Who here watched LIVE for their birthday to be drawn for the Vietnam draft.

[underpants]

I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen this.

Link to tweet

?s=46&t=3VBm1LJ8j8qLp6JTs_8J2A

[CincyDem]

1. I was the first year after the last lottery. Never had a number.

[chicoescuela]

2. I remember watching but was I was barely too young at the time to qualify.

It would have been terrifying

[blogslug]

3. The family watched it for my brother

His number was very high, I think? He wasn't called up, this much I know.

[CCExile]

4. Yes indeed.

I was a freshman college and my number came up 238. The following year it was quite a bit lower, but the war was clearly winding down, so I was spared any great worry. The year after that there was no Vietnam Nam war, and Nixon was toast.

[Ping Tung]

5. I watched it and later became a draft counselor.

We couldn't tell them directly to go abroad but we were allowed to hint.

I also burned my draft card at an anti-war demonstration. I'd already put in 4 miserable years so I didn't have to worry about getting drafted.

[zeusdogmom]

6. Watched in trepidation

Whole bunch of us sitting in the TV room at the Chapel. So many of the guys waiting, praying and hoping for a 300+ number. Some got their wish. My boyfriend and eventually husband pulled a very low “you know you are going to go” number.

Think there was a lot of drinking later that night.

[calguy]

7. I was in that first lottery draw

I believe my number was something like 120, which meant my chances of being drafted was near 100%.

I enlisted a few weeks after that so I could choose my job and not be put into a combat occupation.

It was actually pretty easy to legally avoid the Vietnam war by enlisting into a non-combat position. The extra year I served playing in an Army band instead of two years risking my life in the infantry seemed like an eternity at the time, but looking back on it fifty years later, it's but a tiny blip on the radar.

[underpants]

28. I served with some tankers in the early 90's who did that

They said since tanks weren’t used a lot in Vietnam it was considered a safer bet oh and they got Germany in their sign up (like I did). Of course the Army can do anything it wants. They stayed in and were nearing retirement.

Sounded to me like they were fed some recruiter BS. Signing up anyone in combat arms was/is more points for the recruiter.

[Fichefinder]

8. My number was 69 in 74 but they never called

[louis-t]

43. Draft ended January, '73. Only about 70 were drafted in that month.

I remember my uncle getting drafted in '67. We had a party for him. He went down to the draft board and they sent him home. Turns out he had gotten into trouble with a bunch of thugs he hung around with. As nuts as he is now, I can't imagine what he would be like had he survived Vietnam.

[Bmoboy]

9. I was 1A

Heard that my number was 101. They expected numbers up to 150 were going to be called up.
The next day I found out my number was actually 234.
Life moved on.

[Grins]

10. Me!

In college.
Must have been 50 guys in that room watching.
Talk about “Must watch TV!”

My number was 320.
I went on to serve 6 years in the Army as an officer.

My roommate? Got #2!
Cursed. Left the room, called his parents and cursed them out, too!

Found out 2 years ago that a friend got picked #1 in a later lottery.
From a long line of Marines, he said he would enlist instead of being drafted into the Army.
Ultimately, the Marines were trying to shed excess active duty members and would not take him, and the Army never called.

[underpants]

26. Cussed his parents out.

[GP6971]

11. I was 19 and we watched it

in the college dorm. My number was 3. Everyone else watching had mid to high numbers.

[grumpyduck]

12. My number was 38.

The day before I was born came up in the high 180s. The day after was in the high 200s.

Ended up doing six years in the National Guard and getting two college degrees.

[rubbersole]

13. Scared the absolute shit out of me.

My number was 137. Got to 85 and stalled in Central Florida. Was 2S for 5 months and 29 days then went 1A for the rest of my eligibility year. Many friends weren't as fortunate. Life changing stuff.

[Brother Buzz]

14. I watched it in Germany - I didn't speak German so...

This future dumb draftee didn't know if I drew an exceptionally high or low number.

Oh, the board I saw at was way different; the numbers were placed on a year calendar and I didn't know if a low number was good or bad. Perhaps a head shrink would told me I knew, but was in denial.

What a strange trip.

