by | May 23, 2009 | Stories
The reason the stories about the lottery only go until 1972 was because the draft law only ran until June of 1973. My student deferment ran out in June of 1972, and of course Uncle Sam sent me his love note to report for my draft...
by | May 22, 2009 | Stories
Once the government announced that they were discontinuing the student deferment, I obtained the application for conscientious objector status and also seriously contemplated moving to Canada. I had protested the war, marched in San Francisco and Los Angeles,...
by | May 19, 2009 | Stories
By the time of the lottery in 1969, I was exempt from the draft because I had already completed my active duty with the US armed forces. This doesn’t mean I was unaware or indifferent to the lottery. I was pleased to see that rich kids would have to sweat a bit...
by | May 18, 2009 | Stories
I was an undergrad at UCLA in 1969. I was opposed to the war and an anti-war protester. As the lottery approached, my father asked me what I would do if I got a low number (meaning immediately drafted). I said I would serve because although I was...
by | May 18, 2009 | Stories
I was talking with one of my MD colleagues in 1988 about the Vietnam War and the draft. He said: they weren’t going to draft me because my lottery number was 292. I then responded stating his birthday. He thought I had memorized all 365 of the...
by | May 18, 2009 | Stories
Making it into the last-to-be-called third of the 366 dates, albeit literally just barely, was a huge relief for me and my girlfriend (now my wife of 35 years), and it allowed me to stop worrying about contingency plans. During the Iraq war, my wife and I...
