BROWSE STORIES

I finished at the University of Georgia in December 1969.  I remember the night of the draft lottery and the wild time after.  Some were celebrating and some were drowning their sorrow.  I remember that many guys in ROTC had high numbers and were...

I grew up in the Atlanta area and graduated from Marist, a private Catholic military high school at the time. The grades were, frankly, average but I was expected to attend college, any college, to have a chance at success in business and life in general.I enrolled at...

I had number 37 drawn for me, but I had a student deferment as I was in college. I graduated from college December 1970. Got my notice for my physical the latter part of January--they said to bring my suitcase because when I passed the physical I was going...

I was born January 5, 1953, but according to my dad I was supposed to be born earlier. My folks told me that in late December 1952, my dad took my mom out for a drive on a very rough and bumpy dirt road in an attempt to start labor. I didn't budge, and waited until...

My story actually begins in the fall of 1965.  After graduating high school in 1964 and attending UK School of Architecture for one year, not applying myself at school, flunking out, then sitting out the fall semester of 1965, I was then drafted into...

I was in a college town when the lottery was held.  I saw the numbers listed on an Associated Press teletype that had been set up in a downtown storefront.  Fortunately, the store was next to a college bar which soon had an overflowing crowd.  I kept my...

The lottery changed my life forever. In 1969 I was a senior in high school and the Vietnam War was very hot. The neighborhood hero was an Air Force pilot who was shot down and killed over North Vietnam. My girlfriend's only brother stepped on a mine and was killed....

Although I now live in England, I lived in Buffalo, NY, USA throughout the Vietnam War.  I was never sorry that I got out of going to war with a high number, 358.  I have composed lyrics to "I'll Be Home For Christmas" for those who got exempted...

I very well remember the lottery. I had a number in the lowest 3rd, which we were told would guarantee being drafted. I was in my senior year at UGA, with one quarter remaining until graduation in 1970. I was scheduled to finish classes in December of 1969....

I was a junior in college when my number was drawn. I was scheduled to graduate in May, 1970. I figured I would be drafted by November 1970, so I "volunteed" for the draft and went into the service in June 1970. I entered the Army as a college graduate,...

I was in AFROTC when my number was chosen and I thought it funny at the time that my number was so high and I actually wanted to get into the Air Force as soon as possible so I could learn to fly.  My goal was to fly a fighter and get to Viet Nam, while most of...

I was a 1965 high school graduate scheduled for college graduation in 1969. Those times were very stressful if you were "in the zone" of draft eligibility. The main source of stress for many of us was the uncertainty of it all (before the lottery)....

I was in my last senior semester, in the fall of 1969, and was sweating bullets as I had a I-A classification. There were several of us (seniors in CE) in the same circumstances. On the night of the first draft lottery announcement we all were on pins and...

I graduated from UK in 1969 and accepted a position with Saginaw Steering Gear Division of General Motors. But then I was drafted in the last group prior to the lottery of December 1969, volunteered for Officer Candidate School before my November 10...

My college grades were below the 2.00 GPA required to maintain a student deferment in 1966.  A friend of the family who sat on the local Draft Board told my mother that I was almost guaranteed to be drafted.  I figured that if I got into ROTC, it would...

I was number ONE in the draft lottery. I was to graduate in December, 1969shortly after the lottery. Word can down that we could get a one year deferment by going to graduate school. I found money for a fellowship and started graduate school. I planned on trying to...

I will never forget the day after the lottery dates were drawn. I missed them in the evening news so all of the draft eligible recent college graduates in my department (engineering) gathered around the newspaper in the conference room the next morning. I looked...

After graduating from high school in 1962 I got a job in a warehouse.  I had no intention of going to college, but after working for a year I began to understand the value of a college education.  The company I worked for had a tuition re-imbursement plan so...

I received a notice in the mail at my dorm room to report to the Selective Service office for a physical, at 6:00 in the morning in late February. I was in my last semester of college and would graduate in May. I went to the draft office a few days before and...

I remember vividly the draft lottery that took place during those years immediately after graduating from UK. I had several draft designations on my selective service card during that time. I started with a II-S as a student, then went into a I-A for a while,...

In 1968 I took a summer job at a Naval Shipyard. After graduating in December 1969 I returned to that job full-time. My job often involved working on nuclear submarines so I was readily granted deferrals. After being deferred several years the draft board asked...

My father was a career Army officer.  I had polio in Puerto Rico in 1951 at age 4.  When I turned 18 I went to the draft board for my physical and was declared IV-F due to the polio.When the draft came up in 1969, I was a senior at the University of...

My father was a WWII B-17 pilot and POW, and my father-in-law had been an Army officer who spent 3 years in the Pacific theater. I grew up with a strong belief that military service was one of the obligations of citizenship.  I wanted to fly and...

My birthday is January 14, 1950 (No. 238). I was put on status 1-H after reporting to the San Antonio, Texas induction center in February, 1970. I was a dependent of an Air Force officer for 20 years and lived on bases all my life up to that point, including France....

My lottery number was 21. I had left Pa. looking for work and my draft notice followed me out to Chicago. The draft center there looked like it had been revived from WW I. As we walked in there were people outside yelling for us to burn our draft cards. Someone was...