[crazylikafox]

15. We listened on the radio

I was in college and there was only one tv in the entire building. My friends and I gathered to listen for our boyfriends birthdays

[cksmithy]

16. My boyfriend, now husband

watched with his family. His brother (18 years old) enlisted in the navy, his number was 30. If he didn't enlist, he would of been drafted. My husband (age 20), his number was over 300, thankfully.

[gab13by13]

17. 287

Another interesting tidbit when I went for my physical we also took a mental test and we were told that the standards for passing had been lowered, that a score of 1 is passing and we can tell if you cheat. True story.

[jpak]

18. Me

When I was 19 and up for grabs, my number was 350 or something close to that.

Big sigh of relief and my buddies and I drank a bunch of beer...

[MyOwnPeace]

20. College senior, in class........

couldn't watch - had to wait to find out. I was counting on a teacher deferment but still, you just couldn't be sure.

March 12 - #300!

Ended up being a teacher anyhow, and that was that!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

21. I just escaped being eligible to be drafted

I remember reading the lists to see where my birthday fell

[Paladin]

22. That was one scary evening.

My family watched for me; I was in college and was attending an evening class. I dodged the bullet(s), but I had a number of school friends who dropped out the next day and faced the inevitable.

[Ptah]

23. My number was 26.

[underpants]

25. Was the bus waiting for you outside your house?

I looked up a couple friends in this and one of them would have been 15.

[Ptah]

42. I enlisted in the USAF before the bus got there.

[Midnight Writer]

60. I had a couple of buddies with low numbers enlist in the Navy before the draft could get them.

Everybody's nightmare was ending up "in country" with the infantry.

[BamaRefugee]

24. Me. I had already lost my beloved cousin and 2 high school buddies in Vietnam.

If my number came up I would have gone in, but luckily mine was pretty high. I DID NOT want to have anything to do with killing innocent people.

Later, I organized the first, as far as I know, Vietnam War protest in Birmingham, Alabama, where I was going to college. I got all the permits, learned all the applicable laws, used the mimeograph machine to make flyers (remember those days???) and then we began to peacefully march in downtown Birmingham, singing, holding signs, just being naive 1969 young folks who cared about the world.
The Birmingham cops began to surround us, and within about 10 minutes the beatings began, all of us brutally attacked with billy clubs. Our permit allowed 30 minutes of peaceful protest. But those proto-MAGAts were running on redneck time. I still have permanent lumps on the base of my skull to remind me of that day.

I still hate Birmingham cops to this day, fuck 'em.

Another reason why: Driving across town one morning, I stopped at a stop sign, all clear, then continued when a car coming from my right ran the stop sign at about 45 miles per hour, sending my car across the intersection, almost totaled. 2 good ole boys were in that car. The cops came, and the guys in the car knew the cops on a first name basis, glad handing them, then saying that I had run MY stop sign, which would clearly be impossible, no way can you send a car 30 feet sideways and bash it in, if you were just beginning to accelerate from a full stop.

But after a few jokes and catching up on everyone's families, the cops wrote me a ticket for running a stop sign, reckless driving, other stuff. I was fighting this in court. No way was I guilty of anything. I told my uncle about it. He said he would talk to his friend Albert, a lawyer.

I showed up in court. The 2 cops were there, smiling. Then Albert arrived. They stopped smiling. The judge showed a look of total shock on his face. The trial began and little by little Albert shredded the 2 cops' story. At the end, the judge dismissed my charges, but Albert asked the judge what he was going to do about the cops. The judge said he would reprimand them.
Albert didn't like that. He demanded they be brought up on perjury charges and fired from Birmingham P.D. That stuff just didn't happen in Birmingham, Alabama in 1970. Cops were bulletproof.

But not this time. It took a while but Albert got exactly what he wanted.

Oh, by the way, my lawyer Albert was Albert Boutwell, a former state Senator, mayor of Birmingham and the Lieutenant Governor of Alabama. He was a family friend. I still have to this day his wedding gift to me, in 1974, a gorgeous huge silver serving spoon engraved originally to a Confederate General. And to be honest, he played a big role in the "massive resistance" to civil rights in that era too.

