BROWSE STORIES

It is a great question that takes you down into the time tunnel. As a junior in 1969 there was a high level of awareness and anxiety about the war. As an NROTC student I was keenly aware of what lay ahead. I had joined the unit as a freshman, knowing that a Navy...

I remember when the lottery was first announced, and hearing the results. My brother and I both got high numbers - mine was 273, his was 324. There was also a pool in our dorm at UNC, and the 'winner' - the guy with the lowest number - won the pot. The winner had #1...

As an undergraduate at UNC, I was a partial scholarship baseball player during the 1966-68 seasons. I was quite poor and since I started on the Varsity Baseball Team during the 1968 season, I asked coach Rabb for more scholarship money. Since there was none, I...

I was a junior at the University of North Carolina when the first lottery came along.  I was opposed to the war and I was worried about what would happen when I graduated.  The war was getting bigger and more people were being drafted.  I had been in...

"If you are one of the thousands of men who escaped the draft in the lottery years, we want to hear from you." Who escaped?? Well, hooray for you.I was number 1 (September 14, 1948) in the first draft lottery. I wasn't even watching the nationally televised...

I was finally drafted in Sept. 1969 (after a year of avoidance due to a problem ankle but by then they would take anyone). It was impossible to get into the nat'l guard or the reserves. The navy and air force had waiting lists to get in. At the induction...

At the time of the draft, I was a senior at UNC and planning to get married and go to graduate school after graduation.  I had mixed emotions about the war, but would have served if I had been unlucky with the lottery.  My friends and I were all sweating the...

I graduated from high school in 1966 at the age of 16.  Entered UNC that fall and flunked out by the following autumn. After two years of junior college during which I held a 1A draft status, I was in the first lottery in the fall of 1969 while at Western...

I was going to go.  Although I couldn't see myself actually using a rifle.  My father was an Army paratrooper during the Korean War and had a career in the Air Force afterward.  He met my mom in 1951 - in Japan.  My mother was definitely...

My initial experience with the Selective Service dates to May 1966 when I registered shortly after turning 18.  New York, where I lived at the time, provided a strong motive for getting a draft card:  it was one of the best ways to prove...

On the night of the lottery, we gathered in front of the TV at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house on Cameron Avenue. We had all chipped in for a "fifth" of whiskey and had set it on top of the television set; it was to be awarded to the first person...

I was a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill when the first draft was held.  I was already classified 4-F due to a football injury in high school.  My birthday (November 5) was #310 in the draft, so I was exempt from the draft for two reasons.  I don't recall...

Although my birth date is 1948, I was already drafted and serving by the time of the first lottery. I was drafted and ordered to service on May 21, 1969. I have been told the May 1969 draft call was the month of the largest draft in U.S history. It was a few months...

The night of the 1969 draft lottery, about a half dozen of my college friends in Avery Dormitory at UNC-Chapel Hill gathered in one room to watch the lottery on television. All of us would be subject to the outcome of this draft. Perhaps it was a premonition that...

Well I sure remember those formative days of my life as well. I too was eligible for the 69 draft lottery. I got a middle third number 174. I knew my chances were good of getting taken against my will, being humiliated and dehumanized and inducted into a military...

I remember listening to the radio broadcast of the 1969 draft lottery with my college roomate. Graduation was approaching for both of us, and the end of student deferment. The lottery would determine if life after college required a risky two-year tour in Southeast...