I will never forget the day after the lottery dates were drawn. I missed them in the evening news so all of the draft eligible recent college graduates in my department (engineering) gathered around the newspaper in the conference room the next morning. I looked down the two front page columns twice and being frustrated that I could not find my birthdate I complained to my colleagues. One of them disgustedly said, "a**hole, look on the back page…". There was June 18th in the number 345 position! Since my wife had a baby girl on the way and I was in graduate school studying for my MBA, it was a BIG relief.
I went on the get that degree and my chemical engineering degree became secondary to a career in planning, budgeting and refining economics. My career spanned 34.5 years, took me to the Middle East, Africa and to service with the National Petroleum Council’s study on U. S. refining capabilities to manufacture new clean fuels.
If I had drawn the lower number, I would have been drafted, my masters degree interrupted, and who knows where my career would have gone.
Now I am comfortably retired and enjoying doing lots of charity work, with occasional fishing and golf. DOLadd@msn.com