It sounds good, doesn't it? I was shocked to learn today that EACH YEAR counted as one deferment! I guess my husband got four!
It's pure media obfuscation. The real issue is the number of soldiers drafted and sent to Vietnam in each year from 1964 to 1975. Volar (Vol Army) started in approximately 1970-71. I know because I joined in 1970 under the old system...my first pay check was about 90 bucks a month.
Volar kicked in while I was at Ft Myer in DC in '71. My pay went from that 90+ all the way up to about 180 bucks in one fell swoop. Then it got kicked again when I got to Germany in 1972...up into the mid 300's if I remember correctly. That was when the mark/dollar ratio was about 4.5 to one. The Volunteer Army was off and running and the draft stopped dead in those years...maybe 1973 or 74...I don't exactly remember.
If Cheney was 26 in 1969 then he was ineligible by age in 1970. If he was married with a dependent in 1969 then he was ineligible by virtue of that family with dependents.
The draft didn't really heat up until about 1966 or 67 so there was really only a 2 year window for the man to have had his number come up.
Not every eligible was drafted in those years. I'm interested in how they chose which names to send letters to. They were using a lottery in 1968 and 1969 I'm sure because I remember my birthdate number being below 100 each of the two years before I was eligible (1970.)