Of course there was a lot of interest among the male students concerning the December 1969 draft lottery drawing–the Vietnam war, although winding down, was still very much a war, and deferments were no longer available to engineering students. I wasn’t concerned because my classification was IV-A, the lowest possible. I had completed my military service obligation on active duty, including a tour in Vietnam. At that time, the service obligation was six years. I remember that eight days after completing my last night ambush patrol, I was attending classes at NC State.
Of course, a pool was started to reward the participants with the highest and lowest numbers. I wasn’t interested in contributing any of my limited cash to the pool, but I eventually yielded to peer pressure and threw in my ten bucks, under duress.
The other participants did not appreciate the irony of the drawing results–I drew No. 366 for my 08 June birthday.