I graduated in 1961. There was an active draft, even though we were not yet seriously committed to Viet Nam--it was simply a draftee army in those days.
I knew I would be getting a draft notice to report for a physical--and the likelihood was that you'd be inducted--so I volunteered for the CIA and the Air Force officer program
request kerry's draft records here..
http://www.sss.gov/RECORDS2.HTM
also
http://www.sss.gov/FSdiffer.htm
Before the lottery was implemented in the latter part of the Vietnam conflict, there was no system in place to determine order of call besides the fact that men between the ages of 18 and 26 were vulnerable to being drafted. This lack of a system resulted in uncertainty for the potential draftees during the entire time they were within the draft-eligible age group. All throughout a young man’s early 20’s he did not know if he would be drafted. A draft held today would use a lottery system under which a man would spend only one year in first priority for the draft—either the calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended, whichever came first. If he was not drafted in his first priority year, he dropped into second priority. In this way he would be spared the uncertainty of waiting until his 26th birthday to be certain he would not be drafted.