Several things were going through my mind that night: I had no control over what was going to happen so why worry; I might be IV-F; I was ambivalent about going because the discipline might be good for me; it might be a great!? adventure; and at 18 I was immortal and could survive anything. At no time did I seriously balance the "right" and "wrong" of the war though I leaned to the left. So I decided to play basketball.
Basketball was cool and mindless. I got back to the room where a group of about 6 of my buds were listening to the radio . No. 260 had just been called and no one could remember hearing my birthday. Around No. 320 I was getting pretty nervous that my number had already come up. However my birthday popped up at No. 341 and all was good. Not everyone wanted to hear that though.
There was some binge drinking that night and you had to step over bodies to get to the bathroom.