But in Alabama, in those days, if you had shoulder length hair like I did, you were automatically guilty of EVERYTHING. He fixed that for me, and got me justice.

Alabama is a complicated place. I love it for many reasons, born and raised there, lots of great people, but lots of dark Southern Gothic stuff going on endlessly. There is one thing I know, and I haven't lived there for decades, I fled to NYC when I was 20 years old with $400 in my pocket and never looked back. Thus my screen name here. But Alabama is basically a paradise for white folks with means, you don't have to be rich, but just make some good money, get a nice house, blah blah blah, and that is why folks there fight against ANYTHING that they see as a threat to that paradise. I get it. But I got out.

SORRY TO GO OFF TOPIC! but the caffeine was kicking in and I just kept going.

[Stuckinthebush]

44. Birminghamian here

Thank you for the story. Birmingham was sure awful back in the day. I sold my Homewood house a year ago and now live downtown. I love it. This morning I walked by Boutwell Auditorium on my way to the new City Walk for an event. Birmingham police are a lot different now than the 60s and 70s!

[BamaRefugee]

54. so glad to hear that!

I love Birmingham, it's totally engraved in my heart. I was born in South Highlands Infirmary, maybe not far from where you live now.

I moved to Jacksonville Beach when I was I guess 4, then to Chicago (life changing experience) when I was 9, then a year later to Greenville, South Carolina, home of Strom Thurmond and Bob Jones University, and finally to Atalanta, where I graduated high school. I went to Birmingham Southern on a scholarship.

But almost from the day school let out, until the day before school opened in the fall, I lived at my grandparent's house in Homewood, so may great times there, and the fabled Camp Cosby.

Hopefully you got what I was talking about at the end of my story, how life is basically set up PERFECTLY there for certain people. Did it make sense? It's hard to describe it to my friends in NYC and Los Angeles. I tell them that in my time there, there were always wonderful, really cool, intellectual people, caring people, who you formed bonds with and everyone sort of watched out for each other, protectively. Because those traits made us suspicious.

[Hekate]

66. TY for your backstory. Altho my best friend is Southern to her bones, we met at University of Hawai'i...

…and we’d both grown up on O’ahu.

It was 1968, and after a few years on the Mainland in California, I was glad to be back where life made sense to me. I was never going to return to a place of riots and political assassinations, as I saw the Mainland. Life after marriage took my friend back to the South, and while she and her husband worked as civil servants in DC, her parents and brothers returned to their roots in Texas. I did not even realize Washington, DC is a Southern city. I feel abashed by my youthful ignorance of the actual diversity of white American culture — I’m white, and as a Californian since 1979 and a Kama’aina before that, I came to realize I’ve experienced only a slice.

My friend has shown by her choices what it is to love that region, and to feel her own deep roots. Wherever she and her husband have bought property over the past 50 years, it has always been in the South. Racially prejudiced? No — not and be a friend of mine. Political? Well, I think she learned to keep all her political opinions on the down-low while working in civil service for political appointees all those decades. After 9-11 she and her husband (a dark Middle Easterner with an obvious name) experienced many difficulties at work and among other people, enough that they and their extended family ended up changing their last name to something less identifiable — still theirs by right, just not something the average neighbor would glom onto.

Sorry for rambling on— just to say, I’m glad you found your place to be, and that you still have loving memories — and that, I am still learning.

[Easterncedar]

78. Fantastic stories

Thanks

[justaprogressive]

27. Yes I did. That number was..... 2 nt

[NoMoreRepugs]

29. 127 - rumor was going up to 150 in Chicagoland area.

[Sneederbunk]

30. I did as a senior in college. Got a high enough number too.

[rsdsharp]

31. No, but I got up very early the next morning to find a newspaper.

I was 172, but it was 1973, and no one from my draft class was called. We were all designated 1-H. Still, we didn’t know that at the time. A guy who lived across the hall had #1. He stayed drunk for two weeks.

[Doc Sportello]

32. For most of us in the lottery it was life and death

But we had college classes in the morning so the first question everyone got coming into the cafeteria was, "what number did you get?" Luckily mine was high so I wasn't too worried. One guy came in looking ashen. He was like three or four on the list. Don't think he ever got called up, though. It was a huge deal at the time, 1971 or '72. NO ONE wanted to go. The more conservative ones my age from high school joined the National Guard to avoid going. Years later Dan Quayle tried to lie and say that wasn't his reason for joining. Everyone knew that was bullshit.

