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Anybody remember the Vietnam War draft?

Posted on 10/14/2025 5:52:45 AM PDT by LouAvul

I graduated high school in 1971, the same year student deferments ended. That summer I enrolled in a Bible college as a ministerial student. But divinity student deferments had also ended by then.

My question has to do with my lottery number. IIRC, my number was 88 and my district went to ~125 for the draft. Yet, I was never called up.

I wonder why? What condition was there that they would call up all numbers to 125, except mine? My best friend's number was lower than mine and he wasn't called up because he got a hardship deferment. But I didn't have any deferment.


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To: chajin

I graduated in 1972, too. I went to college but two guys there were in AFROTC. Right before graduation they got the visit, and all obligations were cancelled. And they got the free education, too.


21 posted on 10/14/2025 6:21:37 AM PDT by mfish13 ( )
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To: Does so
I still have my draft card, but served during 1967-1971.When was the lottery instituted?

On December 1, 1969, the first draft lottery since 1942 was held, at Selective Service National headquarters in Washington, D.C. The draft determined the “order of call” for 1970 for all men of draft age, which included all men born in the years 1944 through 1950. Approximately 850,000 men were affected by the 1969 draft lottery.

For the lottery, 366 blue plastic capsules, each containing one date of the calendar year, were dumped in a large glass container. The capsules were then drawn out and opened, one by one, and assigned sequentially rising numbers...The highest draft number called for induction from the 1969 lottery was 195.

The next lottery, held in 1970, applied only to men born in the year 1951; the lottery of 1971 covered men born in 1952; and the final lottery in 1972 applied to men born in 1953; however, men born in 1953 were not drafted due to abolition of the draft in 1973. - https://vietnamwardraftlottery.com/lottery-facts/

Vietnam War Draft Lottery
The table below the lottery numbers, by birth date, for the US Selective Service lotteries held from 1969 to 1972 (during the Vietnam war).

22 posted on 10/14/2025 6:25:15 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Turn 2 the Lord Jesus who saves damned+destitute sinners on His acct, believe, b baptized+follow HIM)
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To: HIDEK6

My oldest brother (7 yrs my senior) came home one night saying “I beat the draft” - my dad (a WW2 vet - medic) exploded off the couch yelling about Canada, no son of mine, etc., and my brother smiled, holding up his enlistment papers saying “I joined the Army.”

We got through BCT at Ft. Jackson, SC, radioman school, got off the ship somewhere in S. VN whereupon he collapsed. Doctors found a heart rhythm problem, not just dehydration, sent him right back to America. Total time in country about 3 weeks.

Other brother (3 yrs older) had a #1 lottery number, I forget what year, but he wasn’t called up.

Had a friend one year ahead of me in HS who signed up after graduation, got to VN just in time for the withdrawal but he did see combat.

I missed it by that much, but I did 21 years active, Army, starting in 1976, spent more time along the Ho Chi Minh trail with MIA-POW recovery than my brother would have spent for a full hitch in ‘nam.


23 posted on 10/14/2025 6:27:58 AM PDT by normbal (normbal. Non-native Tennessean.)
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To: LouAvul
I was in the first Vietnam war draft lottery. I was not drafted,

The first draft lottery for the Vietnam War took place on this date at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, DC, marking the first such lottery since 1942. It determined the order of induction for men born between 1944 and 1950, with the drawing televised live to assign numbers from 1 to 366.

The drawing lasted about five hours, with September 14 receiving the lowest number (1), making those born on that date most vulnerable to immediate induction. The highest lottery number actually called for service from this group was 195, meaning men with numbers above that were generally safe.

24 posted on 10/14/2025 6:28:03 AM PDT by mjp (pro-freedom & pro-wealth $)
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To: LouAvul

Graduated high in ‘69, went off to college to persue a Mechanical Engineering degree. I had snaggled a 2S student deferrment at that time and was living in one of the school’s dormitories.
I remember quite well the night they had the draft lottery; when they called #1, I saw a portable TV literally go flying by my 3rd floor window from upstairs...lol. My number was #9. Managed not to flunk out, but about my senior year (1973), I dropped the 2S student deferrment and went 1A fully eligible, but things were winding down and was never called up. I had also been persuing a slot in the USMC Platoon Leadership - Aviation Program after college graduation, and planned on the USMC rather than being drafted. None of which ever happened so I started my career by going to work for a huge construction firm.
FWIW, I lost a lot of school mates and some family members over there. Some made it back but were never the same. Over time, drugs and alcohol took its toll on a lot of em. A couple of em died a slow death supposedly from agent orange exposure.
To this day, I have nothing but the deepest respect and honor for those that served. God bless em all.
.


