by | Apr 9, 2009 | Stories
I turned 18 in November of 1971. I was a long-haired pot-smoking hippie in my first semester of college. I was totally against the war. There was no college deferment at the time (nor should there have been in my opinion). I remember feeling existentially...
by | Apr 6, 2009 | Stories
The only lottery I have ever won, was the one I lost in 1969. I can remember receiving my lottery number 196 and really not knowing whether this was going to be good or bad. Well, by September I didn’t like the prospects.I went to the local...
by | Apr 5, 2009 | Stories
I had already been drafted before the lottery, in 1968. I was in grad school but deferments for grad school had been eliminated. The lottery put a lot more sanity into people’s lives by removing some of the uncertainty. (I gave up on going to...
by | Apr 5, 2009 | Stories
I had been accepted to Navy OCS before the lottery. When my lottery number came up 314, I chose not to enlist. One of the biggest mistakes I ever made.
by | Apr 2, 2009 | Stories
I was a third year undergraduate at UCLA when the first lottery was held. I received No. 91 which was considered a low number at the time, and with it, an almost certainty of being drafted once my 4 year student exemption expired in June of 1971. I lived on...
by | Apr 2, 2009 | Stories
Like every other male our age at UW-Madison, my best friends and I sat up waiting to hear what our numbers would be. It was a tumoultous time and before we would graduate we would see numerous demonstrations, TA strikes, riots, would get pepper-gassed,...