I wondered the same thing. I went for my pre-induction physical and tried to thing of anything that might get me out of going into the military. When I walked in the door, there was a guy in uniform sitting behind a desk to process us in. He had a severe deformity, with one shoulder jutting out at a weird angle, and his head sort of tucked down in. Think Stephen Hawking. My first thought was “Holy shit, if they took him, I’m totally fucked!”
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My father tried to enlist the day after Pearl Harbor. He was rejected because of a heart murmur (which he didn’t know he had.) He figured that since he’d been rejected, he certainly wouldn’t be drafted, so he got married. Nine months later his heart murmur had magically disappeared and he went off to the Army leaving his now-pregnant wife to fend for herself for the duration.
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My dad was diagnosed with a heart arrhythmia during his draft physical. As this was 1943, the doctor assured him that his heart problem wouldn’t likely kill him. A German shell or a Japanese bullet would do that.
Fortunately, the doctor was wrong, and he actually died of the arrhythmia almost 60 years later.
I think I knew your uncle.
Oh yeah… Vietnam era, 1960’s draft… if you checked “drug use” “LSD” you were immediately sent to the shrink’s office, interviewed, sent home and eventually would receive a 4F classification…
At the Chicago AFEES (induction center) the guy sitting next to me, who looked maybe 50 lbs overweight told be he had eaten 7 lbs of bananas that morning just to be sure he wasn’t taken. I wished him luck. Later in the day, after being advised I was going to the Marines, I asked, “Why me?”
“The guy next to you was too fat,” I was told.
Only raffle I’ve ever won. Of the 113 being drafted that day, the Marines took two.
One former co-worker told me that he starved himself for a while and showed up emaciated and sickly so that he’d be 4F.
I was born in 1963 so I am way too young for the VN draft, however, when I was 17, Carter had just resumed Selective Service registration and Reagan had just been elected. It seems very silly now but a lot of people in my peer group were frightened that Reagan would start a war and the we’d be subject to a draft. Even with Viet Nam in my memory, it didn’t occur to me to try to evade it. Of course there wasn’t an actual war going on but all of my peers remembered the protests over Viet Nam and almost everyone registered.
My father had a slight, skinny build and was near the lower limits of acceptable weight to begin with; problem is, “to begin with” meant “at the weigh-in,” since he didn’t know he was three pounds above the Viet Nam-era minimum until the guy who’d just classed him as 1-A cheerfully spelled it out.
Story from a old co-worker:
He was drafted in the early 1970s and a few of the guys he appeared before the draft board with were all bragging that they had letters from their doctors for flat feet, old broken bones, and other minor health issues. They were convinced that they would be 4-F.
One of the first guys to the front came in on crutches from a recent motorcycle accident. Had a dossier of medical charts under his arm. He presented the documents to the draft board member who flipped through them in a hurry and tossed them aside. Then stamped 1-A on this guy’s card.
My ex co-worker said you could hear the air deflating from the room after watching that.
OTOH, you also had my dad, who dodged Vietnam by fleeing the country… to Israel, where he immediately joined the Israeli military as a combat engineer. The way he saw it, if he was going to fight, he might as well fight for something he believed in.
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Looking at Wikipedia, I see that in 1967, 11,153 troops were killed in Vietnam and 50,724 people were killed on American highways.
In 1968, 16,592 troops were killed in Vietnam, 52,725 people were killed on American highways.
In 1969, 11,616 troops were killed in Vietnam, 53,543 people were killed on American highways.
I’m curious if any of those who burned their draft cards to avoid being killed or killing someone else ever considered burning their driver’s licenses?
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Does this really make sense to you? Hundreds of millions of people drove on the highways. Percentagewise, Viet Nam was significantly more dangerous.
I wasn’t in Drum and Stumble. I was in State Flags.
We did five parades while I was in boot camp, including the Circus Parade in Milwaukee. In that one we marched behind mounted units and elephants.
In white uniforms.
O.K. I see now. It’s a fear factor percentage. The break over percentage point of what’s too dangerous. Everyone has their fear limit, everyone must be careful to never cross the line.
Many thanks.
Heh, I was finishing up my degree in 1980 (courtesy of the GI Bill), and I couldn’t believe how fast the campus loudmouths did a 180 when draft registration was reinstated. It seemed that they went from “let’s go kick some raghead butt” to “hey, as long as they release the hostages, what they do 10,000 miles away isn’t our business” almost overnight, when it dawned on them that they might be more than spectators.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, Dufus. Thank you for sharing that one with us.
OTOH I remember reading that, during the buildup in Saudi Arabia before Desert Storm in 1990-91, fewer U.S. servicemembers died there than would have had they stayed home, due to lack of alcohol, limited leave, and no car crashes.
I totally believe that. Also, the hospitals treated more injuries as a result of sports (like volleyball, flag football, etc) than combat related.
My dad was in the Coast Guard in Alaska during WWII. One of his favorite stories is about some officer who had the petty officers assemble everyone; then he asked if there were any musicians. A few raised their hands - the officer promptly had them unload a piano off the back of a truck and carry it up a few flights of stairs.
“No, but my dad was a piano mover, so…” - Bill Murray, Groundhog Day