My lottery number fell in the lower third of the drawing, earning me a reclassification to I-A in my senior year at the University of Missouri and a subsequent invitation to an April 1970 draft physical at the Selective Service office on Pershing Road in Kansas City. I didn’t pass the physical — the Army didn’t offer an explanation why and I wasn’t inclined to question its judgment. I already had lined up a job starting after graduation, so the lottery had little effect on my trajectory.
