Hypothetical: You and the Vietnam Draft
 

Fairplay and I had a conversation about this a while back. If you were 20 years old when the Vietnam draft lottery was started, what would have been your fate? Walk through the process and tell me if you would've been drafted.

(If you actually went through this process and I'm missing anything, correct me.)

Step 1. Do you get the letter telling you that you've been drafted?

They drew birthdays out of a hat, and you got drafted in the order in which your birthday was drawn. Look up your birthday here. According to the Selective Service website https://www.sss.gov/About/History-And-Records/lotter1, you got a draft letter if your number was 195 or lower.



Next, you showed up and got classified. Enclosed here are the classifications. The numbers are a little bit apples and oranges, but as far as I can tell, you had about a 1 in 6 chance of ending up in uniform if your draft number got called. Most people apparently got a classification that exempted them from service.

Here are the classifications.



So would you have ended up in uniform?

As for me, I would've not even been close. My birthday drew Draft Number 363, so I wouldn't have even come into question. Even if I had been drafted, at age 20 I would've had a college student deferment and been a 1S. War? What war?

Nope I was a number 280 and would have been college bound anyhow.

182

I wouldve gone, cant see myself being a dodger

7

I have spina bifida occulta, so I'd likely serve in a non-combat role.

In top 25 dates taken but college deferment.

I was born January 4, 1961 so I remember when the ball lottery on tv happened since I had three older sisters who had a list of birthdays of boys in the senior class, there were about sixty of them, and sat and gazed the list. With each date read off. My mom had friends over and they all had big annual church calendars, marking off dates so they could reference them when they started making calls to other women. I remember my Mom crying on the phone several times over the next few days. Knowing how little I knew then, had I been of age I would have gone. Knowing what I know now.... Question gets a lot tougher to answer.....

111 position.

But a college student deferment. If not I would have agreed to go. But my vision was -7 and -8. Maybe they'd have not taken me. Knock my glasses off and I couldn't tell an enemy from a tree stump from more than 3 feet.

Guess I would of been safe with being in slot number 354. I would qualify for 4-A classification otherwise.

257.

They wouldn't have taken Bob Dole because he is batshit crazy...

Way after 195 and college deferment.

I would have worked my ass off in boot camp then shooting myself in the head while cleaning my gun or some shit. My parents wouldn't even go to the wall because they said it didn't count.

112, and a 1A.

Duty calls, you go.

I drew 88. I would have been excluded because I was in college; and if not, I would have been 4F.

LMAO
I was born on September 14th. I would've been ****ed.

I was #1 GI.

I don't blame anyone who avoided that war. I respect the hell out of anyone that went but seriously that was a 10 year campaign only designed to make money. It was such a waste of life and time. Has there ever been a bigger pile of bullshit than Vietnam.

I was in college and my number was 287. I promptly resigned my 2-S and went on about my business. I had the added confidence in doing so because I'd already failed my ROTC physical (20-200 in one eye).

I was number 57 and didn't want to be in the Army or Marines. Joining the Navy was one of the best decisions I made at 18.

Wow, my brothers and I would have all lucked out. I am 328...the other 3 are 202, 314 and 332.

Wouldn't have been a "say goodbye-bye-bye Mrs. Sullivan" type of deal for my parents.

I would have volunteered, become a Marine sniper and made Carlos Hatchcock envy my ass.

My number is 86 but I was in college. however, I was also in the Army National Guard until I was 23 so I'm not sure how that would have worked. Probably would have been called up.

255
I have no doubt I would have been politely asked to leave and not come back anyways.

I am in the 300's. But they wouldn't take me anyway because I like to dress like a woman.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...9858357ecf.jpg

Well not everyone would have been in college back then so who knows.

I would have been drafted. But I would have got a doctors note.

I assume he meant whatever you were doing when you were actually 20, apply that to being 20 during the draft.

Well yeah but 90 percent wouldn't have been in college back then. You have to think like a rainman in a rainman thread :)

Not in any particular order, but:

First, my number was too high.

