My draft lottery number in 1972 was 10 (out of 365) and if not for a couple sports injuries noted at my induction physical I would probably have been called up, and would have reported. But he did pay a price for his stand and did not, for example, scurry off to Canada and continue his boxing career. So looking back now I have respect for a man my grandfather saw fight in pre-championship bouts in Cincinnati and who he described as the most phenomenally gifted boxer he'd ever seen. In his words, "Clay fights like some giant jungle cat". And apparently Clay likewise saw the Kennedy's for the scum they were. So, warts and all, I'll give the man his due.
My lottery number was 52. I felt like I had a bull’s-eye on my back there for a while. I was fortunate in that I got a student deferment just before those were ended. The draft was ended before I finished college.
My father was one of the early Marine advisors and came back in 1964 and told me and my brothers it was going to be an ugly mess and to stay out of the military if we could. My father was a dyed-in-the-wool patriot but he also was realistic and knew how to read the tea leaves.
Before he was in Nam he was a military liaison with the civilian press in Washington DC. He knew about all the shenanigans well ahead of everybody else. That meaning the Kennedys and the press.
One of Kennedy’s copter pilots lived across the street from us in Woodbridge Virginia. he suddenly got sent to Vietnam as a fighter pilot and was killed in action. It was always my father’s opinion this was a result of seeing and hearing too many things about JFK.