[SWBTATTReg]

33. As some who have already said that it was terrifying to go through this draft process, I can confirm, that YES, it

was terrifying, and yes, we were all centered around the TV watching as numbers were drawn. Perhaps this is one reason that they don't do this anymore in this fashion, the terror experienced was real, especially for young men in the prime of their lives.

[flying_wahini]

34. I remember watching with friends in high school that had high numbers. It was awful.

[flying_wahini]

35. I remember my boyfriends buddy was picked at number 11. He chopped his big toe off with an ax

so he wouldn’t have to go. Yes, it was ugly (I wasn’t there ). He had to have surgery and relearn how to walk.

[louis-t]

36. Man, I'm glad I didn't turn 18 in 1970. 015.

I turned 18 in '74.

[Mosby]

37. I always thought the draft board was a group of people

Now I know it's an actual board.

[dchill]

38. I was in it. Never got called up.

Never figured out how some people had so much power over our lives. To this day.

[ariadne0614]

88. Ask girls/women of childbearing age.

Some call it patriarchy.

[PufPuf23]

39. Was in 1971 draft lottery and got over 300.

Father called and told me and he was glad. I was glad too. Had planned for several years for a non-religious CO. Had been going to high school in Bay Area but was at Hoopa HS on Hupa Reservation. But had a Bay Area address and had registered in Martinez (Contra Costa County) said to have one of bet draft boards for COs rather than in Hoopa of Humboldt County.

[Wounded Bear]

40. I was already in and out of boot camp before I turned 18...

Never registered for the draft.

[tblue37]

41. Or for boyfriends' numbers or young male relatives'.

[LastDemocratInSC]

45. 189 for me, February 17.

My roommate drew a very low number that I don't recall now. We were sitting in the TV room in the basement of Brokaw Hall. When his number was called he just pitched his books and notebooks up in the air and walked out.

[Freddie]

46. Watched with and for my brother

1971, #150. Horrible times. The draft ended while he was still in college.
There should be 2 categories of us Boomers, those who could get drafted and those too young. My HS class turned 18 in 1974 and didn’t know what this was about unless we had older brothers.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

47. I didn't have to go through this,

I enlisted in the Marines is 64 because I knew I was going to get drafted so I figured if I volunteered, I would get the MOS I most desired, which turned out to be true.

[underpants]

48. As I posted above

I served with some tankers in the early 90's who did that

They said since tanks weren’t used a lot in Vietnam it was considered a safer bet BUT they got Germany in their contract (like I did). Of course the Army can do anything it wants. They stayed in and were nearing retirement.

Sounded to me like they were fed some recruiter BS. Signing up anyone in combat arms was/is more points for the recruiter.

[HAB911]

49. Got me BEFORE the lottery

[former9thward]

50. I was number 23.

I did not watch it. Read it in the newspaper the next day.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

51. Trump would have gotten 356

[The Wizard]

52. I was conscripted before there was a lottery (NT)

[NBachers]

53. 218 - and, yes, I watched it. I made myself 1-A and watched it climb up to 195.

[gladium et scutum]

55. My draft year was 1969

I was to graduate from a University in May of that year. An old girlfriend was a clerk at my Draft Board. When my number came up, she called my dad and told him I would receive my Draft notice in July. I rushed home at spring break and enlisted the Navy for four years. Sorta got use to the life. Retired
30 years later as a Commander, (O5.). Sometimes wonder what life would have been like if I had been a high school teacher, that was plan A in 1969.

[Glorfindel]

56. No, I was drafted in 1966, before the lottery was instituted.

By that time,I had already served a year in Vietnam, come home, and been discharged from the army in 1968.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

57. Like HAB911, I got drafted before the lottery existed.

The Army sent me to Germany to serve as REMF.

