I had a low number so I looked into volunteering and ROTC, but I would have been a helicopter pilot and I didn’t even know how to drive a car. I had grown up overseas, so I decided to go back abroad and get my master’s degree. There was an military induction center in Rome, and I figured if they wanted me bad enough, they could fly me from Beirut to Rome and then to boot camp in the USA.
I let my draft board know where I was going, then as I was leaving, the draft was cancelled. I went on to AUB in Beirut and got my master’s degree in Middle East Studies.