stated facts while completing the questionnaire. Later, the draft board updated his classification to A-1 but then changed it to 2-B. He remained there during the duration of the war and was subject at any time for war duty.

Early in the war he was also employed as a machinist in a shipbuilding in Seattle. During the war he also put on fund raising exhibitions for the war effort, raising well over $100K putting on free exhibitions where he actually lost money because he was paying all of his own travel expenses while donating his earnings on all these exhibitions. In one fight he fought Meehan in SF, he donated his purse of over $27K that got divided between soldiers and sailors. On several occasions he has donated the gate from exhibitions that have raised $15K in Brooklyn and in cities across the country that include Philadelphia, Denver, and elsewhere. Another NY boxing promoter, James Coffroth also defended Dempsey, insisting Dempsey was always available for charitable events and exhibitions when called upon during the war. To besmirch his reputation as a draft dodger during the war was more than unfounded, it was unjust.

All of this can be sourced in Pollacks second installment of his Dempsey bio.

[Willow The Wisp]

When World War II started, Dempsey joined the New York State Guard and was commissioned a first lieutenant. He later resigned that commission to accept a Coast Guard Reserve commission.
He reported for duty in June 1942 at Coast Guard Training Station, Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, New York, where he was the director of physical education.
After being promoted to commander in March 1944, Dempsey was assigned to the transport USS Wakefield. In 1945, he was on the attack transport USS Arthur Middleton for the invasion of Okinawa. He also spent time on the USS General William Mitchell.

Source:

[Willie Pep 229]

When World War II started, Dempsey joined the New York State Guard and was commissioned a first lieutenant. He later resigned that commission to accept a Coast Guard Reserve commission.
He reported for duty in June 1942 at Coast Guard Training Station, Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, New York, where he was the director of physical education.
After being promoted to commander in March 1944, Dempsey was assigned to the transport USS Wakefield. In 1945, he was on the attack transport USS Arthur Middleton for the invasion of Okinawa. He also spent time on the USS General William Mitchell.

Source:

I read the web page. From the Department of Defense (DOD) no less.

Good stuff on WWII

Here's the thing . . . It's only mention of World War I is the following:

"During World War I, Dempsey worked in a Philadelphia shipyard."

So what are we looking at here?

Was Dempsey actually working in a Naval Shipyard or did this guy do terrible research and actually buy into Doc Kearns' infamous bogus photo of Dempsey working in the shipyards (wearing dress shoes.)

Now I don't know the truth any longer. Did Dempsey ever work in a shipyard and was he working there in 1917-1918 when the draft occurred.

I just don't think he was. But DOD just said he was.

[The D3vil]

Good for him

“WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.”

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way un******ed. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

― Smedley D. Butler,