# Is There a List of All Old US Draft Lottery Numbers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 20, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337 "2019-07-20T04:25:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/1 "2019-07-20T04:25:24Z")
# It would seem that given some person’s birthday & such a list we could determine if that person would have been drafted save for some exemption. But I have been unable to find such a list. Let me explain for you youngsters. In order to be random, all the birthdays for a certain year were drawn at random, first to last. The military then determined how many men it needed. They were then conscripted based on their birthday’s number. The men whose number were low were certain to be drafted. The lucky ones whose birthday was #365 were certain not to be drafted. When I was a kid, all the boys understood this system and knew their lottery number. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/2 "2019-07-20T04:35:11Z")
[Here’s a lis](http://www.randomservices.org/random/data/Draft.html)t for the numbers for men born 1944-1973. No new draft orders were issued for men born after 1972. My draft number was 93. The highest number for that year was 125, so I would have been called if I hadn’t had a 2S student deferment. By the time I graduated in 1973 they were no longer issuing draft orders. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/3 "2019-07-20T04:44:30Z")
Now how did you find that so easily? I looked, honest I did. Thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/4 "2019-07-20T07:36:05Z")
I’ve always wondered what my draft lottery number was, but wasn’t sure which year’s drawing applied to me. Turns out I didn’t have one, since I was born one year too late. Damn it, I went down to the courthouse to register on my 18th birthday for nothing! ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/5 "2019-07-20T08:48:13Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I’ve always wondered what my draft lottery number was, but wasn’t sure which year’s drawing applied to me. Turns out I didn’t have one, since I was born one year too late. Damn it, I went down to the courthouse to register on my 18th birthday for nothing! You registered for nothing? The last soldiers of the Red Army left Afghanistan when I was half a year old, but I still had to register to fight them when I was 18. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/6 "2019-07-20T09:41:35Z")
My lucky number was 359, but I had already told them I was gay. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/7 "2019-07-20T13:57:35Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My lucky number was 359, but I had already told them I was gay. Are you? ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/8 "2019-07-21T00:51:33Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Damn it, I went down to the courthouse to register on my 18th birthday for nothing! It’s still US law for men. If you don’t register there are repercussions. One of the most widespread impacts on not registering is on college students. Not registering means not not being eligible for federally funded financial aid programs. Just because you weren’t going to be drafted doesn’t mean you did it for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/9 "2019-07-21T01:30:57Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > [Here’s a lis](http://www.randomservices.org/random/data/Draft.html)t for the numbers for men born 1944-1973. No new draft orders were issued for men born after 1972. I think you mean men born 1944-1953, not 1973. That page doesn’t show the draft numbers that were drawn in 1973-1975, for men born in 1954-1956. I had lucky number 10 in one of those, but since the draft had ceased it was not significant, although somewhat worrying were the draft to be reinstated. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/10 "2019-07-21T02:07:02Z")
I never registered for the draft. Registration hasn’t been continuous: it stopped, then started again later. I was in the group that was too young to register when it was abolished, and too old to register when it was re-established. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/11 "2019-07-21T02:14:23Z")
I am totally confused by this whole issue. Born 1950. Registered 1968. Endless war, Endless doom. But I had a 2-S college deferment. Got tear gassed going to class once, but that was it for involvement with _NAM_ I remember that they _changed_ the draft eligibility/doom sentence to _one year only_ based upon yearly lotteries. Yes? As I entered my last year of sanctioned deferment, my fuck-it-all head dropped my 2-S for a 1-A since I would have had to go anyway the next year, and I took the gamble. Dropped my 1-A in 71 then, graduated in 72. I _clearly_ remember the yearly draft of the time that I thought would have covered me. I have always maintained (I actually read newspapers as a teen) that in my year, in which my number was 187, the draft went to 183. Lucky. I have always told people this. How am I so wrong. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/12 "2019-07-21T02:16:20Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Are you? Of course. It wasn’t as easy to fake as people thought. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/13 "2019-07-21T02:35:16Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > It would seem that given some person’s birthday & such a list we could determine if that person would have been drafted save for some exemption. Not quite. Draft boards covered specific geographic areas. One draft board might cover a rural county, while another might only cover a couple of square miles in a city. Each board had a quota, but the quota was independent of the area population. My particular draft board had a relatively large population of [DEL]cannon fodder[/Del] undeferred men of draft age, as well as many others who enlisted. Despite my relatively low lottery number (107) I was never in serious danger of being called up. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/14 "2019-07-21T14:49:32Z")
Are other people seeing the draft numbers for themselves being off on that page? Mine is definitely wrong. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/15 "2019-07-21T17:06:55Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Are other people seeing the draft numbers for themselves being off on that page? > > Mine is definitely wrong. Mine is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/16 "2019-07-21T17:30:57Z")
I think mine is correct. Fortunately for me, I had a medical 1Y deferrment (later changed to 4F) for asthma. I was born in 1949 so I was prime age for that war. I was also gay, but I wasn’t telling anyone that in those days. And I thought the 2-S college deferment was getting shaky or was scheduled to be off the table or something. Just a dim memory, but I remember thinking, before my deferment, that I could have been drafted even though I was going to college. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/17 "2019-07-21T18:56:04Z")
That page doesn’t give the number I remember, but it’s only a couple off, and I could be misremembering. Low number, anyway, but I was the last year that could get a 2S (student deferment that lasted until graduation, as opposed to the 1S, which only let you complete your current term). Draft boards had a habit of pointing out that your eligibility was extended by 2 years for every year you deferred on a 2S - “You’ll be eligible until you’re 35”. Of, course, the draft was over by the time I graduated, and I got a final card that read “1H”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/18 "2019-07-22T15:54:38Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My lucky number was 359, but I had already told them I was gay. Come to think of it, I vaguely remember my number being in the high 200s, like 280-something. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/19 "2019-07-26T17:46:42Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Draft boards had a habit of pointing out that your eligibility was extended by 2 years for every year you deferred on a 2S - “You’ll be eligible until you’re 35”. Yeah, and if you can make my 35-year-old ass jump through hoops in Basic, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din. Strike hard who cares - scream loud who can The odds are on the older man. ---
**Author:** ![I.Dunno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9f8e36/32.png) [@I.Dunno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I.Dunno)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337/20 "2019-07-26T19:44:17Z")
My number (from the 1970 draft) is correct. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-list-of-all-old-us-draft-lottery-numbers/837337.md?page=2)