# Business Owners being Drafted by Selective Service **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-owners-being-drafted-by-selective-service/658764 "2013-05-19T22:24:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-owners-being-drafted-by-selective-service/658764/21 "2013-05-20T21:33:18Z")
At one time all the Midshipmen attending the State Maritime Academys had their names removed from the draft rolls. From 1967 until July I had no draft status. And when someone at the local draft board goofed and clasified me 1A in December 1969 the academy’s administration had that status changed to no claissification and name removed from draft list. but at graduation if you did not recieve a reserve Naval Commission and did not ship out the Army would be knocking on your door in about a week. ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-owners-being-drafted-by-selective-service/658764/22 "2013-05-21T00:19:24Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > In the days of the draft, especially during the Vietnam War when a LOT of college-aged kids were drafted, but before the draft lottery was started, military service fell heavily to poor, undereducated, and underprivileged kids, and that largely meant blacks. > > Kids with more advantageous backgrounds tended to get into college, and could get deferments because of that. Better-off kids could get into the Army Reserve or National Guard. (Can you say George W. Bush, for example?) > > This left the poorer demographic. They got disproportionately drafted. > > Or, alternatively, they enlisted in desperation, in the hope of escaping poverty. The military promised skills training that could help them be employable after they got out. For blacks in particular, this largely failed: They tended not to be chosen for special skills training, but instead got assigned to infantry, to be sent to Vietnam to die. > > These problems became very controversial and were much discussed and debated at the time. This was one of the reasons they started the lottery system. > > A few cites I was just now able to google up with some discussion: > [http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s\_z/stevens/africanamer.htm](http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/africanamer.htm) > [http://www.amistadresource.org/civil\_rights\_era/black\_opposition\_to\_vietnam.html](http://www.amistadresource.org/civil_rights_era/black_opposition_to_vietnam.html) > > Google blacks drafted during Vietnam war to find more. I lived in the US in the sixties and was eligible for the draft as a green card holder. I was at high school and college. No-one I knew of personally was sent to Viet Nam as cannon fodder. We were white, educated, savvy and calculating. I did not lose one friend to enemy action- they made decisions such as- join voluntarily- longer time served but a safe job (especially the Air Force), volunteer for the Peace Corps, feign illness, get a picture of you sucking someone off in a picture booth. Those that were unlucky enough to get drafted usually ended up in non-combatant roles because they were educated and competent. Life was very unfair! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2013, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-owners-being-drafted-by-selective-service/658764/23 "2013-05-21T05:58:40Z")
I would have been a number above 300, but I was 30 years old and had already been in Canada for seven years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/business-owners-being-drafted-by-selective-service/658764.md?page=1)