I was a senior at UW Madison and attended a basketball game the night of the lottery. I came home and my close friend who knew my birthday thought my number was in the two hundreds. The news came on and I found out I was No. 39. I was not the soldier type, not a radical but definitely no supporter of the war in Vietnam. The next day I cut class and went down to the Madison National Guard Armory. It was hard to give a straight answer when asked by a military lifer why all the people were showing up this day to try and enlist in the National Guard. I was "old" at 22 so not what they were looking for. I was in the UW Band, not a very good musician but at the right place the right time. Two acquaintances of mine had already dropped out of school and joined the National Guard Band. I called them and they helped me join the 32d Division US Army National Guard of Wisconsin Band.
I hated basic training at Fort Leonard Wood but really felt stronger for the benefit of living that life with other Guard and Reservist trainees and mostly regular army trainees, mostly draftees headed for Vietnam. The first night a drill sergeant asked who went to college. Up went my hand. Who was good in math was the next question. Up went my hand. I learned "don’t volunteer" from that. I had to go to my fellow trainees I knew for one day and assign people to wake up for one hour in the middle of the night to get dressed and "guard" the all cinderblock and steel building from fires. That was a great way to make friends.
When I finally got out of Fort Leonard Wood Basic Training and OJT I went back to Madison, WI to live. I had two things in common with the members of the National Guard Band. That is a love of music and an anti-army, anti- military attitude. At Summer Camp we got to play at "Governors Day" when Governor Lucy, an anti-war Democrat visited. CBS news put on a national TV show called "The Selling of the Pentagon", which the US Military called fabricated and a fraud. One scene showed people sitting in the stands cheering as the Pentagon wasted more tax dollars blowing up old cars. They had such an event in Wisconsin and our band played. At "Governors Day" I asked the Governor if he got my letter about the event I attended. That was not appreciated by my Chief Warrant Officer, for real a used car salesman for his regular day job.