Second, I would've had a college deferment.

Third, I wouldn't have passed the physical anyway, since my eyesight is so ridiculously piss-poor. Around 20/200 or thereabouts.


Great respect to all those who served, but that was the worst (as in stupidest) ****ing war in American history, which is saying quite a bit. At its peak we had over half a million men serving over there, all trying to win a war that was for all practical purposes impossible to win, to accomplish precisely nothing of any significant strategic, military or political importance to the United States.

All because of stupid ****ing politicians.

We need a clarification from Rain Man. Maybe a way to randomly determine whether or not we'd have been in college.

I would have been Barnes. Nothing can kill Barnes, except Barnes.

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt.

Combat Engineer...we made it safe for the infantry...lol

Donald is ashamed of your lack of commitment to dodging.

309, I'd have been safe. The thing is, it probably would have depended on the situation. At the start of a war, everyone is patriotic. I got out of the military less than a year before my unit deployed to Iraq and I nearly signed back up to go with them. It felt like I was letting them down not going, even though none of them asked me to and would have all told me I was stupid for even considering it. For Vietnam though, that was one of those wars that didn't feel like our fight, I doubt I'd have felt the same and would have been happy to have pulled a low number.

205 for me. I would have been in college anyway.

I'd ask if WW2 veteran Lt. Aldo Raine was still in command somewhere, maybe even promoted, if so I would ask to be part of his crew.

138 but I would have enlisted anyway.

351. And I went through this for real.

I had a 2-S deferment. As the draft continued, I received a letter from my local draft board stating that at the current rate, I'd be drafted by a certain date. And they changed my 2-S to a 1-A as they were running short of potential draftees.

It did give me some time to make decisions as to where I wanted to go. And since I could swim a lot better than run, I joined the Navy.

No clue what my number was. I registered and would have gone like a young idiot. Today, I would tell my son to go to Canada.

Low draft number with 1-S

Yeah, we would have been more likely to not be in college in 1970 if we happen to be born later than 1950. However, it looks like there was a mysterious bump in college enrollment right about the time that the draft lottery started (go figure), so it's not as big a difference as one might expect, maybe low 60 percents in the year 2000 versus low 50 percents in the year 1970.

So maybe we think about this (rolling dice). If you would have had college deferment at the age of 20 in your own era, and the last digit of your home address is a 6 or a 7, then assume you wouldn't have had college deferment.

I would've lost my college deferment, but again with a draft number of 363 I wouldn't have been drafted unless NVA battalions were amassing outside Las Vegas.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2...d_20100428.png

Under your guidance, at 20, I still would have had a deferment for college, and still would have been 4F.

You and I would have been waving our flags for the veterans and enjoying chocolate milk shakes on Main Street. I'm kind of bummed about getting kicked out of 1970 college, though.

I got my Honorable Discharge when I was 20. So, probably would have stayed in the Navy.

Did you decide pretty quickly it's not for you, or were you a career guy because your parents signed you up at birth?

Went DEP for USNR, EOAD before I hit 21. Had fun, left. Did not appreciate the lack of females.

my number would of been drafted but i would of enlisted before so. If my country called for my service I would go before they even called.

#25.

But i thought there was some rule against drafting an only child, no?

What does this mean?

What does this mean?

I understand this part completely.

#150

I would have proudly served my country.

Apparently if you had a parent or sibling killed in military service, you were exempted. But not if you were just an only child.

I would have gone.

167 and 1a

At least being in the Guards meant I would be in my chosen MOS instead of just being handed a rifle.

#196, so I wouldn't have been drafted.

I would have likely tried to join the Air Force but my vision, pre-LASIK, would have disqualified me from the Armed Forces, as it was 20/500 in one eye and 20/575 in the other. I had astigmatism as well (-4.25 and -3.75).

Since LASIK in 2007, it's 20/15.

Because that's what happens. :rolleyes:

91

No way in hell I would have gone.

