BROWSE STORIES

Because of wrangling in Congress, the 1971 lottery drawing was delayed until August, which created a fairly highly anxious summer for those of us who graduated high school in 1971. I had already enrolled at the University of Michigan, and with lottery number 6, I knew...

With a lottery number of 88, I knew I would be drafted. I had a choice, I could be a guy picking up cigarette butts during police call... or I could be a guy watching other guys picking up cigarette butts... a student deferment (I-S) would only get me through the end...

I listed 188 as my lottery number based on charts available online. But my hazy recollection from when I was 18 is a bit different from what I find online. According to online resources, my draft lottery would have been in 1971 for men born in 1952. But by 1971 I was...

Well, what can I say? I got 296. Since the highest it went in 1970 was 195, I lucked-out. But, it got two thirds of the way to my supposedly great number. I didn't rely on luck. I did a foreign studies program in Canada. Just to hedge my bets. My old man got drafted...

I was a senior at Duke University, already accepted to medical school when the draft occurred. We had 100 residents in my dorm who contributed $1 each for the lottery, with the lowest (first) birthday number drawn winning. I won the $100, and the next day went to the...

We three brothers were watching the lottery on TV in our family room in Dallas. I was the oldest, then Danny and Ronnie. Danny got # 11 and Ron and I teased him. I got # 31. Ron teased me. Over an hour later Ron got # 342. He told us I am never going! Danny joined the...

I was a senior at the Y, in Provo, Utah, married, with one child. When I lost my 2-S deferment, by aging out, I had to do the Draft physical, which I passed, and I got notice that I could expect to be drafted very soon, based on age. When the induction notice came, I...

I can remember the dorm room #107 I was sitting in at Winona State College my Freshman year with 2 guys I went to high school with and my room mate from Wisconsin. We were all listening to the lottery numbers called for each of our birthdays. My high school friend had...

For years I thought my number was 246. I recently checked and it was actually 104. The highest number drawn that year was 95. I was my parents' only child, about to be a college sophomore, and there was a sense the war might be coming to an end. Nonetheless, I don't...

Drafted and spit on in an airport. .....today's Army personnel have no idea how good they have it.

In 1969, I totally opposed the Vietnam War but I was #41 in the draft lottery. I was at UCLA so I had a 2-S student deferment but once I graduated I would be reclassified 1-A and drafted. I went to free draft counseling at Papa Bach Bookstore (deep gratitude to the...

I have no memory of the lottery drawing, but I guess I watched the event with my dorm mates. I was raised in a pacifist Protestant denomination and had no difficulty achieving conscientious objector (CO) status. COs with the I-O classification were required to perform...

I'll never forget that day, listening to the numbers being pulled that would determine my future. I was a senior at Penn State and a bunch of us were hovered over the radio holding our breath as each number was pulled. It seemed so surreal. After hearing my number...

Attended University of Toledo. Graduated with an Associate Degree in 1970. Moved to Michigan 1971 with the company I worked. In August of 1971 my father had a letter from SS and I told him to open it. I had to report to GreyHound Bus Station in Toledo at 6 am on...

In the spring of 1969, I had received four years of student deferments, and expected to be immediately drafted. But I needed to stay in school for the upcoming fall semester to graduate. At this time, I heard a rumor that the Selective Service would not count those...

After high school in 1969, I was footloose and lucky, not getting drafted. In 1970 I got serious, started college and got deferments. Then came the lottery, a lousy number, and the removal of the college deferment. I went for the physical, passing of course. It...

My father served in the US Coast Guard during World War II. My grandfather was an Army soldier who was stationed in France during much of World War I. A few months before the first draft lottery, held midway through my senior year in college, Gramps told me, “I’d cut...

I had graduated college in May, 1969 and worked construction all summer in Chicago. I applied for both Navy and Air Force OCS to fly jets that summer, but did not get accepted. The local army recruiter said I could become a warrant officer flying choppers, but I knew...

I received a pre-induction letter from the local SSS. It was 1973 and I was very aware about the casualties of the Vietnam war. I along with about 30 other 19-yr- old males had to gather at the armory in Kalamazoo, MI. We sat there waiting until 2 cars rolled up, and...

I was a senior at Southern Illinois University and was preparing to watch the lottery on TV that December night when a friend called and said 'you're number 4". I was shocked because I did not see it on TV. I learned later that TV airing was delayed. In any case, I...

I graduated from high school in May, 71. I enrolled in junior college but soon dropped out and hung with gang members and friends in Chicago. Received draft notice late 1971. Enlisted USMC Feb. 1972. In late 1972 I was temporarily assigned to Bien Hoa, Vietnam, MAG...

I was in Air Force boot camp when I received my draft notice. Glad I enlisted as I didn't want to sleep in a fox hole in the jungle.

I was in my final year of college when the 1969 draft was conducted. I don’t have memory if it, but I assume I watched the event with my dorm-mates. I was raised in a pacifist Protestant denomination and had no difficulty attaining conscientious objector (CO) status....

I graduated from high school in 1966 and took a job as a janitor for a public school in Michigan. The school arranged for me, and several others, to receive a job deferment. The purpose of the deferment was to benefit the school by retaining employees at a minimum...

I entered college in September 1969, and got a deferment to attend college. Later I graduated from Texas A and M and lost my deferment. I graduated in May 1973 and the war stopped in August, 1973 so I was not called. Meanwhile, I had signed a contract with the Marine...