[HAB911]

58. Good deal!

Drafted late '69 and got word everyone for the next 3 months was going to the Marines. Joined the Army for 3 instead and they sent me to Panmunjom for '70-71. Thought I had hit the lottery rather than being a Marine in 'Nam. Turned out, the year I was there, they sprayed the DMZ with Agent Orange. So maybe I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Now designated 100% disabled from AO prostate cancer, thanks to the PACT ACT!

[Conjuay]

59. I was in the Student Union, listening to the college station (as was everyone else)

A number would be called and, from the entire second floor, you could hear people crying out or bursting into tears.They realized a brother, a boyfriend, or they themselves were about to become personally involved in the bloodbath.

It was the most surreal event I have ever experienced.

[MiHale]

61. Yeah I did...joined anyway didn't want to be a draftee..

Plus got to choose my own MOS.

[Midnight Writer]

62. Shout-out to Donald Trump (bone spurs), Ted Nugent (shit his pants before the physical),

Dick Cheney (other priorities), and the unknown American who put a glass eyeball in his ass before his physical.

[underpants]

64. Can't find anything in that but I don't doubt it

Cheech was in Vancouver dodging. Chong ran a strip club and was organizing Improv classes for the dancers. He thought Cheech (regular customer) seemed like a funny guy so he invited him. Hang out with strippers - why not?

Chong (9 months for on line paraphernalia sales) also was a cell/roommate with Jordan Belfort in Fed prison. He convinced Belfort to write his stories which became “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Tommy rejected the first draft as too Tom Wolfe telling him to write in his own voice.

[Maeve]

63. My brother did, at a party

Fairly early on, his birthdate came up with a number above 300...he doesn't remember most of the rest of that night!

[riversedge]

65. I did not know it had been televised. Must have been a scary time

for so many families.

[keithbvadu2]

67. My time was before the lottery. I was in boot camp six months before the draft would have grabbed me.

[Xavier Breath]

68. I was only three at the time so this obviously did not involve me.

But, now at 57, I think of myself at the age of 18 and I just cannot wrap my mind around the concept of that kid watching tv to find out if he'd be going off to war. I was an obese kid that grew into an obese teenager, so unlike Cadet Bone Spurs, they likely would have rejected me for a legitimate health reason. Still, it's hard for me to imagine myself in that situation. It must have been absolutely terrifying.

[davepdx]

69. I watched the first draft with a group of guys in my dorm.

The nervousness was pervasive. I fortunately drew #295 but a number of the other guys were not so lucky. I was a very anxious time and sad as well.

[Tree Lady]

70. My husband had a super low number

so he signed up and went to Okinawa Japan for 2 years and worked bringing supplies to the hospital closest to Vietnam for the worst hurt soldiers. He always says to me, they brought Vietnam to me.

Its affected him his whole life.

[moonscape]

71. Watched in a student-packed bar in

college. It was quiet, then there’d be gasps. Never forget the first one (gasp.).

My boyfriend’s # was 43.

[LudwigPastorius]

72. I was too young to be drafted, but I remember watching the lottery.

Even starting at 7 years old, it made a big impression on me...how something so random as pulling a number out of a bin could potentially determine whether you lived or died.

That thought was quickly followed by, "If this shit is still going on when I turn 18, I'm heading for Canada"

[pansypoo53219]

73. my uncle enlisted + was an MP.he got lucky.

[B.See]

74. Didn't watch it live

But all of us of age knew our numbers.
Luckily for me it was all done and over with by the time I finished college.

[GoodRaisin]

75. I listened on radio in 1970

I don’t remember my number but it wasn’t super low, or high, it was one of those numbers you weren’t sure about. Anyway I decided going in the Navy was my best option at the time after I finished high school. I didn’t have money for college right away so everything considered Navy made sense, plus the idea of living on a ship and around ports and beaches seemed cool compared to Vietnam rice patties, even though I knew there was a small chance of being sent to Vietnam it wasn’t as likely.

[B.See]

76. Sounds like a good move.

My dad was career military and aside from getting called up for combat or having to move your family around every four years or so there are positives.

[winstars]

77. Thanks for the memories of this time.... Seems sooooooo long ago...

I was 13 in 1970 but remember the draft for all my friends older brothers, some who went, some not to return home...

