I attended UW-Milwaukee from 1965 to 1969 and then transferred to UW-Madison Law School in the summer of 1969. I had been "protected" by a II-S deferment for my undergraduate years but sometime in 1968, I recall, the undersgraduate student deferment was ended and would apply only to graduate students. I got married in 1968 and then obtained a III-A deferment. Nonetheless, I remember being summoned to the Milwaukee Selective Service office for an induction physical in early 1969. I was deemed draft-ready. By mid-1969, both the student and family deferments were being phased out and I fully expected to be pulled out of law school and drafted. I reseached conscientious objector status and various other options. At around that time, a good friend, Mark, enlisted in the Navy as a medic (conscientious objector) rather than face the threatened Army draft. He went to Vietnam but saved lives instead of taking them. In my first semester at law school, the lottery was announced and I assumed that might be my only saving grace. I hit the only jackpot in my life (either before or since) when I came up 294. I finished law school in 1972 as the Nixon world was collapsing. I cannot conceive of what my future would have brought if my lucky number was not picked — neither could my now three children. What a way to run the world!
