I had a student deferment at Duke University when the first draft lottery took place. It was held at 8 pm the night of a Duke home basketball game. The administration moved up the start of the game such that the lottery occurred during the half-time, and they played the draft live on the radio over the loud speaker system. You could here a pin drop in the stadium, throughout the entire broadcast. Occasionally there would be a groan from somewhere in the stadium, but other than that it was eerie silence. When my number, 28, was announced I knew my life had changed.
I decided to sign up as an officer in the Air Force, and was granted time to complete my degree (June, 1970). Within days after graduation my draft board notified me that I had been drafted into the army. I sent them a letter telling them I was going to OTS in the Air Force in July, but they seemed to ingore that. I was told to report to the Army immediately, but I ignored that notice.
In August, while at Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, NC, in OTS training, I was ordered to the Base Commander’s office. The Base Commander, a Colonel, told me that there were two men outside his office with instructions to arrest me for draft dodging, but he had told them he would not let me off the base. Later, he managed to straighten out the draft board, since I was by then already in a different branch of the service.