by | Jan 21, 2011 | Stories
I remember having a foreboding premonition the night of the lottery — I’d become involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement on campus my junior year and had participated in the March on Washington. I feared that payback, even if left entirely to...
by | Dec 21, 2010 | Stories
In 1969 I was living in York House at Duke. In the spring I graduated from the certainty of classes into the uncertainty of the real world–the draft.I had no strong political views, so in late June, to put an end to uncertainty, I dropped by the draft office to...
by | Dec 19, 2010 | Stories
I had considered dropping out of college and enlisting, but instead joined the USMC PLC program (less school year but more summer commitment than ROTC) in October of ’66. Since I had the student deferment I didn’t see the reserve deferment as an...
by | Dec 19, 2010 | Stories
The news came to me, ironically, over Armed Forces radio. It was one of two (the other being the BBC) English-speaking, shortwave radio stations that I was able to receive. I was in Tibga, Burkino Faso (then called Upper Volta), serving in the Peace...
by | Dec 18, 2010 | Stories
I won a lottery in our fraternity section (Phi Kappa Sigma) for having the best draft number. My next older brother was just finishing his PhD, and received a low draft number and after extended discussion of fleeing to Canada, submitted to the draft and was...
by | Dec 14, 2010 | Stories
I graduated from Duke in 1969, summa cum laude, and was offered a fellowship at MIT. I wanted very much to go to MIT. But because I expected to be drafted immediately if I went to graduate school, I declined the fellowship and went to work...