Friends who got into trouble with the cops, having to see the judge and the judge saying either join the service or go to jail.
Lots of guys going to Canada...
How about the approved practice of sports stars and rich kids joining the National Guard to serve on weekends and still play their respective sports.
What Dubya did with the Texas Air National Guard was what lot of rich kids did, no biggie...
Avoiding the draft with bone spurs in your feet was normal stuff....
A different time...........


Looking at that chart up top is even now pretty jarring... Fuck!!! I would have had to go!!!!!!!!

[fierywoman]

79. I watched for my brother. My mother was prepared to fund him to move to Canada

if his number was bad.

[Easterncedar]

80. What a great post.

I am really interested in all the responses.

We were so worried for my brother and his friends, relieved when my brother got himself a good asthma attack documented at the hospital.

What an awful, stupid nightmare of a war. So many lives lost, so much horror unleashed.

[democrank]

81. Kicking for the vets

~Peace~

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

82. Our entire family watched for my brother in 1971

Once it got past 150, you could feel the whole room starting to relax a bit. His number was 185. He was not called in. A friend of the family drew 2. He immediately enlisted rather than being assigned something he didn’t want.

[Poiuyt]

83. I was ;istening on the radio in my car for 1971

Draft number was 361. I almost drove off the road I was so happy! I remember coming home and telling my parents. My republican, Nixon voting mother said, "Well, you could always have gone to Canada." (!!)

[NanaCat]

84. Not for my number

I was a wee lass (1960s baby), so it didn't pertain to me. The male cousins in the US at the head of the chronological line did have to worry about it, and we did watch anxiously for them.

My eldest cousin never had to worry about it, between his college deferment and a serious basketball injury during the last weeks of his senior year season. An injury bad enough to make him exempt from service even after he 'healed.' So we never watched on his behalf.

I remember everyone gathered around the telly when his younger brother became eligible for the draft, and the relief when his number was below the cutoff.

Another cousin volunteered before the military could volunteer him on his behalf.

[catrose]

85. For my boyfriend

[Liberal In Texas]

86. Since I had a IIS (student deferment) I forgot to watch it or was doing something else.

The next day I walked into the study hall auditorium in the Jr. Hi where I was student teaching (one semester of that and I decided being a teacher wasn't for me) and my cooperating teacher asked what my lottery number was and since I didn't know we looked it up in her morning newspaper (remember those?) and I was in the mid 300s.

The joke among my college buddies was that they would be drafting women and children before they got to me.

[Elessar Zappa]

87. My dad turned 18 in '71.

My grandparents were prepared to send him to Canada if he got drafted. My grandparents weren’t anti-war in general (my grandfather was a WW2 vet) but they saw the Vietnam war as pointless and unwinnable and didn’t fancy losing their only child in an Asian jungle.

[Taraman]

89. I did. I drew a 30 -- Yikes!

I was going to a men's university. Everyone was in the cafeteria watching, and the first 10 or so stood and bowed as everyone cheered.

Dark days.

The next few years I was battling to keep a student deferment because I transferred to another university, but had decided I would go to prison or Canada, instead of going to kill Vietnamese. Anti-war movement. It actually ended up setting the tone for my entire life.

Richard M. Nixon

Henry Kissinger

I remember it all.

[Emile]

90. I enlisted on my 18th birthday April 7, 1969.

[unc70]

91. Went to a UNC basketball game instead

At halftime, they read out the first 20(?) drawn. Shouting and wailing by those who "won". I did not know my number until the next day. (281) There was really no "safe" number that first lottery. Each local draft board worked through the birthdays at its own rate, depending on the randomness of birthdays in its district, deferments, etc. Some unlucky and usually small districts ran through their entire lists by mid year. For the second lottery, the birthdays called were uniform across the country.

In my county, there were a bunch of guys from military families who enlisted in the Marines with fall inductions. They had one last summer to party and avoided being on Paris Island in the summer. They counted against my board's quota, relieving some of the pressure on the rest of us.

The draft board number never got any higher but I did not know until after the fact. For the rest of the year, the being-drafted number lurked dangerously close to me.

[Stinky The Clown]

92. I did not. I was already in uniform.

Turned out my number was north of 250