My grandfather was in the UK merchant marine in WW1. He survived four sinkings and his ship hitting a mine.
Pretty much what my Dad did too, although his was more along the lines of his draft number came up while he was in college, so he enlisted in the USAF with the plan to actually go to basic in San Antonio when he graduated.
So when his actual draft notice showed up, he was able to point out that he was already enlisted in the USAF, where they pestered him to be an officer for the entire 4 year term of his enlistment.
I was one of the people who lived through the era of the Vietnam draft. The simple answer was that the Air Force and the Navy were able to meet their needs with enlistments as opposed to conscription, Admittedly a fair number of those enlistments were to avoid the very real danger of being conscripted and ending up in an Army or USMC infantry battalion where there was a very real chance of being sent off to a hot and wet place where little brown people would do their best to kill you. Things became so bad that a decision was made to reduce entry requirements for the Army. The result of that was something called The One-hundred Thousand Program. During Army basic training the 100,000 conscripts were washed out right and left for unsuitability and unfitness, psychological trouble, bed wetting, chronic refusal or inability to do what they were told and just fundamentally being unable to function in a structured setting. The 100,000 conscript was not typical of the general run of conscript, the vast bulk of which made the best of a situation they were not happy with but accepted.
The fact remains that if you ended up as a soldier or Marine there was a better than fair chance that you were going to be shot at. On the other hand, if you enlisted in the Navy or the Air Force there was an equal possibility that no only would you not be shot at, you would not have to sleep on the ground either.
I served with someone who got a low draft number and enlisted. He assumed he was going to be drafted anyway (Army or Marines, likely the Army, based on the numbers). He wanted to make sure he didn’t get a “job that sucked.” He chose Infantry.
I’d call him a bit of a statistical outlier in answering the original question though. 
Not a clear thinker, your buddy, was he ? 
Seems obvious to me that the Navy and the Air Force require more technical skills and more teamwork. Getting a ship from point A to point B requires dozens of skilled people to coordinate their efforts, in multiple shifts. If you end up on a ship with a crew of 120 and one day 5 of them fall overboard and drown and then you find out OOPS those were the only 5 people on board who actually know how the boiler works, the other 115 are in big big trouble. That’s not true of the infantry. You lose 5 grunts out of 120 you still have another 115 grunts, no problem. They don’t specialize as much.
I’ve never been in any branch of the armed services, so maybe I’m wrong. I’m just saying that’s how it looks from the outside, knowing what I know about how complicated ships and airplanes are and talking to people I knew who were in the armed forces.
If I’m right, the Navy and the Air Force need skilled specialists and the Army and Marines don’t, then it seems like good strategy to send all the conscripts to the Army and Marines. Be more choosy about the Navy and Air Force, only take people who actually volunteer for the job and turn away the ones who don’t have any skills. Send the troublemakers in the Army so they won’t have a chance to sabotage an aircraft carrier.
If you were drafted, you had a 2 year active duty obligation. If you enlisted, you had a 3 year active duty commitment. So, many guys who were facing a 2 year Army tour, with a damned good chance of being sent to Vietnam, opted to spend 3 years in the Air Force, Navy, or Coast Guard. And with the longer active commitment, it was more worth those forces while to take the time and spend the money on more technical training.
I enlisted in April 1965 (USAF) and my obligation was four years, not three. Subsequently reduced to three-and-a-half for some budgetary reasons.
The Army and Marines do need some specialists, but you’re right - the Army and Marines have more tolerance for allowing a few marginally skilled warm bodies in and making their teammates pick up the slack. On, say, a bomber, there might only be two radiomen and if one gets shot, the other guy better know his stuff. On the ground, if your Army #1 radioman gets shot and your #2 is a blundering numbskull, you can scout around for another platoon and borrow one of theirs for a few minutes. Not so in an aircraft.
The Army and Marines do need some tank mechanics, auto and truck mechanics, logistics specialists, field medics, and radiomen.
