# Charlie Daniels' Draft Deferment **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 25, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366 "2003-05-25T05:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/21 "2003-05-27T21:20:48Z")
Elvis Presley was born January 8, 1935 and as we all know he HAD to go into the army. Elvis was born just 1 year before Charlie, so what made Mr. Daniels a special case ? ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/22 "2003-05-27T21:21:56Z")
Well, I don’t hate conservatives _or_ liberals. But I think it’s possible that when the subject is prior military service, some of you conservatives cut too much slack for your own. (Make no mistake, though: the left is just as easy on the hypocrisy of ‘limousine liberals’). I find Charlie Daniels’ recent right-wing rhetoric kind of funny, given that many of us had our first taste of him around 1973 with “The Ballad of the Uneasy Rider”, a delightful novelty song that contained some very cutting humor at the expense of ‘rednecks’. The song’s villains hate ‘long-hairs’, and belong to the John Birch Society – I wonder how Charlie would react if someone wrote that song today? Maybe the Dixie Chicks should re-record it? 🙂 > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by fool4jesus \* > \*\*Some of you liberals hate conservatives way too much. Hope your 2 months was well-spent. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/23 "2003-05-27T21:33:21Z")
C’mon, _everybody_ knows that kings are expected to serve in the military! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolf\_meister \* > \*\*Elvis Presley was born January 8, 1935 and as we all know he HAD to go into the army. Elvis was born just 1 year before Charlie, so what made Mr. Daniels a special case ? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/24 "2003-05-27T22:03:38Z")
Elvis had to go because he got drafted. One [site](http://www.geocities.com/elvis_is_alive_ru/stats.htm) has his Selective Service number as 40-8635-16, and his Army Serial Number (draft number) as 53310761. Can anyone decipher this as to whether or not it is a high number? Unfortunately, CD is not as popular as Elvis, so his draft status is not as readily available. ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/25 "2003-05-27T23:00:12Z")
In regard to Elvis, whether he could have gotten out of the draft or not, it was spun that he could have but chose to expose himself to the draft anyway(Elvis the patriot!) and during his military service, his career was pushed by his manager and media with new recordings released. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/26 "2003-05-27T23:50:55Z")
We are, of course, **not** going to have a debate about liberals or conservatives or attitudes toward the military or anything else in this thread. What we are going to do is seek a General Answer to the question on the table. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/27 "2003-05-28T00:14:13Z")
According to _Going to College to Avoid the Draft: The Unintended Legacy of the Vietnam War_ by David Card and Thomas Lemieux, > [@](#): > > A relatively high fraction of potential inductees failed the tests. In fiscal year 1965 (just prior to the ramp-up of inductions associated with the war), 44 percent of examinees were found unfit for service: about one-half of these failed the medical standards and one-half failed the mental standards. . . > > Until the institution of the draft lottery [in 1969, the first draft lottery held since 1942], the sequence of induction from among those available for service was set by order of the President, with the highest priority for ‘delinquents’ [men who failed to register or failed to report for pre-induction testing], second priority for volunteers, and third priority for non-volunteers between the ages of 19 and 25, in order of their dates of birth (i.e., from oldest to youngest). Although other groups could be called, most draft boards were able to fill their quotas from the these three categories, even at the peak of the draft. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/28 "2003-05-29T19:29:54Z")
Hello again, Wasn’t there a time when just being married would qualify as a draft deferment? Anyway, I haven’t been able to narrow down Charlie’s wedding date but I’ve surmised it is roughly 1970 so the chances are VERY remote this would have been the reason. Oh and in response to “fool4 jesus”, those two months WERE well-spent. If I am to be insulted, please use proper grammar. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/29 "2003-05-30T00:54:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolf\_meister \* > **Hello again, > Wasn’t there a time when just being married would qualify as a draft deferment?** Here is a summary of [draft board classifications](http://www.landscaper.net/draft.htm#Draft%20Board%20Classifications). These are from the Vietnam era, but I doubt that they changed much over time. According to this list, having a child would prevent you from being classified I-A (this is not technically a “deferment”), but simply being married would not. \*\* > [@](#): > > Oh and in response to “fool4 jesus”, those two months WERE well-spent. > If I am to be insulted, please use proper grammar. \*\* It’s well and good to spend time on what you believe, but I do think that you’re chasing shadows here. I think you’ve been misled, from reading about the shenanigans of Vietnam-era politicians, into thinking that every young man _during the entire 1941-1973 era of the draft_ either (a) pulled some sleazy stunt to avoid being eligible for the draft; or (b) got drafted. This wasn’t entirely true even during Vietnam, and it wasn’t true at all for the peacetime period between Korea and Vietnam. If in fact Charlie was missing part of a finger, that by itself might have gotten him classified IV-F. If not, it’s unlikely that either the odds of or the consequences of being drafted were great enough to cause him to take extraordinary action. I can’t put definitive numbers on this. I can’t say what his odds of being drafted were if he was classified I-A, or would have been save for some disreputable stunt. It would depend on the pool of young men in his area–how many were physically and mentally fit and how many volunteered. But whatever those odds were, they were much lower than they were during Vietnam. They were only taking one-fifth as many guys! And if you _did_ get drafted, you didn’t get shot at by guerrillas in the jungle. You just don’t often hear of people taking desperate measures to avoid a peacetime draft. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2003, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366/30 "2003-05-30T01:03:11Z")
Perhaps further debate should be postponed until someone obtains a copy of Charlie Daniels’ Selective Service classification record. Even with that in hand, further research has to be done into the quota fulfillments of his local draft board(s). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charlie-daniels-draft-deferment/177366.md?page=1)