# What Would Have Been (Or Was) Your Draft Lottery Number During Vietnam? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745 "2011-04-09T02:28:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dano83860](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a4c791/32.png) [@Dano83860](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dano83860)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/21 "2011-04-09T15:02:46Z")
I was eligible for the 1972 lottery and my number was 336. I remember the history teachers tracking it on the black boards in the common room. All the seniors would duck in on their way to class. About lunch time I knew I was safe. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/22 "2011-04-09T15:09:01Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It was nearly impossible to get into the National Guard, unless your daddy was connected (George Bush is an example), . A good friend of mine had heard that and was scared shitless when he drew a very low number. He was prepared to drive all over California to find a guard unit that would take him because Santa Barbara was supposed to be totally stacked with rich kids. He went down the street to the Santa Barbara office and was signed up within an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/23 "2011-04-09T15:13:13Z")
54 :eek: I still remember when the Gulf War started (when I was 10) my dad telling me that if they started the draft, he was going to move me to Canada. I don’t think he was joking. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/24 "2011-04-09T15:28:05Z")
I am confused how to read this table. According to it, my father’s number would have been 222, and the highest number called was 195 – but he was called up. He didn’t serve; he was bounced from the medical review. But he was **definitely not** a volunteer. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/25 "2011-04-09T15:34:11Z")
I was 82. Was even classified as 1-A for a short time when my college didn’t fill in the paperwork for my student deferment. By the time I graduated, though, the war was winding down. (The linked chart didn’t apply to me; mine lottery was a couple of years later)\> ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/26 "2011-04-09T15:49:39Z")
I was born in '86, but had I been born 16 years earlier I’d be 333. What’s funny is I originally looked at the wrong date and saw 011 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/27 "2011-04-09T15:57:30Z")
Too young to have served, but my number would’ve been under 50 on the linked chart. And my family is a long way from being politically connected. So, I’d have volunteered and tried to crush whatever the equivalent of the ASVAB was back then. Hopefully, I could have followed what my dad ended up doing during that time, and ended up doing something technical and far away from people who wanted to shoot me. Of course, since the military is the military, I probably would’ve ended up in the Cav, carrying an M-16, and walking through some garden spot like the [Fishhook](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Campaign)… ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/28 "2011-04-09T16:03:09Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > I am confused how to read this table. According to it, my father’s number would have been 222, and the highest number called was 195 – but he was called up. He didn’t serve; he was bounced from the medical review. But he was **definitely not** a volunteer. They had a new lottery for every year and they got to a different number in different years too. Was that his year? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/29 "2011-04-09T16:03:42Z")
They stopped the draft the year before I turned 18, but the 1970 table has me at 170. Just low enough to have made me a bit nervous had the war still been going on full tilt. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/30 "2011-04-09T16:30:33Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > A good friend of mine had heard that and was scared shitless when he drew a very low number. He was prepared to drive all over California to find a guard unit that would take him because Santa Barbara was supposed to be totally stacked with rich kids. He went down the street to the Santa Barbara office and was signed up within an hour. He was lucky, but it also depends on the year. As the war wound down in 1971-72 and troops were being withdrawn, it coincided with those guard enlistments expiring and more openings happening. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/31 "2011-04-09T16:32:08Z")
240 for me. I partied hard that New Year’s Eve when my year of eligibility had rolled by. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/32 "2011-04-09T16:39:47Z")
003! I would have been fucked! Luckily I’m a female born in 1990. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/33 "2011-04-09T17:22:28Z")
1. Luckily for me I’m female, Canadian, and too young to have been eligible. Triple play! ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/34 "2011-04-09T17:39:31Z")
89 - and I didn’t have to look it up. Not a number I will forget. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/35 "2011-04-09T17:47:04Z")
257 Still got classified 1A in 1970 two months after I recieved my inactive commission in the Navy as an Ensign. My appeal was denied as not a good reason. ---
**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:** [April 9, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/36 "2011-04-09T17:49:43Z")
My lottery number was 93. (Since I was born in 1951, my lottery was the following year to the one shown in the link.) If I hadn’t had a student deferment, that number was low enough that I almost certainly have been drafted. By the time I graduated in 1973 and became 1-A, they were taking so few that my number was high enough that I never got called. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/37 "2011-04-09T17:51:29Z")
100, so yeah ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/38 "2011-04-09T18:02:14Z")
1. Fortunately, I also am Canadian and too young. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/39 "2011-04-09T18:10:46Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Pretty common, I think, at least for people who preferred not to be a ground pounder or a grunt. It was nearly impossible to get into the National Guard, unless your daddy was connected (George Bush is an example), so the Navy and Air Force were able to easily fill their quotas with people fleeing the Army draft system. I still ended up on the ground in RVN, but wasn’t part of a combat unit. Toward the end of Vietnam, there was also the College Deferment, which meant that as long as you were enrolled fulltime and pursuing a degree, you couldn’t be drafted until you’d graduated. A lot of people hoped that Vietnam would be over by that time. Bill Clinton was one of those. ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745/40 "2011-04-09T18:12:28Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Pretty common, I think, at least for people who preferred not to be a ground pounder or a grunt. It was nearly impossible to get into the National Guard, unless your daddy was connected (George Bush is an example), so the Navy and Air Force were able to easily fill their quotas with people fleeing the Army draft system. I still ended up on the ground in RVN, but wasn’t part of a combat unit. The Coast Guard had all the volunteers they could use, too. I pulled a 249 in '72. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-have-been-or-was-your-draft-lottery-number-during-vietnam/577745.md?page=3)