“He looks at me and goes, ‘Um, how old are you. And I said, ‘Well I am 26, I will be 27.’ And he goes, ‘Well, that is kind of old for us.’ And then he says to me, and this is what gets me, ‘Maybe the dogs will take you,’ meaning the Army.”

— Former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at a breakfast, Manchester, N.H., Nov. 10, 2015

One Clinton story that has often been greeted with skepticism is her claim, first made in 1994, that she once tried to join the Marines in 1975. On the campaign trail, she brought up the story again. (Go to the 1:35 mark.)

Can this story be confirmed?

The Facts

Clinton first told this story while addressing a lunch on Capitol Hill honoring military women, about 17 months after becoming first lady:

“You’re too old, you can’t see and you’re a woman,” Mrs. Clinton said she was told. “Maybe the dogs would take you,” she recalled the recruiter saying. (Actually the military slang is “dogfaces.”)

“It was not a very encouraging conversation,” she said. “I decided maybe I’ll look for another way to serve my country.”

It’s fair to say The New York Times account, written by then-reporter Maureen Dowd, was highly skeptical.

Read the article “Hillary Clinton’s Claim that She Tried to Join the Marines” on washingtonpost.com.