The funny thing about the whole lottery process is that I was going to join the Navy when I completed high school and use the GI bill to attend college just like my father had for WWII. But my parents talked me into going straight to college from high school, since the war was so active in 1966.
I received orders to report for my physical the day AFTER I was to report for college. I checked with my draft board to see why I had received these orders and found out the administrator had misplaced my acceptance letter. I quickly provided her with another copy.
When my birth date – Jan 17 – was drawn, it was number 235. I remember how happy I was at the time with the realization that they would never go that high from the initial draft lottery. So as it turned out I never did join the military even though I had originally planned to join right out of high school. To this date I still regret never having that experience…if the war just hadn’t been so bad at that time.