The Navy did draft at one time during the Vietnam War.
I got my draft notice, took physical and a month later left on the bus for the Army.
At the Minneapolis stop, it was announced that the Navy did **not ****** reach it’s enlistment quota and 5 of us would be drafted into the Navy for 2 years.
No one volunteered, so 5 of us were randomly selected and drafted into the Navy for 2 years. Oct 14, 1965-Oct 13 1967
Wouldn’t the Navy have been more safe during the Vietnam War?
By casualty statistics, apparently the safest except for the Coast Guard
Still, you could have some horrific incidents and accidents, and there are legends about how short the life expectancy of some Navy billets were. (For instance, river patrol boat crew)
My father turned 18 in 1971 and his draft number in 1972 was 222, so it was unlikely that he would have been drafted even if they hadn’t been tapering down. So he just missed it. If he had been, I likely never would have been born because my parents got married around 1970, and it took them years of medical treatments on my mother to have me. Many times I wish they hadn’t. Knowing my mother, she would have hopped on another dick as soon as dad stepped foot on an Army bus anyway. At least that’s what ultimately happened when she ran off when I was 5.
Much safer !
None of the Navy draftees in my boot camp even left the US during their 2 years.
I am surprised that it was that high, but you are probably correct, most casualties were from the river boat guys.
I’d have jumped at the chance to be in the Navy instead of the Army.
This recent thread has interesting posts on this: Was every Vietnam era draftee sent to fight in Vietnam? http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=19569763
Plus someone called me a fuckhead or something there, I can’t remember why, so it has some sort of value if that’s what you’re looking for…
Particularly during WWII, I believed that one could not be drafted into the Marines.
A death sentence in the Pacific Theater. Don Adams of the “Get Smart” television series, was a Marine and the only survivor of his unit. He was in hospital with malaria when the last of them were killed.
You are called a fuckhead when they cannot offer an answer to your argument.
A badge of honor, Sir.
After December 1942 it was generally not possible to volunteer directly for any of the US services. Rather you’d wait to be drafted, since individual volunteers had created too much trouble sorting out who was best fit to serve in which capacity, and getting enough men for the Army in particular. However most inductees into the Marines had been given the chance to select their service after being drafted and had chosen the Marines. In fact many were allowed to be discharged as inductees then re-enlist voluntarily. 17 yr olds were also allowed to volunteer directly without being drafted. So most WWII Marines were at least quasi-volunteers.
24,511 Marines were killed of 669,100 serving in WWII, 3.7%; For the Army as a whole it was 318,274 deaths of 11,260,000 serving or 2.8%, but that includes all three major components of the Army, Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces and Army Service Forces. The Marine figures also include Marine air and service units but there weren’t as many relatively, Marine air not as big relatively and some service functions for the Marines were done by the Navy. The AGF alone suffered around 80% of the Army casualties for 4.4 mil having served, 5.7%. A totally ‘fair’ comparison would probably be pretty close to equal for Army and Marines.
In comparing Army and Marines in WWII you have to consider that Marine divisions, all in the Pacific, fought typically furious island battles for days or weeks but with long refit periods in between. Some Army divisions fought alongside them, but most Army divisions fought in Europe where most were in combat continuously most of the time from whenever they arrived (D-Day or after, or in Italy) to the end of the war.
Back to Vietnam the issue there was that it was a localized war which came to occupy a lot of the Army and Marine effort but still not nearly all of it, and much less of the Navy’s. A large % of the US military was still in peacetime service around the world rather than in Vietnam. So for example of those who served in country for the USN 2% were killed, not that much lower than the Army’s 2.7%. But deaths in Vietnam as % of all who served in the Navy 1964-1943 were .14% v .88% for the Army.
http://www.historyshotsinfoart.com/USArmy/overview.cfm
As I stated, the Navy …DID…draft during the Vietnam War.
I don’t know how many months they failed to make their enlistment quota, but I know for sure on October 14th of 1965 they …DID…draft men into the Navy.