I'm at work on a cell. I'll explain when I get to a real keyboard.

DEP is delayed entry program, and USNR is U.S. Naval Reserves. No clue on EOPD.

132. Not in college so looks like I would have went.

In real life I planned on going in the Air Force but had a child in high school so figured that probably wasn't my best move.

I joined the US Naval Reserve while in High School under the Delayed Entry Program. I went to Boot Camp for Summer vacation in between 11th and 12th grade. I went into active duty (training first) immediately after High School. My contract required that I serve a specific amount of active duty. I completed that requirement (actually got held over for a bit) before I turned 21 and was Honorably Discharged into reserve status because I had reached my End of Obligated Active Duty. A few years later I was also released from my reserve obligation. So, to answer the question posed in your OP, technically I was already discharged while 20 years old.

EOAD. End of Obligated Active Duty.

I did not fully appreciate at that early age how shitty life is without women around.

204, I was always an unlucky basturd back then so they would have taken my ass since, I was first born son with a brother 2 yrs behind me and some other asshole somewhere failing his examination.

I damn near enlisted in 1975 anyways. Back in the early 70's I always feared and thought I would end up there.

That's how I did the National Guard. Basic training between my junior and senior year (when I was 17) and then AIT after I graduated. I didn't have to do any active duty time outside of training, though. Six years of one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer.

It looks like I would have been left at home.

I was probably flunking a Chem class under a foreign speaking professor at that age though. They probably could have easily convinced me that going to war was better than sitting through his lectures.

I don't post much on here anymore, but I haven't thought about the Army and the draft and college in a long time. So I'll gather my thoughts for my own benefit and if you find it interesting, then great.

I was born in 1950 and graduated from St. Petersburg High, Florida in 1968. My birthday was July 10, so my lottery number was 284, that number was in the range of not being called.

I didn't have a problem with the military, my dad joined the Navy at the end of WWII and my half brother was in paratroopers in the early 60's but he had gotten out. I didn't know what I wanted to do, so I enrolled at St. Pete JC and took Hotel/Restaurant Mgmt and had the 2S deferrment in addition to the high draft number. I figured in Florida there would be an endless supply of jobs in that field. One sidenote, when I was looking at the SPJC handbook, under famous alumni was a picture of Jim Morrison leading against a wall. He spent a short time there and at Florida State.

After one year of school and working in restaurants and a Holiday Inn, I realized I didn't like going home at the end of the day smelling like food. My second year I started and Disney World was anticipating opening soon and had recuiters interviewing us. I had an interested in aviation for a few years before, so I started taking private pilot lessons. They weren't expensive then, $21 an hour including the instructor. So I had to decide then, take a job with Disney or keep up the flying lessons. I dropped out of JC and continued the lessons.

I was a little frustrated that it was taking so long to get my license and I had heard about the WOFT program (Warrant Office Flight Training) to fly helicopters in the Army. In fact, the Army was the only branch that didn't require a pilot to have a college degree. I went to the Army recruiter and he said there was a years' wait WOFT, so I signed up for that.

A month later my flight instructor took me up in a control tower to see what it was like. I immediately liked the job, the close interaction they were working under and speaking fast and precise, I was also thought about being a disc jockey when I was younger, so this seemed even cooler.

I went back to my Army recruiter and said, can you get me into Air Traffic Controller school. He said, I can guarantee you the school and get you a starting date and it's ony a 3 years enlistment. I went to the Navy, Air Force and Marines just to make sure I was getting the best deal. They all wanted a 4 year enlistment and wouldn't guarantee the school, but rather I pick 3 schools and sometime during basic they would inform me of their decision.

Back to the Army I went and enlisted. My recruiter was very sharp. He sent me to McDill AFB in Tampa for a class 2 flight physical. This was very important I later found out, many other soldiers didn't get their flight physical until after basic training and were at ATC school. Some fluke out and then you can't go to the school and you have to choose between another school, falling back to a 2 year obligation and have the Army choose your school or taking an eroneous enlistment discharge, and if you had served less than 180 days your name went back into the draft.

