by | Jan 2, 2009 | Stories
When plans for the lottery were announced, we were all nervous. Some of the kids in my dorm immediately filed for CO status, and their local draft boards in Wisconsin almost as quickly turned them down. Others sought medical deferments–or in some cases tried to...
by | Dec 30, 2008 | Stories
I was living on Regent Street in Madison, WI as an undergrad at the UW on December 1, 1969, huddling around a radio with my five roommates listening to the drawing. I was the first one out, at number 150. Everyone else was well into the 200s, with a couple in the...
by | Dec 30, 2008 | Stories
A good friend and I were at a Wisconsin basketball game the night of the lottery. As I recall the Badgers won the game, and it wasn’t until we got back to our dorm room in Ogg Hall that we learned the results of the lottery. I entered my dorm...
by | Dec 29, 2008 | Stories
I was a junior at the University of Wisconsin when the first draft was held. I was living with four roommates at the time. My number was 36, the rest of my roommates had numbers in the 200 and 300’s. I was allowed to graduate in January of...
by | Dec 28, 2008 | Stories
I was in my senior year at the UW, and wound up with lottery number 17. Then, around early December, as I recall it, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird commented that there probably would not be a draft for the first six months of 1972. This...
by | Dec 23, 2008 | Stories
I was a freshman college student at the time. Several of us sat in a dorm room watching the lottery on an officially banned TV. As the numbers rolled across the screen, we felt very sorry for those selected early and cheered for those selected late. ...
