I grew up and went to undergrad school (BS, 68) in Kansas where as far as my local draft board was concerned your only choices were: join the weekend warriors (National Guard), go to college for 4 years – with a C average – and then submit to the draft, shoot off a toe, get married and have a child, or get drafted. They never granted a single case of conscientious objection or allowed an education deferment beyond 4 years. In my case I became a father and got married at age 19 and thus received a 3-A deferment. While not easy to keep the family thing going through undergrad school and then four more years of graduate school at the UW (MS 70, PhD 72) I did avoid going to Canada – a trip I would most surely have taken since my draft number was No. 9.
