Gary, Wisconsin, 1969. No 364: 92 Days' Duty

I joined ROTC as an undergraduate when LBJ announced that there would be no further deferments for graduate students.  Planning law school, I took advantage of the law school deferment for Air Force officers.  By the time the lottery came along, I had...

Tim, Colorado, 1969. No. 8: Weather Doctor

The night of the lottery, my fiance and I were in my student office at McArdle laboratories on the Wisconsin campus. When I realized that I had a draft number of 8, we burst into tears and sobbed.My first reaction was that I needed to do something other than be in the...

Joel, New York, 1969. No 173: The Rabbi's Road Not Taken

On the day of the first lottery drawing, December 1, 1969, I was taking tests and interviewing for a place in the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.  At the conclusion of a full day of testing and questioning, I...

Larry, Virginia, 1969. No. 350: From Right to Left

I entered the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 1965 thinking I was a conservative Republican, which reflected not only my upbringing, but also the collective views of my extended family. Lots happened in the next few years (anti-war protests, King’s...

Tom, Virginia, 1969. Mandatory ROTC/Disabled Vets

I graduated high school in Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1966 at the height of the war.  My first year of college at St. Norbert in DePere, I was required to take ROTC because the school was so small they needed all the freshmen and sophomores to mandatorily take it to...