BROWSE STORIES

I remember the night of the lottery well. We all gathered in the common room of the fraternity house to see what numbers would be selected for our birthdays in the lottery. I got there a few minutes late and they had already picked the first ten numbers. I asked did...

I was a student at Duke from 1966 to 1970--a very volatile period for everyone, but especially for males over the age of eighteen. Draft statuses were constantly changing, with the result that none of us who were classified II-S (student deferment) felt any security...

The night of the first lottery I was at a Duke-VPI basketball game in the Greensboro Coliseum. (Va. Tech was known as VPI in those days, as you may recall). A fellow sitting several rows below me had a transistor radio and was writing down dates and draft numbers as...

I had a lottery number of 51, which helped me make my decision to pursue a conscientious objector status, which I was able to get. I ended up (after a false start) working at the Wake County Public Library, cataloging books.The biggest impact of all this was that it...

I don't remember much except joining my fraternity brothers in the commons area and watching the drawing on TV. I really had no plan for what I'd do if drafted; I admit I simply felt lucky. Having torn up my knee the previous summer, I knew I couldn't pass any...

I was a sophomore at Duke University in 1968, a turbulent time to be sure.  My roommate had just flunked out and soon enlisted in the navy in order to avoid being drafted in to the army.I did not support the war in VietNam as it seemed to be a senseless...

That December 1969 night when the first lottery numbers were drawn was a pivotal moment in my life and that of everyone in my class.  Before that the draft was a common enemy, but afterwards everyone's attitude depended on his lottery number. Knowing I would...

I sat in the parlor of a dormitory with a group of worried males, most of us with our girlfriends, in December, 1969, to hear the numbers read out on the radio.  Next to me was a guy whose birthday came up number 1.  He rose silently and walked away (in...

I was a student at Duke Divinity School in 1969.  My lottery number was 74, a number that would have resulted in my being drafted except that my divinity school status provided me a ministerial deferment.  A fellow student made a convincing case...

Like many others, my father and uncles served in WW II. We grew up watching TV shows and movies that glorified military service, in which the good guys always won. A friend of mine and I had planned to join the Marines under the buddy system (actually false...

My lottery number was low, and I was disappointed that the draft would remain an issue for me.  I wasn't worried, however, because I was in a course of study that would lead to a teaching career.  If I could find a job, I would be eligible for an...

My number was 151 meaning that I was likely to be drafted upon graduation from Duke. I was a pre-med major (as were 50% of the males in my class) and the competition for grades was fierce and cut-throat, because medical schools were focused on your GPA as a great...

I was attending the Duke-Virginia Tech basketball game on December 1, 1969 (in Greensboro, first game of the year) with two of my roommates, John N. and Ben P. Of the three of us, two had already committed to some form of military service. I had signed up for a...

With a student deferment about to end, and with the "War Boards" behind me, I was sweating out the lottery, nearly fainting when I got No. 19.  I presumed that would mean instant boot camp; but, I was married at the time and when I graduated, I taught...

I was long conflicted about the Vietnam War. My father was a career naval officer and was actually stationed off the battle coast while I was going to Duke, class of 1970. At school I inevitably concluded that the Viet Cong were at least as legitimate a voice of...

This was the first draft and a bunch of us had gone to Greensboro to see a Duke basketball game.  We took a large portable radio (they were all large back then) so we could listen to the results.  The drawing began during the freshman game (they had freshmen...

I remember sitting around the television at the Theta Chi House at Duke.  Everyone was on edge.  What numbers would we have and what did they mean?  How far down the list would they go?  As far as we knew, they might get very far since the war was...

I was a freshman at the University of Colorado in 1963, when a close friend in the dorm flunked out at the end of the first semester. He joined the Marines and was killed in Viet Nam, all before I finished my freshman year. By the time I finished my Junior year in...

I'm glad to see someone remembers the lottery. It was a big deal at the time, especially the first one in 1969.I was a 1st-year graduate student at Duke. The lottery was in December. Evenings I would be studying in a room I shared with 4-6 other physics students in...

I received my draft notice while I was a Sophomore at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Il.  I got a deferment for one year with a letter from the Dean of Students.  When my year ended, I was informed that I had to go without further discussion...

My story is perhaps a little different, as I was a USMC Reserve Recruiter for central NC 1965 thru 1967.  I enlisted in the Marines in 1963, pre-Vietnam, and re-enlisted in 1965 when Johnson extended all of us when he landed the Marines at Da Nang. I put in for...

The draft stories rang a bell for me. As Pi Kap social chairman in December 1969, I had the bright idea for us to put up $10 apiece to watch the lottery in the tube room. Half the money bought a keg of beer and the other half was designated for the low number. Who...

I had a student deferment at Duke University when the first draft lottery took place.  It was held at 8 pm the night of a Duke home basketball game.  The administration moved up the start of the game such that the lottery occurred during the half-time,...

Number 43!  THAT was terrible news.  And I was stunned.  What would I do?  At the time I was an anti-Vietnam War organizer, a protestor who had been jailed.  I had a strong commitment which since then, thankfully, has never wavered, even...

I was sitting pretty in March 1969. Had a full scholarship offer to Oceanographic School at FSU after I finished at Duke. My planned marriage in June would give me a draft deferment. Then the bottom fell out: no more marriage deferments, or grad school either.My dad...

