That’s my question. It seems that Dylan was the right age for the draft and I wondered how he got out of serving in the military? Thank for you finding out. Thom
He probably just wasn’t drafted. I say that because he gave an interview in Playboy in which he showed very little sympathy for draft card burners. So, I imagine he would have gone if he’d been called. He didn’t like war, but he liked pretention even less. Before 1965, only 17,000 men per month were conscripted, and when it went up to 35,000 per month, Dylan was already 24 years old.
And in 1966, he was in a near-fatal motorcycle accident that - if he were called - probably made him 4-F.
IIRC, the big drafts began in 1969 and affected men from 18 to 26. Dylan was 28 by this point.
But the draft existed before 1969.
I personally think the accident, and potentially his number of childred were the factors.
But he was old enough to get drafted, and out of college, when he moved to New York in 1961. This was long before the accident and the kids. (I assure you the draft was big long before 1969.) In those days deferments were easier to get, and it wasn’t a big issue. Maybe the call never came, and maybe the Columbia lawyers managed to figure out a way of getting him deferred. I haven’t seen this mentioned in any of the Dylan biographies I’ve read, so I’m just guessing.
You can order a copy of Bob Dylan’s classification record from the Selective Service System. (Dylan was in Hibbing, Minnesota, when he first registered for the draft.)
the same reason my dad didnt, luck
James Burk, “The Military Obligation of Citizens Since Vietnam,” Parameters magazine, Sept. 2001:
In other words, a draft-age man in 1958 had a 1 in 80 chance of actually getting drafted, and in 1964 had a 1 in 120 chance.
actually the chance of being drafted was far greater than 1 in 80 and 1 in 120. you are assuming that all draft age men are eligible to be drafted but many aren’t. a recent article in harper’s noted that today far fewer than 1 in 2 is actually eligible to serve due to mental incapacity, gang affiliation, criminal record, height/weight deficiencies, psychological problems, physical incapacity and most important for the 1958 to 1964 period (when there was no prejudice against the military )- already serving in the military. so presumably, since dylan does not seem to have fallen into any of these other categories his chances of being drafted were significantly higher and in fact he may well have been drafted but we simply have no information.
You cannot apply today’s eligibility requirements (which lately have been relaxed, by the way — gang members, for example, can get in) to conscription during the Vietnam era. As for the period from '58 to '64, there was far less conscription than after escalation (today called “surging”) had begun.
I know that during World War II, almost half of all draft-age men were classified as 4-F (unsuitable) at one time or another for physical or mental shortcomings. Assuming that overall health improved over the next twenty years, Dylan’s chances of being drafted still would have been less than 1 in 40, to 1 in 60.
Having been of draft age during the Vietnam War (born 1951) I am always curious to hear about anybody who didn’t serve or was exempted from the draft during any war (or peacetime).
I don’t think it was that much of a rarity for people getting drafted. (I think the 1 in 40 statistic still seems a bit hgh).
Anyway, Elvis was born in 1935 and was drafted in 1958.
Bob Dylan was born in 1941 and would have been Elvis’ age when drafted, in 1964.
That would be 2 years before the motorcycle accident.
This does seem kind of interesting doesn’t it?
The numbers were relatively small in 1964. Here is a history and draft numbers by year , and here is a page about the Vietnam lotteries . The 1969 lottery was for men born in 1944 through 1950.
The way the military draft worked in the 1960s before the draft lottery in 1969 was that each registration district had a quota to meet. If the district did not make its quota through volunteers, it could begin drafting registrants. The draft worked in age order: 18 years olds first, then 19 year olds, etc., until the quota was met. It was rare that a district had to go past 21-year-olds. Dylan qualified for an educational deferral from 1959 to 1961, when he was 20. Realistically, there was only one year when Dylan faced the possibilty of being drafted, and even then the odds were low, based on the statistics I gave above.
Most of the prominent pop music / youth culture / war protest figures of the Vietnam War era fall into the same category as Dylan - slightly too old to have been in serious danger from the draft. Frank Zappa was born in 1940, Jerry Garcia in 1942 (he had an administrative general discharge anyway, and was lucky he didn’t draw a more unfavourable category), Phil Ochs in 1940, Tom Paxton in 1937, Paul Simon in 1941, Abbie Hoffman in 1936, Jerry Rubin in 1938 …
A lot of the “Don’t trust anyone over 30” bunch was rapidly crowding that age at the time they said it.
Not really. It was said by Jack Weinberg in 1965, when all of those people were in their twenties. And even he didn’t mean it.
I bet more reporters wrote the statement than people in the movement ever said it.
I was around then and if anybody ever said it in my presence it was done sarcastically. I still don’t remember it.
Anyway the point is that the hippie movement started much earlier than people think. It died in 1967, rather than being born in 1967. After that it was just plastic hippies, man.
Zappa was exempt from the draft as a convicted felon. (He was popped on a trumped-up morals charge in 1964–an undercover officer solicited a “sex tape” from him–and did 10 days in jail and three years’ probation.)
I think I know what you mean and agree to a certain extent. But much depends on whatever definition a person is bringing to the label “hippie.” Also, the culture varied from place to place.
I was wondering about this today. Never thought of it before.
Given the information you just listed, that’s cutting it pretty close and I have to wonder how he got out of the draft. My oldest brother was exempt for medical reasons, my x was exempted because he didn’t weigh enough. Weight? Yeah that’s crazy, but back then you had to pass a medical exam. Maybe Dylan didn’t pass that part of it. It could have been something like hearing, it could have been anything. Nevertheless, he was patriotic, I do know that. I think he must have been lucky or his number was not pulled out of the hat. I think that’s how we used to refer to it, although I don’t know. I had two brothers, one medical def. and one enlisted. He wanted to pick where he was going, but crazy thing was, the draft ended a few months after my brother enlisted.