I remember this as if it was yesterday. I went to my favorite watering hole in Athens, GA to watch the first ever lottery while enjoying $.25 pitchers. The only problem was, I did not get there until they were already on number 11. As I watched the numbers go by and as my number never came up, I started feeling better and better. Half-way through the lottery, they began to run the numbers that were previously pulled. I cannot tell you how I felt when I discovered that my excitement was premature. My birthdate was actually pulled as number 7 before I arrived on the scene.
The good thing, if there was one, is that I knew what to do. Unlike people that were number 180 and above, I knew that I would be drafted if I did not take certain steps. I immediately signed up for the Army Reserves and "served my country" in this capacity. In those days, the reserves were mostly a joke of a fighting unit and they were never sent into combat.