BROWSE STORIES

The lottery didn't mean much to me, since at the time I was going to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and was in Air Force ROTC.  Growing up in New York City I'd been pretty uptight, very conservative, and didn't really question authority.All that changed by...

I was a sophomore at UW Madison, and found out that Electrical Engineering would no longer get you a deferred job, so in mid-1971, I joined the Wisconsin National Guard.  An interesting experience, with Basic Training and truck driving AIT at Fort Ord, CA from...

I arrived home in the evening, after the lottery draw had begun.  I found my mother listening to the numbers being called on a radio. She, too had missed the beginning of the draw, so we didn't know if I had already been assigned a low number. I went to my room,...

I watched the first lottery with my floormates in Whitbeck House-Sellery Hall.  As each guy had his number called, he left the room.  This was a totally spontaneous ritual.  The networks speculated that those whose numbers were in the first third-about...

It was just a little while ago, but I was fortunate since my number was not called. I do remember some anxiety that summer on the day of the draft. I had hoped to enter ROTC as a freshman, but due to corrective glasses, I was rejected.  I believe my student...

The night of the lottery, my college roommate and I were watching it on TV. The first date drawn was his birthday -- he was No. 1. I hung on until 141, which was a problem. The purpose of the lottery was supposed to be to let you know whether you were going to be...

I was a foreign student in grad school at Wisconsin and recall lottery evening very clearly.  My date of birth came up quite late in the proceedings, and I wished I could trade with any registrant who had not been so lucky....

I was born with an abnormal left leg, and "knew" that if I were ever drafted, I'd get a physical deferment. So, I never took my II-S, and instead let myself be classified I-A. Early in 1969, Richard Nixon sent me "Greetings", and I...

I graduated from UW Madison in June 1972 and had been accepted at the UW Law School for the fall term.  I was working at a camp in the summer and came back for my Army physical in July.I started the fall semester of law school not knowing whether "they"...

I was in my 4th year of a Ph.D program at Wisconsin at that time, with a II-S deferment. My lottery number was 252. Some of my friends weren’t as lucky. One of them left for Canada, where he lives today. Another was drafted and served a tour in Vietnam,...

I don't recall my lottery number but I do remember that I was very concerned and very anti-war. In the summer of 1963 I met and fell in love with a lovely woman from Madison. We dated for eight months and decided to marry, and scheduled the wedding day for a Saturday...

I was attending a Methodist seminary but had decided that the ministry wasn't for me.  I wanted to become a city planner but knew that I would be drafted as soon as my status changed.  I had taken the Air Force OCS test just before the lottery took...

Mine is not a long story. All I remember is that I was in my fourth year in school at the University of Wisconsin. I had one more year of Pharmacy School. I had already had two friends from Pulaski High School die over there and to tell you the truth I didn't really...

In December 1969, I was a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Marathon County Center.  My study habits were poor and my grades reflected that.  When lottery number 83 was drawn for my birthday,  I felt that military service via the draft...

I remember the draft lottery in 1970.  I was a Sophomore at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a bunch of us were sitting around the TV in the fraternity house waiting for our numbers to come up.  When my number was called, 273, I kept thinking that it...

I was at the University of Maryland, considering graduate work in math or history, and my number -- which I do not remember -- made it certain I would be drafted. I volunteered instead, hopefully for the army foreign language training program (Chinese, but my friends...

In March of 1968 I dutifully signed up with the Selective Service  as all 18 year old males had to do at that time. Realizing then that there was potential to end up in the military was sobering enough.When the draft lottery came around I was a carefree student...

Forty years have passed, but that evening when the first draft lottery was held will be remembered forever.  I was a sophomore at the UW, living in one of the residence halls.  Radios throughout the floor were glued to the station carrying the lottery. ...

When plans for the lottery were announced, we were all nervous. Some of the kids in my dorm immediately filed for CO status, and their local draft boards in Wisconsin almost as quickly turned them down. Others sought medical deferments--or in some cases tried to...

I was living on Regent Street in Madison, WI as an undergrad at the UW on December 1, 1969, huddling around a radio with my five roommates listening to the drawing. I was the first one out, at number 150. Everyone else was well into the 200s, with a couple in the...

A good friend and I were at a Wisconsin basketball game the night of the lottery.  As I recall the Badgers won the game, and it wasn't until we got back to our dorm room in Ogg Hall that we learned the results of the lottery.  I entered my dorm room to...

I was a junior at the University of Wisconsin when the first draft was held.  I was living with four roommates at the time.  My number was 36, the rest of my roommates had numbers in the 200 and 300's.  I was allowed to graduate in January of...

I was in my senior year at the UW, and wound up with lottery number 17.   Then, around early December, as I recall it, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird commented that there probably would not be a draft for the first six months of 1972.  This...

I was a freshman college student at the time.  Several of us sat in a dorm room watching the lottery on an officially banned TV.  As the numbers rolled across the screen, we felt very sorry for those selected early and cheered for those selected late. ...