25 posted on 10/14/2025 6:29:19 AM PDT by lgjhn23 ("On the 8th day, Satan created the progressive liberal to destroy all the good that God created...")
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To: LouAvul

The last one was during my senior year.
Room got real quiet.


26 posted on 10/14/2025 6:34:52 AM PDT by RebelTXRose (Our Lady of Fatima, Pray for us! PRAY THE ROSARY!later)
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To: Palio di Siena

I remember like it was yesterday. We all sat around the radio at my future first husband’s rental house at FSU in Tallahassee. He got 268 in Dade County which is Miami a huge population center. He said “women and children will get called before me”. He was right he never got called. Nobody in our group got called. One had bleeding ulcers, one had a hernia he didn’t know about and the other one couldn’t pass the eye test.


27 posted on 10/14/2025 6:40:25 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: LouAvul

Nixon and the draft board came out with a policy that if you were draft eligible and weren’t drafted by the end of March 1972 you were reclassified as 1H. (only called up in time of war). After that, the draft, I believe was ended.
Happened to me. Nixon was trying to exit Viet Nam and that might have been a first step.
IMHO


28 posted on 10/14/2025 6:41:04 AM PDT by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: LouAvul

I was standing in formation in basic combat training in 1974 and the senior drill sergeant announced that the last of the draftees had left the army. I think there may still have been a few draftees left at that point, but with the winding down of Vietnam, they were few and far between.


29 posted on 10/14/2025 6:47:27 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt (Fascist, deplorable, and proud of it!)
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To: Red Badger
Doonesbury was once funny.

30 posted on 10/14/2025 6:49:05 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: LouAvul

Iirc student deferments didn’t end in 71 I voluntarily turned mine in I took my chances for 90days...think in late 71. I had low number in 80s but there was a low draft call I think end of 71 early 72 and I didn’t get called... I remember a friend in 69 or 70 they got this to his number and his letter but two or three people ahead of him and he didn’t get called. I think each different draft board by location got to different numbers....ever see the movie “ big Wednesday” it marked the Era.


31 posted on 10/14/2025 6:51:52 AM PDT by rolling_stone (e)
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To: LouAvul

I graduated in 1971 as well - but I was born 4/15/52 so my draft number was 325 - the highest number called in that lottery was 95.

I wish I could have that kind of luck in one of the $1B lotteries - but I suppose I would first need to buy a ticket.


32 posted on 10/14/2025 6:54:09 AM PDT by enumerated (81 million votes my ass)
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To: LouAvul

I remember watching it on TV with family as a child. Wondering which older kids in the neighborhood would be called up. Gold stars in many windows from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, already present in neighbor windows. Hoping they would not call more up to a war that was becoming unpopular at home. LBJ’s war, but Nixon was POTUS.


33 posted on 10/14/2025 6:55:48 AM PDT by Pete Dovgan
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To: LouAvul

The year I turned 18, they had call ups to 99. My number was 104. I didn’t get a deferment for college. My folks said if called up to go and get it done. They loved our country.


34 posted on 10/14/2025 6:56:20 AM PDT by healy61
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To: LouAvul

https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/vietnam-lotteries/


35 posted on 10/14/2025 7:04:00 AM PDT by rolling_stone (e)
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To: rolling_stone

They published expected draft calls in the newspaper..every month or so.


36 posted on 10/14/2025 7:06:31 AM PDT by rolling_stone (e)
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To: Captain Compassion

I didn’t pay attention to all that. I enlisted because I saw there were interesting things going on over there and I wanted to go see. The army said I was too skinny so I went to the Air Force That rectuiter was more concerned in my responses to a written test and I flew in C-47s as a radio intercept op. The weather was pleasant at 8000 feet and the women were exquisite.


37 posted on 10/14/2025 7:10:00 AM PDT by ThanhPhero
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To: LouAvul

Got my letter in 1966.
“Greetings from the President of the United States.”

I immediately went down and joined the USAF for four years.

Neighbor got his call up a year later. Stayed in the army and killed in 1968 Vietnam.


38 posted on 10/14/2025 7:11:29 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( REOPEN THE MENTAL HOSPITALS CLOSED IN THE 1970S!)
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To: PIF

Suffice it to say that, for good or evil, the Vietnam war changed many lives.

It did mine.


39 posted on 10/14/2025 7:11:35 AM PDT by old school
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To: Red Badger

Haha, same here. My draft number was 6 in 1970. I got 5 months delayed too when I signed up. I still almost went to Vietnam in ‘72 when the airwar started up again heavy.

I remember in 1968 most of us male students figured our days were numbered.


40 posted on 10/14/2025 7:16:17 AM PDT by OftheOhio (never could dance but always could fight - Romeo company)
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