I was born on June 20, 1950. At the time of the draft lottery I worked at U.S. Steel and I still do. My best friend, who is the same age as me, also worked at the mill. We always rode to work together. I remember on the night of the very first draft we were working night turn. I went over to his place early that night just to watch the lottery on tv. We were nervous as hell, to say the least. We sat there as they started the draw. My friend’s number was 35. Mine was 360, so that meant I didn’t have to go. My friend went down the following week and joined the Marines. He went to Nam and luckily came home safe. I had two other real good friends that came home dead. That’s my little story of that night.
