In 1969, I had applied to, and been accepted for, Air Force ROTC. But, I knew it was unlikely I would get pilot opportunities because of vision. I received the acceptance letter before the lottery, with a deadline for acceptance of the slot falling after the lottery date. Like many others, I watched TV that evening with anxiety, not so much because of my situation but because of friends’ birthdates. My birthdate number came up 362. After a lot of deliberation, I declined the AF ROTC slot, and never served in the military. That decision is probably the single biggest regret of my life. A little more than 30 years later, my son, a freshman at NC State, enlisted in the Army on 10 Sep 2001. He was airborne infantry based at Ft. Bragg, when he suffered a training injury that kept him from deploying to Kuwait at the start of the war in 2003, and ultimately led him to a medical discharge. He was profoundly disappointed by not being able to deploy. I told him–at least he volunteered.