I was a student/athlete at UK loving my new-found independence and doing what I loved the most, playing football.  I was home in Atlanta for Christmas break when the first lottery was televised in 1969.  My friends from high school and I were sitting around...

The number 256 has been very much a part of me since it was drawn for March 23 in the 1969 lottery. I was very much opposed to the war and I was seriously considering going to Canada if I was going to be drafted. Needless to say I was very lucky and life carried on as...

Hanging around the fraternity house drinking beer one night in the fall of 1969 when the numbers came out. Not thrilled with No. 89 but was sure it wouldn't be an issue.Fast forward to spring of 1971 and graduation was coming up and war was still going...

We listened to the lottery results on my roommate's radio in his car that night. I got No. 200 and he had over 300. With that number, everything was still up in the air for me--I did not know where I stood. I was then a junior at UNC, Chapel Hill. In my senior year I...

I had filed with the local draft board all the documentation needed (I thought) to be classified as a conscientious objector.  Although there was plenty of background information and references, they never ruled on it.   I did then get a notice to go...

When I was eighteen, during my first semester at UK, I registered for the draft like everyone else. Within six months, I petitioned the draft board to have my draft status changed to I-O, conscientious objector, based on my religious beliefs generally and...

I was a senior at Transylvania University in Lexington in 1969 when the first draft lottery was held. All of our fraternity watched the drawing on TV. I remember that two brothers sitting next to each other got No. 1 and No. 366.I had No. 111 and I knew that my...

I started on a Design Apprenticeship at GE Jet engine division in October, 1968.  While on this program I still had a II-S student deferment  After the 1969 lottery with 19 as a lucky number, I wasn't really big on the idea of getting...

I remember not staying up for the lottery and going to bed instead.  I felt that my student deferment was still going to take care of me for the next three years. I was living in a dorm at UK. The next morning my next door neighbor was pounding on...

We were all gathered in the TV room of Kirwan Tower on the University of Kentucky campus to watch the draft lottery. A roommate drew a number in the low 30s, and soon joined ROTC to stay at UK. My number was 171, right in the middle range. At the time I was a writer...

I was born in 1952 and my lottery year was 1971.  Back then I was pretty much directionless. I flunked out of college in 1971 and was employed in a series of dead-end jobs.  I was no fan of the war (who was?) but I lacked the initiative to try to evade the...

in 1970, Illinois was significantly behind the national average in supplying draftees.  My draft board offered some encouragement that I would not be called despite having a mid-range  draft number (183).    In August, however, the Selective...

I was a student at Emory University when the lottery took place. It was my sophomore year in the fall of ’69. I was sitting in the TV room at the fraternity house (Delta Tau Delta) along with several of my brothers and remember watching...

I was No. 121 in the lottery, for which I won an all-expense paid trip to Ft. Knox, KY. At the completion of AIT and about to be sent to an even better vacation spot in Southeast Asia, President Nixon stopped sending troops to the 'Nam. I saw the last contingent...

I was in first year at UK Law School on Dec 1, 1969. The draft lottery did not affect me. When I graduated from undergraduate school at UK with a political science BA in May 1969, I was also sworn in as a 2d Lt in the U.S. Army as an ROTC graduate. I received my...

I was studying as a PoliSci/History major (with a II-S deferment) at the U of KY in 1969 and ready to graduate and head on to Law School the following year. The threat of the war and actually going there was foremost on my mind. I was going to SDS meetings and...

WTF! 50?!  Just as well, I was just whoring around much of my freshman year in college.  End up a daddy if something didn't happen.  Scared?  You bet.  I watched the news.  Saw the body counts.  So, I went in the Air Force on the...

The only good thing for me regarding the 1969 draft lottery was it forced me to graduate in four years.  In order to keep our II-S deferment we were required to make satisfactory progress to complete a degree, i.e. 25%, 50%, 75%, and completion.  It required...

I married right out of high school, but by 1969 this merited no special draft status or deferment. I recall that this first draft lottery (of my generation) was actually a reinstatement of the lottery system used in WW II. The 1969 lottery was televised live. My wife...

I was at a UK basketball game that night and when we returned to our fraternity house (Lambda Chi Alpha) there was a list on the bulletin board that showed the results of the first lottery, listed from #1 to #365.One of my fraternity brothers saw his birthday at #1...

I was part of the generation of college men who "sweated" through the first lottery experience. I was with a group of other non-fraternity UK college guys who met at an apartment that evening, with plenty of beer, liquor, and spaghetti, glued to the TV...

I was in my fifth year of college when the first draft lottery occurred in December, 1969. I followed the lottery on local television in Toledo. There was no continuous coverage, just a few numbers mentioned at commercial breaks. So it wasn't until the 11 p.m....

I was due to be drafted when I flunked out of Colby college in 1969 and was certified I-A and given an induction date. Between that date and the date of my induction, they changed over to the lottery system and I drew a number of 275, which meant I was way down the...

I tried half-heartedly to get out of the draft in the 1966 and 1967, my senior year in college. I applied to join the Peace Corps. Turned out there were more applicants in 1966 than in any other year in the Peace Corps' history. I didn't get in. I applied to Air Force...

I remember it like it was yesterday.  About 40 young men all crowded into the Television Room of the Sigma Chi Fraternity House on the campus of the University of Kentucky in Lexington.  I really can't remember the month ... just the moment.  As...