I tell anyone who asks where I was during the Vietnam war, that I wanted to beat the draft and I also didn't want to sweat out being called up for years. I joined the Marine Corps at age 16 with my parents' consent, arrived for boot camp on my 17th birthday. Proud to...

I was drafted in early winter of 1972 (lottery numbers came on tv right after the Mannix detective show). I was 18. I was ordered to go to the federal building in downtown Cleveland, Ohio the following Monday. This I did. Upon arrival I was given a physical, after...

When the number was called, my mom freaked out. My older sister fell apart. Having just turned 18, I wasn't sure what the fuss was all about. Then a friend told me. OMG I thought, I'm gone for sure. I got the letter telling me to report to St. Louis for a draft...

We had a small party on the day of the draft and I drew number 65. Out of the group of maybe 6 one other guy had a low number and he ended up going into the Army Reserves because he was married with a baby on the way. I talked to a recruiter with a couple of my...

Bearing in mind that as it's been nearly 50 years, and as I kept no written record of the details of my experience with the draft, what I recount below is accurate to the best of my knowledge. When I registered for the draft in 1966, my draft board was located in...

I got a two-year deferment for school then dropped out in 1969 when I was 21. Although I passed my draft physical when I turned 18, I had to take another one when I was facing the draft in the summer of 1969. For some crazy reason that I still don't understand, I...

My number came up in what became the final year of the draft lottery, although we didn't know it at the time. A friend had been drafted in the previous year. His number was 38. Mine was 50, and it looked as if I'd have to go. They rounded up a bunch of us from my...

I received a letter at my parents' house. I had just traveled that summer to surf in southern California. I called home from a pay phone and my mom read the letter from USAF asking me to join. The letter explained that if I were to enroll in college and hold a "C" or...

After seeing a couple of my friends go to Canada to avoid the draft and several others comb the country for open spots in any military reserve unit, I considered doing the same, but decided to take my chances. Although declared I-A and expecting to be drafted, I was...

I remember watching the lottery in the rec room of my college along with many other guys. The mood was quiet and somber. The number of people grew smaller as the numbers were drawn. I stayed longer than most as my number was 247. This number meant that I probably...

I finished high school in 1969 and immediately started college. That fall was the first draft lottery. I remember before finding out my number all of the activity on campus. Guys we're hanging bannners out their dorm windows saying things like "Goodby cruel world" or...

I came from a small town in north central Wisconsin. When I was drafted by my country I felt it was my duty to go. I went for my physical in Milwaukee. One month later I was in the Army, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Next Fort Polk, Louisiana. Next to NCO School in Fort...

“Greetings,” the letter began. I'd gotten it in the mail in September, 1969. I'd known it was coming, but that didn't make it any less horrifying. It felt like an advanced notice of my upcoming death. I'd graduated with a B.A. In English Lit from the University of...

I graduated the J School in 1969 and was drafted in September. By December I was in Advanced Infantry Training. So the lottery did me no good. But I had a patron and was bought out of the infantry and sent to Ft. Sheridan Chicago 5th Army HQ for my first duty...

When I was a junior at the University of Missouri School of Medicine (Class of '69), I joined the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in 1968, a year before graduation. Serving in the USPHS is basically the same as serving in the Army, Navy or Air Force, except no...

December 1, 1969 -- My 21st birthday, my first legal drink as a college senior, my future determined. It was quite a night at the 71 Club Bar in Turtle River, Minnesota, 10 miles north of Bemidji State College in Bemidji, Minnesota. The evening was progressing nicely...

I graduated from Mizzou in August 1969, got my draft notice in September 1969 and was drafted on October 8,1969. The lottery came out when I was in Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood. I had a high number---but I'm a Vietnam Veteran---enough said.

I saw the "writing on the wall" early on as I began my college years at Mizzou. I thought it was going to be a certainty that I was called to serve, as my father was before me, so I decided to make my time in the service as good as possible. To me, that meant being an...

I had already been drafted out of graduate school, entering service Oct. 14, 1969, near the end of the pre-lottery draft. On Dec. 1, 1969, when the first drawing was held (after being announced Nov. 26, 1969) I probably was nearing the end of basic training in Fort...

I graduated in May 1969 with a B.S. in chemistry and was immediately re-classified as I-A. The September day that I moved my clothes into my room at Mizzou for graduate school, I received my induction notice. I was inducted in early October before the lottery in...

In the fall of '69 it was not uncommon for young men like me to enroll in law school in the hope such a move would keep us out of the draft. I didn't really want to study law, but it was certainly a good alternative to going to Vietnam. I received a full scholarship...

I was a journalism student at the University of Missouri. Thanks to a few “quirks of fate,” the draft lottery was essentially irrelevant to me. In 1968, I learned that I was going to be reclassified as 1-A in the draft system because I was five hours “behind” my...

I was not looking forward to military service during the Viet Nam war. In the fall of 1968 I applied for the USAF officer training school (OTS) and met all of their qualifications, but the USAF recruiting system lost all of my paperwork. I was offered the opportunity...

I was at a Missouri basketball game when, at halftime, they announced the dates/numbers for the first drawing. I was married and had graduated that spring and immediately started that summer on my MBA. Like many others, I had put my name on the waiting list at...

One month after graduation from Mizzou in May 1969 I received my draft notice, ordered to report for induction at the end of September. Two days after my draft notice I got my acceptance letter from the Peace Corps. Had I gotten the Peace Corps letter before my draft...