America's Last Draftee: "I'm a Relic"

America's generals love to brag about their all-volunteer Army. That's because they tend to overlook Jeffrey Mellinger. He donned his Army uniform for the first time on April 18, 1972, about the time the Nixon Administration was seeking "peace with honor" in Vietnam and The Godfather was opening on the silver screen. Nearly 37 years later, he's still wearing Army green. Mellinger is, by all accounts, the last active-duty draftee serving in the U.S. Army.

"I'm a relic," Mellinger concedes with a self-deprecating laugh. But the last of the nearly 2 million men ordered to serve in the Vietnam-era military before conscription ended in 1973 still impresses 19-year-old soldiers. "Most of them are surprised I'm still breathing, because in their minds I'm older than dirt," the fit 55-year-old says. "But they're even more surprised when they find out this dinosaur can still move around pretty darn quick."

Mellinger was working as a 19-year-old drywall hanger in Eugene, Oregon, when he came home to find a draft notice waiting for him. "I went down to the draft board and asked them if this was really serious," he recalls, "or if it was like an invitation." But it was an order, the first of many Mellinger would obey. He started his military career as a clerk in what was then called West Germany, and was looking forward hanging up his uniform after two years of service. "I was dead-set on getting out," he says.

It is interesting ... I remember Nixon ... Woodstock ... and wodnering if my brother would be drafted and of course the casualty count every night at dinner time.

excerpt:

America’s generals love to brag about their all-volunteer Army. That’s because they tend to overlook Jeffrey Mellinger. He donned his Army uniform for the first time on April 18, 1972, about the time the Nixon Administration was seeking “peace with honor” in Vietnam and The Godfather was opening on the silver screen. Nearly 37 years later, he’s still wearing Army green. Mellinger is, by all accounts, the last active-duty draftee serving in the U.S. Army.

“I’m a relic,” Mellinger concedes with a self-deprecating laugh.

But the last of the nearly 2 million men ordered to serve in the Vietnam-era military before conscription ended in 1973 still impresses 19-year-old soldiers.

“Most of them are surprised I’m still breathing, because in their minds I’m older than dirt,”
the fit 55-year-old says.

“But they’re even more surprised when they find out this dinosaur can still move around pretty darn quick.”

This is an impressive man.

This guy may have originally been a draftee, but as soon as he signed his re-enlistment papers, he became a volunteer, and has been ever since.

Exactly, many draftees came in and many draftees reenlisted, if one checks they will see draftees that became what ever soldiers and marines become, is it so surprising that once a guy gets into the military that he is just one of the guys?

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