I was a sophmore, having transfered to Madison from what was then Oshkosh State University.  An "upstate" Wisconsin native, everything about UW-Madison was strange and wondrous.  The draft lottery was one of a...

I graduated from U. Wisconsin  with a B.S. in January of 1968 and was in premed.  I had not heard from the UW about medical school and continued to take courses with the thought of teaching if I did not get into medical school.  I received my notice to...

I was a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin in Madison when the first draft lottery was drawn. The day after the lottery we all got up to go to class and were amazed at what we saw. Whether by conspiracy or coincidence many students were walking around with their...

I recall that day in horror. I was a second year student at the now infamous University of Wisconsin, Madison campus. We were well known as one of the leading schools in the country of protesting the war. I was on my way to a basketball game, listening on the radio to...

The number didn't matter.I graduated from the Univ. of Wisconsin in 1968 and went on to the UW School of Medicine.  Graduating in 1972 and completing an internship the following year, I was 100% draft eligible and in the sights of the draft board as the...

My dominant thought when the numbers were drawn was to focus on staying in school. I always felt somehow the draft wouldn't grab me. I remember hearing of a frat boy throwing a television at the wall and others getting "fall down" drunk. 119 was a number...

Truthfully, I don't actually remember my specific lottery number, just that it was rather high (near the likely breakpoint for call-ups).  I was already a university student so my original draft status of 1-A-O granted when I turned 18 for religious objection to...

When the lottery began I was an Army Captain on extended leave from the military attending law school at the University of Florida.  As a consequence the lottery had no impact on me.  Not so my fellow law students who were in a state of panic as they saw...

I entered graduate school at UW-Madison in Fall, 1967, and was married in the summer of 1968. A wedding present from Uncle Sam was a low draft number and induction proceedings started the next year, I think. My physical didn't exclude me (Darn!) but when I went before...

I had a student deferment until the lottery was implemented.  In December of 1969 I was in my first year of law school at the University of Wisconsin.  In early 1970 the 826th Ordinance unit of the U.S. Army Reserves, headquartered in Madison, returned...

I was draft-able, I-A I think they called it, for about a year before the lottery because my grade point was not that good. I had been in ROTC for about 2 years and thought that may have been why I was not in Viet Nam. Guys younger than I were being called up near...

I took a deep breath and realized that I was home free.  I could quit school, travel the land and no longer worry about the draft.  I also realized that the lottery took the wind out of the sails of the anti-draft movement and co-opted so many who, in a...

I had a student exemption before the draft lottery. I remember being very concerned about no longer being "protected" by the student exemption and I considered my options. Getting a reasonably high enough number put an end to my concerns and tentative...

I was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1967, and unsure of a major. The Vietnam Conflict was escalating, thanks to President LBJ, and I was concerned, and more than a little frightened. I was 18, away from home, meeting new and exciting people. It didn't...

I'll never forget that number 324. The next year when the numbers they called for active duty got up to 90 pretty fast I started to worry, again.  324 saved me a fast trip to Canada from Detroit and then the plan was to go to New Zealand.  It was going...

I watched the drawing on TV with my girlfriend  The projection was that the Selective Service would get beyond 182 in 1970 but maybe not in 1971. So I rescheduled my final semester of school and got a I-S deferment and got into the 1971 pool when they...

I can remember sitting in my parents' living room, in  front of the TV, with my best friend who was my age.  We were both very anxious about the lottery and spent the time by making bad jokes about what our numbers would be and what would become of...

I was an ROTC cadet. I was not a good Army student, but was on track for getting my commission as a 2nd lieutenant. I fully expected to join the 98% who got their commission in the infantry. At that time, 2nd Lts. were forward observers, the guys who sneaked into...

In the spring of 1970 (April I think), four friends and myself gathered in an off-campus apartment to listen to the lottery drawing on the radio.  On that fateful day, while I was a junior in the College of Engineering at the University of Florida, my...

I received a high lottery number in 1970 but don't recall the exact number, except that it put me pretty much out of harm's way. What was curious is that I was classified as 4-F in 1969 and I didn't expect to be in the lottery. I got the classification after...

I was actually drafted in January of 1969 PRIOR to the lottery. I had dropped down to 12 credits at UW-Madison which, according to the draft board, made me eligible. An acquaintance of mine was a 20-year Naval Reserve vet who pulled some strings and got me in the...

I never had to get a student deferment -- I was classified 1-Y by my draft board on the basis of my terrible eyesight (they were afraid I'd shoot the general if I ever were to lose my glasses) and a history of asthma. There was great apprehension in the days leading...

We sat by a crackling radio listening to the draft lottery, which could determine the status of the rest of our lives.  The numbers moved very slowly.  We were anti-war and had participated in the student protests, some of which became violent.  It was...

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...

   When I received my undergraduate degree from UW Madison I was immediately sent my draft notice.  I decided to join the US Army reserves which was an option at that time.  I remember expecting to be sent to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for...

     In 1969 I had a student deferment since I was a full time student at Madison. My lucky number was 212, while my brother's number was in the 30's. He enlisted after college, but never went overseas. I waited to see how high the numbers would go...