I happen to have kept my draft card. Dated 6-20-67, and signed by Mildred E Walters. My selective service number was 14 68 49 ***, and I was classified II-S. I came across it, for the first time in 40-some years, just last week.
Luckily for me, my date of birth lotteried to 343. They weren’t reaching that deep into the pool so I was in luck. I got engaged early in 1970 and was married in June of that year. I went to grad school that fall, at the University of Minnesota. By the standard of “saving private Ryan”, I hope I used well the civilian life that reprieve gave me. I have children and grandchildren, the same wife as in June 1970, various civilian accomplishments, and enough Red Cross T-shirts to fill a drawer.
My friend in college, Mike Lynch, didn’t have the same luck. (His father was Colonel James Lynch, and the colonel commanded a brigade in Vietnam, 7 battalions strong). Mike served his tour of duty stateside, but it was no bed of roses. His job was de-commissioning nerve gas at Dugway, Utah. They had to work in body suits and the heat was murderous. All because of the turn of the dice.
Luckily for me, my date of birth lotteried to 343. They weren’t reaching that deep into the pool so I was in luck. I got engaged early in 1970 and was married in June of that year. I went to grad school that fall, at the University of Minnesota. By the standard of “saving private Ryan”, I hope I used well the civilian life that reprieve gave me. I have children and grandchildren, the same wife as in June 1970, various civilian accomplishments, and enough Red Cross T-shirts to fill a drawer.
My friend in college, Mike Lynch, didn’t have the same luck. (His father was Colonel James Lynch, and the colonel commanded a brigade in Vietnam, 7 battalions strong). Mike served his tour of duty stateside, but it was no bed of roses. His job was de-commissioning nerve gas at Dugway, Utah. They had to work in body suits and the heat was murderous. All because of the turn of the dice.