My fraternity brothers and I listened to the first lottery on the radio. The reception was so poor, I had to listen to the recap to finally hear what number I was. I thought I had missed it. The people with low numbers left that night for Wichita, Topeka or Kansas City so they could sign up for the reserves the next day. I listened to most of the recap by myself because my number was so high. I called my parents the next morning and thanked them for my birth date of Feb. 26th.
At the time I was thrilled, but I have always had regrets that I did not serve my country.