I enlisted in Jacksonville, Florida. Went to basic at Ft. Polk, LA and school at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. I was honor graduate of my class of 24 soldiers, that got me a promotion to E-4. I had incentive, if you fail ATC school, they sent you to door gunner school on Hueys.

I had orders for Vietnam on Oct 5, 1970 and went to 3 day Orientation class only to be told the day I was to leave that my orders were cancelled. As it turned out they didn't send anyone anywhere for a month. The school had to close because we were still in the bunks. After a month we had 120 graduates of ATC school and they came out and said, everyone is going to Korea. We were the first class in two years that didn't go to Vietnam.

On my way to Korea I stopped in Baltimore for a week. Went to Loyola College and saw the Guess Who, which had the #1 song 'No Time' and before that American Woman and These Eyes. Went to a Baltimore Colts game and saw a 10-10 tie with Buffalo. Flew to Seattle and spent 3 days in a reception station. Seeing Mt. Ranier for the first time was really impressive for a person who grew up in florida.

We boarded a Continental Airline Charter and took off from McCord AFB at midnight and landed in Hawaii at 5am, then got to sit in the cockpit for an hour and watch the Island of Guam appear, then we landed in Guam and then Tokyo and finally Seoul, Korea. I spent 13 months on the DMZ of Korea working Helicopters at a small airfield 4 miles from the fence. I was promoted to E-5 after 14 months and was made site chief. I actually got hostile fire pay while there and many years later I've got a 40% disability from the VA for Agent Orange. They sprayed AO in the DMZ from 1969 to 1971. I ETS from the Army 3 years later and a year after that went to work for the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller.

My draft number was 284, my company in Korea was The 284th Air Traffic Control Company and when I returned from Korea I was assigned to Hunter AAF in Savannah, Georgia. I got an apartment off base and my apartment was number 284.

I was a freshman in college in 1972. I drew 280. Lucky me. My roommate got 50. He ended up dropping out and joining the national guard.

Yeah, very similar, but my contract had an active duty requirement.

So the most interesting thing about that first lottery draft is how it has become a classic study in statistics.

I was 1A. I was given permission to leave the country by the draft board to go to Denmark as an exchange student. Had to call the embassy every week and report in. The lottery for my age group was in July as I recall and my contact said to listen to it on AFR. They drew Nov 27 as number 178. The next week when I called in he said not to call back unless I was in trouble or a family emergency, that my draft board would not get that high. That was 71. Nixon got us out in 72.

Wierd time. Both brothers were low numbers and called up but turned away because they were Veternarians and they didn't need more vets/Captains.

123

I have flat feet.


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227. So if I'm reading things right, I wouldn't have been drafted?
Despite running a 4.23/40

I would have been disqualified as I had been diagnosed with massive penisitis/CP

I would have been drafted (142), but would have been in college.

I was #290 and enrolled in college so I wouldn't have had to go. It's easy to say as an adult that I would have gone if they chose me, but I was a rebellious little smart ass at that age that knew everything and weighed about 140lbs soaking wet, so I could have seen myself doing something to try and get out of it if I was around back then.

So did you do ATC for helicopters in Korea, or did you switch from helicopters to ATC and then got reassigned to helicopters?

You may have run across my father in law in Alabama. He was a helicopter pilot in Fort Rucker in the late 60s, but I don't know when he left.

186 I guess I would have been Infantry

I can still remember sitting in the common room of the dorm watching the lottery. There was 1 guy that drew #1. It was like an arrow went through his heart. About the time they hit 250, there were only 4 of us left. The rest had gone to the local watering hole to drown their sorrows.
BTW, the deal about the only son was that you could be drafted, but not sent to a combat zone. Everyone I knew that fell into that bucket did their time in Germany.

My Number would have been 135. I could have declared 1-S at age 20, as I was in College. However, it would have been expected in my Family to serve, which I would have done.

253, 1S

What is implied with the * by the birthdates?