BROWSE STORIES

I received my undergraduate degree from Ohio State in December, 1967. When I called my draft board in Butler County, Ohio, they advised me that I was number one on its list, as my college deferment had ended. I decided to enlist and did so in...

I lived in a house on Transylvania Avenue with 5 other guys.  On the night of the drawing I went over to the School of Journalism to see the lottery results with a friend.  My number came up 15 and I knew that serving my country was ahead for me. A...

I had watched the Vietnam war unfold since 1965 when my uncle headed to Vietnam with the 3rd Marine division. He ended up in Danang, a strange name I'd never heard of before, but I guess that's the nature of any war, even today. I was just entering high school in 1965...

The night of the first lottery I was with a gal pal in Shawnee Town south of campus, babysitting for some married friends of hers. We poured some drinks from the bottle of whiskey I had brought along and turned on the tube to watch the drawing. My birthdate is...

The prospect of being called to Viet Nam was a sobering one. Like many of my colleagues, I felt the war was a waste of lives with no legitimate goal in sight, and I felt genuine sorrow for those who were called.  I was fortunate to have a student deferment,...

John and I met in a summer school class at UK during the summer of 1969.  John was finishing his studies at UK and had been accepted into the Peace Corps program.  Although John was scheduled to leave for his Peace Corps assignment in Liberia, we began a...

I received my lottery number of 184 from the first lottery drawing in 1969, but I had a deferment since I was then a full-time student at the University of Kentucky, where I played football.  When I graduated in '71, I lost my deferment. ...

I remember how I felt when I first heard about a draft lottery.  I had never been very lucky in my life. In fact I don't ever recall winning anything before the lottery came into existence.  When the magical night came to pass, me and several of my...

I remember watching the lottery broadcast in my apartment with Ron, one of my best friends from college.  This was the first year that we lived off campus, in efficiency apartments at Midtowne Terrace.  The previous summer the two of us had even gone...

I was sitting in the Engineering building, alone, next to a wall, doing homework.  The lottery was being broadcast on TV and I was watching when my birthday and number were called.  I had heard them say that probably no one with a...

I was dating a young lady in one of the sororities and was in the AGD house on the night of the lottery. I heard my draft number come over the radio as the girls had the radio on and it played into the intercom system.  My number was 357.  I was...

My student deferment ran out in 1970, when I was immediatly classified I-A and received  instructions to report for an induction physical.  I went immediatly to the Army enlistment office and signed on for a program called Warrant Officer Flight.  I...

My part of the story starts in Chicago although my heart was in Kentucky.  The lottery occurred two days after I married the love of my life.  I was in my fraternity house at Northwestern and my wife was in the dorm at Kentucky.  We had not talked about...

My deferrment as a UK student was up in May of 1971 and I received a "Greetings" letter from the draft board about a week prior to the end of that semester. I had to report to their office in Lexington early one morning and board a bus with about 40...

I was enrolled in ROTC at Kentucky, getting ready to sign up for the advanced program with a 6 year active duty commitment.  I sure could use the $50 a month it would pay me during my junior and senior years!  I figured I was going into the military as...

I remember very clearly the night of the first lottery.  I was out drinking beer with a few friends and when I arrived back to my apartment my mother called and told me that my number was 362.  She was very excited that I would not have to go to the...

I truly enjoyed my experience in graduate school at UK. Great teachers, wonderful basketball games, and lots of research papers for this English major. Working part-time at Kennedy's bookstore was a plus, financially and socially. It was about the only social life I...

I entered UK in Civil Engineering in September, 1965, and also enrolled in Air Force ROTC. My plans were to become a pilot in the Air Force, then begin a business career. However after two years in the College of Engineering, I decided to change majors and enter the...

I was attending the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy in 1970.  My lottery draft number was 125; my draft board was in Lexington.  It was my last year of college, as I was about to finish a 5-year professional program, and my wife was...

In 1961 I was in high school at St. Joe Prep, Bardstown, Ky. Our team was playing football against Old Kentucky Home. I was covering a punt and another player rolled on my right arm, breaking my arm and dislocating my elbow. I rehabbed it but did not regain full range...

I had arrived at UK as a pretty typical Louisville boozy redneck. I left as a stoned long-haired freak. (The value of education?) Actually I have always considered pot to have been my salvation from alcohol, as after a time I got real bored with being stoned and have...

I was in the midst of my final year at UK with graduation coming in May. The war was escalating and yet there was very little anti-war sentiment on the campus at that time, much different from places like Madison, Wisconsin. Nonetheless, I was quite anxious, but...

The night of the draft lottery in December '69 is etched in my memory.  My family and I knew that the drawing could immediately determine the course of my life, including the possibility of losing it on a battle field in Viet Nam, where...

I remember sitting in my parents family room listening to what my future would be on WRFK public radio in Richmond Va. I had always felt lucky and I was sure that day would be no different. When my birthday was pulled at No. 85, well I lost my mind. The next thing I...

I grew up in Maysville KY, son of a family practice physician, who graduated from UK in 1942 and went to UL Medical School through the US Army in a three year program with only 2 weeks vacation each summer.  My Dad had told my brother and me that we would serve...

