I managed to keep a II-S deferment until I graduated college in the summer of 1972. I received my draft notice in October ’72 and immediately applied for the Army National Guard.
The Guard could afford, at the time, to be VERY picky about who they allowed in, but my education level and test scores got me in. I did my basic training and AIT in Ft. Polk, LA during the spring of 1973. Absolutely gorgeous weather. My education level got me out of a lot of low end details; I saw a side of young American citizenry I had never experienced. That was the time when a judge could give criminals a choice: jail or armed service. Amazing differences in combined socio-economic levels when the draft is in effect. I was a degreed mechanical engineer and hung out with a degreed nuclear engineer. We had the number 10 high jumper in the world in our AIT company.
We (and the rest of the gamut through criminals) slogged rifles through the mud and fired every weapon the army had for ground pounding infantry. I chose infantry AIT just because I would probably never experience anything like that in civilian life.