My lottery number was 31 and I had to go through some real changes to get out of the draft. I hired a draft attorney named Michael P. His first suggestion, since my dad died in January 1971, was to try to get me out by having my mother declared dependent on her eldest son. The local draft board, which included an old high school teacher of mine, and my high school principal, voted that down 5-0.
The attorney then asked me if I had ever needed braces. I did recall once getting a diagnosis of a slight overbite, and he referred me to an orthodontist in San Francisco. The orthodontist agreed that I did have a slight overbite and he would put braces on my teeth, but he could not do so in time for my draft physical. I asked the attorney what to do and he said I should write the draft board saying I could not attend the physical but would like to be rescheduled. I did do that but was not prepared for what happened next. I was living in Berkeley at the time and working in Oakland. When I got home from work one day, there was a note from an FBI agent who had visited my home. This caused me to move from where I was living to my brother’s apartment in another section of Berkeley. In any case, I did get my braces for the second physical and was rejected according to plan. I hated wearing braces at age 24 and had them removed before the recommended three years, and moved back to Los Angeles.
