# Accounts of guilt-wracked men who weren't drafted in US wars?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accounts-of-guilt-wracked-men-who-werent-drafted-in-us-wars/609484>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 14, 2012, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accounts-of-guilt-wracked-men-who-werent-drafted-in-us-wars/609484 "2012-01-14T05:02:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accounts-of-guilt-wracked-men-who-werent-drafted-in-us-wars/609484/81 "2013-01-29T02:31:05Z")

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> [@hajario](#):
>
> It’s pretty much common knowledge. There simply weren’t enough resources to handle the deluge of men who wanted to sign up after the Pearl Harbor attacks. The draft then was just an orderly way to go through the people who wanted to sign up.

My grandfather tried to sign up and ended on a waiting list long almost a year long.

> [@lazyboy](#):
>
> …I had a friend who got # 5 in the same lottery and headed for Canada. It cost him some serious money in legal issues before the draft dodgers received amnesty. I haven’t seen him in 25+ years but I know this. If I had done what he did, I wouldn’t be able to look a Vietnam or ANY Vet in the face----EVER!

One of my mother’s cousins went to Vietnam, lost a leg, and came home with both an honorable discharge and a heroin addiction. He died before I was born and regreted not going to Canada or faking a medical condition like my uncle. His mother regreted it too.

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accounts-of-guilt-wracked-men-who-werent-drafted-in-us-wars/609484/82 "2013-01-29T04:01:36Z")

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> [@shiftless](#):
>
> …
> 
> Anyway, I can’t say I regret not being drafted [during the Vietnam War] but I do sometimes feel like there is a manly club that I will never be in.

It is possible (I am not challenging your statement) that the “manly club” was of less importance than the club of those taking part in preventing the rise of a murderous totalitarianism, during Vietnam (unsuccessfully) and similarly in, eg, WW II (successfully).

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**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/accounts-of-guilt-wracked-men-who-werent-drafted-in-us-wars/609484/83 "2013-01-29T04:25:31Z")

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> [@FuzzyOgre](#):
>
> The conversation reminded me of an event in my own youth…

I was going to gripe about how **applebetty** and I thought we had killed this thread a year ago, but then I read this post. Thank you, **FuzzyOgre** , because I can now die in peace, secure in the knowledge that my role as the Grandpa Simpson of the SDMB will be in your capable hands. 😉

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