I had been 'drafted' a year earlier in 1968 as I completed my senior year of college. I had gotten married that summer, and was immediately 'greeted' for a chance at exotic travel and adventure (in Vietnam).  My new wife started graduate school, and I worked...

To me, this is an interesting project. I either never knew or had long forgotten my lottery number. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the lottery, given that I apparently escaped the draft by the skin of my teeth.As an engineering student at the...

I was a student at the University of Kentucky when the draft occurred. My best friend, Dick Hitt, got the lottery number 2. He went right out and enlisted in the Air Force. He spent 6 months at Lackland Airforce base in Texas, and 3 and one-half years in Hawaii. No...

I recall sitting around with my fraternity brothers listening to the balls being drawn in December 1969.  It seems like a distant memory.  My number came up quite early although it was not the first one drawn within my peer group. It was a strange...

My story is much like many draft age men in December 1969.  I was a 5th year Architectural Senior, recently married, and living in an off-campus non-UK apartment on North Main Street in Lexington. Since architecture was a five year program, I needed a...

I enlisted in the Navy the summer of 1968 following high school graduation. I didn't go to boot camp until January 1969 and was stationed at Naval Air Station, Key West, Fla when the draft lottery was held. I felt relieved I was in the Navy and not a grunt in Vietnam...

I had a student deferment up until May 1970, when I failed the the pre-induction physical due to an ear infection.  I was retested in November and passed.  I got my I-A classification in December 1970 after the December call had already been...

I entered college at UK as a freshman in 1966. I was in the ROTC program, which meant I had a I-A draft classification--no  student deferral. When the lottery drawing took place my number was 250. My draft board said they would probably not go over 115. As soon...

Although I have already written a story dated 12 December 2009 about "jumping for joy" I have composed lyrics about celebrating exemption from conscription for the Vietnam War by luck of the draw to the tune of a Christmas Carol called "Joy To The...

After four years at the U of K ('65 to '69) I needed one more hour to graduate. I could take that one hour anywhere, and still earn my degree from U of K (which I did). So I decided to take some classes at Murray Stata University, to try another campus. I had loved my...

Just got married in September 1969, and we were expecting our first child. I was sleeping during the drawing and my wife woke me up to inform me of my number. It was a scary time to be young.

I was at Ft. Polk in La. doing basic training at the time of the lottery.  I had joined the US Army reserves in 1967.  My number was low and I would have been drafted had I not joined the USAR. One half of my basic training unit was destined for Vietnam...

I was at the University of Rochester when the lottery was held, and I knew I would have a student deferment if I had to use it.  A bunch of us guys met in the common room and each put in $1 for a pool. The man with the lowest number, since he would be the biggest...

I was in the first lottery and given number 125. I went through college and was made I-A within days of graduating. My one year of eligibility began. I had a very difficult time finding a job because employers knew I could be called at any time. One company...

I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa when I learned of my draft number.  It was considered too low at the time. I extended for a 3rd year, returning to the US in 1971.  While substitute teaching in Cleveland, I secured conscientious objector status base...

The lottery number 209 was assigned to my birthday, 30 June, in the first lottery drawing held on December 1, 1969.  I had registered in June 1966 and had been granted a II-S student deferment.  In December of 1967, I married, and in July of 1968,...

When I turned 18, I lived with my family in Nashville, Tennesee; therefore that's where my draft board was.  By the time the lottery system was in place, I had decided that, even though I opposed the war, I would not resist the draft.  This was equal parts...

I grew up in Asheville, NC, and by the time the lottery began, a number of friends and acquaintances from the mountains had died in Vietnam. My father had been in the Service in WW II in the 1st Marine Division in the Pacific. He was adamantly opposed to any...

I was watching TV in the day room in my home at the time: the 4533rd Tac Traing squdron at Eglin AFB, FL. I had rotated to Florida. after nineteen months in Okinawa, and temporary duty in both Japan and Korea during the Pubelo incident.I was half paying attention...

On December 1, 1969 I was in Danang with my unit and some guy had a black and white tv with the lottery on.  We watched for our birthdates and mine was No. 128.  I was 60 days short and was glad my tour was almost over.  I didn't want a day more. ...

I remember having a foreboding premonition the night of the lottery -- I'd become involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement on campus my junior year and had participated in the March on Washington.  I feared that payback, even if left entirely to chance, was...

In 1969 I was living in York House at Duke. In the spring I graduated from the certainty of classes into the uncertainty of the real world--the draft.I had no strong political views, so in late June, to put an end to uncertainty, I dropped by the draft office to say...

I had considered dropping out of college and enlisting, but instead joined the USMC PLC program (less school year but more summer commitment than ROTC) in October of '66.  Since I had the student deferment I didn't see the reserve deferment as an escape, and...

The news came to me, ironically, over Armed Forces radio.  It was one of two (the other being the BBC) English-speaking, shortwave radio stations that I was able to receive.  I was in Tibga, Burkino Faso (then called Upper Volta), serving in the Peace...

I won a lottery in our fraternity section (Phi Kappa Sigma) for having the best draft number.  My next older brother was just finishing his PhD, and received a low draft number and after extended discussion of fleeing to Canada, submitted to the draft and was...