I arrived at UNC in the fall of 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War. My father, a former drafted combat infantryman in WWII, advised me to join the Navy and be an officer. I was accepted into NROTC and began my Navy training. At the beginning...
I remember listening with some friends as the numbers were drawn and finally mine came up – 263. Oh shit I said. I would have never had to go. You see I was listening at Fort Shafter, Hawaii. I had been in the Army 11 months. Oh...
The draft lottery was on the day before my 21st birthday in 1969. One of my best friends had been forced to drop out of Carolina for a couple of semesters because of mononucleosis and was living at home in Burlington and taking some classes at Elon before returning to...
I went to the North Carolina basketball game that night. After the game, I turned on the car radio and they were giving a recap. I came in on the broadcast about number 130 and listened with great anxiety. After they got up to number 300, I started to think...
I think everyone remembers the lottery, especially the 1969 lottery. I think the whole Lambda Chi fraternity joined in the TV room to learn their fate. My birthday was March 15th and my number was 169. One of my closest fraternity brothers Newt...
I got number 329 in the first draft lottery, so I was pretty much assured of not getting called. I revoked my education deferment and exposed myself to the draft when I started medical school in 1971. The medical draft continued to age 35, but...
