There was no draft lottery in 1965 when I graduated from Cal. I had a II-S student deferment for law school, and was slugging it out in my first year at UCLA School of Law.
In October, 1965 my draft board reclassified me I-A and sent me a notice to take a pre-induction physical. I called my draft board in Lynwood and discussed the situation. They told me the draft board was short on its quota and that I would get orders to report for boot camp about the end of the year. They were definite that I couldn’t delay induction before the end of my first year of law school. I called my Navy recruiter, and signed up for Navy OCS. The Navy let me finish the first year of law school before I had to report for duty in June, 1966.
I served four years in the Navy, two years of which were aboard the USS Ingersoll, DD652. We shot 500 rounds of 5" ammunition during the latter months of 1968 off the coast of the I Corps area and off the coast of North Vietnam. We sank about thirty sampans loaded with VC troops and ammunition. I think we saved lives of Americans in I Corps Area.
I didn’t have a lottery number per se, but some draft boards extended student deferments, and some didn’t. That was a lottery, too.