I joined a Naval Reserve Officer program because of my low draft number. In ’69, anything below No. 125 was a certainty to be called. Even though I still had my student deferment and would probably keep it until May of ’72 when I graduated, you could not count on how many draftees were going to be needed when you became eligible for the draft. An officer position seemed a better choice than an Army draftee.
I ended up on active duty for 3 years at a desk job in DC where I met my current wife. I stayed in the Navy (reserves) for a total of 26 years, made Commander and will start drawing retirement pay next year. Oh yeah, and the GI Bill and my Reserve pay helped pay for my graduate work at Virginia Tech.