My father enlisted in the Coast Guard in the late 50’s because he knew his draft number was coming up. In the late 60’s my father-in-law knew his was coming up, so he enlisted in the Marines (he thought his bad eye sight and flat feet would disqualify him, he was wrong). Were upcoming draft numbers published in the newspaper or something?
Vietnam era, mine was published in the newspaper.
Yes, in the papers. They were also (at least in the late 60s, early 70s) read aloud on TV the night the numbers and dates were drawn. They had two bingo-type cages of 365 balls each, one with dates and the other with a number indicating how soon people born that date would be called up. (#1 being the earliest, #365 the last.) In 1971, when I turned 18, my date was called fairly early and teamed with #35. I was called up for my physical early the next year and was told they didn’t want me. Since I was in college, I was mainly just relieved.
My uncle always said a friend on the draft board warned him. My uncle was a single dad, in his thirties and raising 2 kids. He had a good job at a Chevy dealership. He quickly took a job at the Red River Army Depot plant in Texarkana. This was WWII. Working in a defense plant protected him from the draft.
This wikipedia article is about a 1969 lottery for drafting men in 1970, but it might provide some context. I imagine that the full lottery results might have been printed in newspapers in December, so that you’d know your number for the draft was 92 or whatever. Then if they published the draft numbers that were called, and 84 through 86 were called this week, it wouldn’t be too hard to guess that you might be called in another 3 weeks or so.
As a follow-up, did enlisting in your preferred branch of service and being disqualified really shield you from the draft? I would think it would be easy for the draft board to say “Well, we’ll see if the Army can still use you first.”
The birthday bingo numbers didn’t start until the early 70s (1972 IIRC). Before that, draftees were selected by local draft boards.
ETA: I see from chrisk’s link that I was off by a couple of years, but 72 is when I got my number…
I don’t understand the need for two drawings. Why wasn’t the first date ball #1 and then the second #2 and so on? What do you need the numbered balls for?
Double randomization, to make it seem more fair.
Good place to toss in that of about eight million who served in the Vietnam era…
six million
…were volunteers of one kind or another.
Read chrisk’s wikipedia link for the explanation.
Yes, double randomization. Seemed screwy to me at the time.
Being born in 1954 my year wasn’t called up but I still remember the uneasy feeling I got when I realized my number was in the first third of the lottery.
Anti-war sentiment was everywhere in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Without any prompting on my part the following scenario unfolded.
When I was 17 I had hearing loss measured in high school and then had a clinic check it out. The operator of the clinic told me that my hearing was only slightly impaired but if later on I should get a letter from selective service I should go immediately that day to the clinic (don’t worry about an appointment) and have my hearing checked. She was sure that on that day I would not pass the test and have medical proof that I was unfit for service.
My number was something like 150 in 1972. I planned to join the USAF after high school anyway, so it didn’t really matter.
My number was 59 in 1972, but they weren’t drafting anybody until they turned 19, classifying 18 year olds 1H, or “holding”. The draft law expired the day after my 19th birthday, and it wasn’t renewed, so technically I was 1A for 24 hours.
Draft lottery #107 checking in here. Before the lottery was put in place, your chances of being called up felt a lot more random. I can’t say it actually was random, but it sure as hell felt that way to the young men in the draft pool.
The first thing you should know was that the country was divided into local draft boards. Some had large populations of draft-age men and some were small. Every local board had a yearly quota of draftees it was supposed to fill.
With the lottery, we at least knew who would be called first – depending on the size of the local draft board pool and the number of men in it who had received deferments. If you were undefered and your lottery number was in the lowest 1/3 (1-122) you were pretty likely to be called up. Higher numbers, particularly where the local pool was very large, meant you might squeak through.
And I guarantee, if you had a lottery number, you knew exactly what it was!
If you enlisted AND were accepted then you wouldn’t be drafted – although your term of service as an enlistee was longer than if you were drafted. However, your preferred branch of service might have had its quota full at the time, or you might have been disqualified for some other reason, in which case you went right back into the draft pool.
I was 86 in 1970, but my student deferment kept me out of the war. One term, there was a mixup and I was classified 1-A, but that was fixed before they called me.
Yeah, I drew a number 22, and my application for a 2-S happened simultaneously with a summons for a physical. They did cancel the physical before I actually had to show up for it. I was the last year that could get a 2-S. The class a year younger than me couldn’t get them. A couple years older, they wound up graduating and going back in the pool.
In 1962 there were no numbers that we knew anything about. I think the local draft board had some sort of quota and pulled the next oldest bunch up.
A lady on the draft board my mother knew let her know my name was coming up in a month.
I was 21 at the time and at18 I had my pre-induction physical and preliminary testing so I knew I was going to be accepted.
I joined which meant I had to serve 3 years instead of the 2years I would have been required to serve if I had been drafted. The compensation was that I was promised the MOS (military occupation specialty) that I wanted.
The draft board tried to draft my father while he was serving on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific. I guess there wasn’t alot of cross checking between the Army and Navy since his wife had a devil of a time getting everything straightened out.
That was the problem with old-style paper files. Sometimes one hand didn’t know what the other was doing. I’m sure the DOD has everything solved and runs with peak efficiency these days.
Actually, there were 366 dates and numbers to account for those with birthdays on February 29.