by | Nov 30, 2008 | Stories
I’ll never forget that number 324. The next year when the numbers they called for active duty got up to 90 pretty fast I started to worry, again. 324 saved me a fast trip to Canada from Detroit and then the plan was to go to New Zealand. It was...
by | Nov 25, 2008 | Stories
I watched the drawing on TV with my girlfriend The projection was that the Selective Service would get beyond 182 in 1970 but maybe not in 1971. So I rescheduled my final semester of school and got a I-S deferment and got into the 1971 pool when they...
by | Nov 25, 2008 | Stories
I can remember sitting in my parents’ living room, in front of the TV, with my best friend who was my age. We were both very anxious about the lottery and spent the time by making bad jokes about what our numbers would be and what would become...
by | Nov 22, 2008 | Stories
I was an ROTC cadet. I was not a good Army student, but was on track for getting my commission as a 2nd lieutenant. I fully expected to join the 98% who got their commission in the infantry. At that time, 2nd Lts. were forward observers, the guys who sneaked into...
by | Nov 20, 2008 | Stories
In the spring of 1970 (April I think), four friends and myself gathered in an off-campus apartment to listen to the lottery drawing on the radio. On that fateful day, while I was a junior in the College of Engineering at the University of Florida, my...
by | Nov 19, 2008 | Stories
I received a high lottery number in 1970 but don’t recall the exact number, except that it put me pretty much out of harm’s way. What was curious is that I was classified as 4-F in 1969 and I didn’t expect to be in the lottery. I got the...