In my senior year at Duke I drew No. 70. So I chose to join the NC National Guard (6 year enlistment).  I was told to be ready to go to basic training in January, 1970.  Duke would not refund tuition for this voluntary obligation that took me out of school,...

I was born in 1948 and I recall being subject to the first draft lottery.  For me, however, it was not relevant.  I had previously received a IV-F classification (unfit for service) from the Omaha draft board based on a letter from my doctor.  I had and...

Senior year at Duke, for some reason the local TV stations weren't going to broadcast the lottery from the start. So we listened live on the Duke radio station for the first 30 minutes, until TV coverage started. They got to about No. 65 by then. I was...

I grew up as a military brat. At the height of the Vietnam war my dad was Surgeon for the 5th Air Force, based at Fuchu Air Station just outside of Tokyo. He was responsible for all AF hospitals along the Pacific rim: Okinawa (then still under U.S.occupation), the...

My story has no cosmic implications, and may seem trivial to others. But it's memorable to me, anyway, as someone who has now spent many decades pondering and re-re-re-pondering Vietnam, for its little bitter taste of capricious irony.Myself, I was already headed for...

December 1, 1969 was the opening game of the basketball season: Duke v. Va Tech, at the Greensboro Coliseum. Duke won, 66-63, as 4,611 of us nervously watched. The Duke team was all "white", as you may expect back then, with a 17-9 record for the season; OK,...

I married in December 1968, during my senior year at UNC, totally unaware that being married disqualified me for enlistment in the Army, Navy, and Air Force reserves.  The National Guard did enlist married men, but they had a 3 year waiting list to get in. ...

I was a graduating senior from UNC in 1969. I was engaged and the date of the wedding was set for August, 1969. As my senior year was approaching completion, I had no job (no one was hiring potential I-A's), no residence and I was about to become a husband. I...

I volunteered for the Army during my senior year at UNC in 1969 before I received my draft number. I thought I would have to go eventually, so I volunteered for a three year tour in return for enrollment in Officer Candidate School, which with Basic, Advance Infantry...

The lottery certainly complicated my life.  I was a senior at UNC, in love, and wanting to get married.  However, the uncertainty of the lottery and draft caused us to postpone our plans. When the lottery came along, and my number was relatively low, I...

I recall much conversation in 1969 amongst my peers regarding the upcoming draft lottery and our imminent loss of college deferment status. Various options, including migration to Canada were discussed. Two friends and I went so far as to make a week-long...

When I was a junior at Chapel Hill, I had already lost one high school friend who joined the Marines, stormed a machine gun nest somewhere in Vietnam, and was ripped open. By then the Marines were drafting and I knew the possibilities were growing that I too would be...

In 1969, I enrolled in graduate school for a MA and PhD. I also went for a draft physical in the spring of 1970. I received a I-Y status due to damage of the left wrist from two previous fractures. This allowed me to complete my MA and PhD during the Vietnam war...

In the spring of my senior year at the University of North Carolina (1969) I decided that I should resist the war and the draft and returned my draft card.  At that point I do not recall that I even knew of the lottery.  After graduation I entered the...

I was still at Carolina, in law school, and at my old fraternity house the night of the lottery (Pi Lambda Phi). We had a pool, for a few dollars each, that was there for the guy with the lowest number.  No. 26, I think it was, and he got the money "to buy a...

It’s been a lifelong feeling of guilt and good fortune. On that night in 1969 I camped out by the TV waiting for my number to come up. I fell asleep waiting. I woke up to a ringing phone and my sister congratulating me on pulling number 325. I drove to the...

I grew up in North Carolina and graduated from high school in 1966.  The local draft board assured me that I had four years of deferment for school, and that I could use the four years to complete undergrad school in three years and then get in one year of...

I graduated from UNC in June of 69, and embarked on the frantic quest for a National Guard slot. With my future (including law school) on hold, I decided to conduct this campaign from Charlotte (a summer job) and then back in Chapel Hill during the fall. I must have...

I was never an opponent of the war except as it pertained to me going. After delaying my physical for months I had been cleared for service.  And wow, they instituted the lottery and suspended additional inductions, me included. I remember watching the...

   I went to college at UNC in 1965 immediately following high school and thus was granted an education deferral until I approached graduation in 1969.  In the spring of 1969, before I had even graduated, I was called to get a preinduction...

In the fall of 1965, when I entered UNC as a freshman, I was a Goldwater conservative. I basically accepted and spouted the politics of my small-town upbringing. I joined the Young Republican Club and the Air Force ROTC at Carolina. But the anti-war spirit at Carolina...

I was No. 119 in the lottery, and my best friend was No. 122.  In its December 10th meeting the local draft board called numbers through 110 and announced that anyone with numbers up to about 125 should be prepared to be called by year-end.  So we knew we...

I was classified as I-A because I took a semester off to work.  When I got back to Carolina, I was still I-A because my student deferment had not yet been reinstated.  I was called up and went for a physical somewhere—I can’t remember where...

While my draft number was not particularly high, I was destined to be a public school teacher anyway.  In 1969 there was a teacher shortage and deferments were given.  I was momentarily reclassified 1-A after my first year as a teacher, but the school...

My lottery story is really not a lottery story at all, but one of irony and bad timing. My birthday came up No. 363, so it would seem that I was not going to be drafted. Technically, that is true. The technicality is that I had entered active duty in the US Army...