The 1970 Vietnam Draft Lottery came up today in my Creative

[WCGreen]

writing class...

There was a poem in the anthology about the night the numbers were drawn from the perspective of college aged men and women...

It was gut wretching...

The poem hit me hard since I happen to be with several college aged camp counselors that night as they waited to see if their number came up...

I was only in seventh grade but knew a couple of kids from the high school where my mom taught who were already serving in Vietnam....

No one in the class, including the teacher, had any idea what I was talking about so I took about three or four minutes and explained why they had a lottery and why it was different from calling back the reservists to Iraq recently....

The class was stone silent...

About 15 kids and the teacher had no idea what a draft really was, why this night was different....

I told them a lot of privileged kids could get out of serving if they went to college, joined the national guard or became a police or fireman, to name a few...

I told them that on that night, the War became real to millions of kids who were either for the war or ambivilent about it....

That night, the cost of the war hit in all the living rooms of America, not just those in the country or the inner city...

I said perhaps Mr. Bush wouldn't be so cavalier with young American lives if his people, his class suddenly became part of everyday American life...

Then it would be back to being a democracy where everyone had a stake in what our leaders did...

[Monkeyman]

1. Yep numbers came up people died

The Wall of my Brothers who went before me says it all. By the way Rove;s number was 85 but somehow later that week he was 4F

[TomInTib]

5. I have always wondered how many guys are on The Wall due to bad luck

in the Lottery.

I was already in country when the Lottery went down.
My number would have been 34.

[DancingBear]

10. My number was 320 in '71

Almost all of us "freaks" in the dorm room that night pulled 250 or higher, and the party was just about to begin.

Just then, Russ, the clean cut kid from PA, pulled 50.

We all got very quiet after that.

Thankfully, I don't think he ever was drafted.

[BrotherBuzz]

15. I drew # 14 in 1971

It's the only thing I ever remember winning, a two year no-cut contract. I was drafted in May 1972 while I was in college because they stopped issuing deferments by then.

[kohodog]

16. I was 260. But a good friend was 7.

He went to Japan as a CO. They didn't get too far down the list in 71 though.

[abluelady]

2. I'm a Bit Older Than You Are

I remember the night so well. We were stuck in an ice storm, I was 8 months pregnant and we were listening to the lottery on the car radio. My husband's birthday was the second number called. I'm amazed I didn't give birth in the car. He had a deferment because of my pregnancy, which we weren't sure would still work. But it did, and he never was called up. (The baby was planned and wanted; she was not conceived in order to enable him to avoid the draft.)

[Monkeyman]

3. He is one luckey man that hell hole he missed nothing

[NEOhiodemocrat]

4. I remember that night also

boys I had gone to highschool with calling everyone with the "good' or "bad" news, according to where their birthdate was called. We were 19 that year. I think what made the war real for me thought was the bodycounts on the news every night. I could not believe what I percieved as the US bragging about the number of persons killed each day. I still can't believe my country at times like that. Where is our humanity? When the towers went down, the first thing I thought was, well we will have to kill 10 for each American who died on this day. Now I realize I seriously underestimated the number we will kill in revenge. It is just too sad. We need to call collateral damage by its true name, dead civilians and children.

[larrysh]

6. Once we have the House, Senate, and White House, I hope

to God the leadership of our party have the guts to institute another draft.....only this time, everyone goes! No exemptions! Women should be drafted as well, as anything else would be grossly unfair. Everyone goes, everyone serves 2 years. Then, maybe some of this military adventurism would come to an end! And, Republican kids would be forced
to serve too!

[NMDemDist2]

7. Welcome to DU NEOhiodemocrat!

:hi:

[ooga booga]

8. remember it well....

I hit college in the fall of 1971 -- right when the college deferment was officially gone. The high school deferment was still in place, but being able to go to college had just lost the ability to protecting you from being involuntarily drawn into the Vietnam War. ROTC became a popular option as a stalling tactic. And -- funny thing -- when affluent people could no longer bail their sons out of Nam that way -- support for the war started to fade away rather rapidly. It was no longer just the blue collar guys, the ghetto and barrio guys and the farm boys anymore.

My birthday is December 30 which landed on 167 on the lottery so I was safe. I had a couple of friends who had numbers like 16 or so. They joined the National Guard as quickly as they could, but even that landed them in Fort Polk, Louisiana, but, luckily NOT into Nam.

One guy in my high school joined the Air Force and ASKED to go to Da Nang near the DMZ. He used to tell everyone that Da Nang had only been attacked once in the war. Well, guess what? Along about the time Craig would have been in Da Nang, the enmy hit Da Nang really hard. He made it through somehow.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi ooga booga!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[No Exit]

9. Just like Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery"

"We have to sacrifice some of YOU so we can continue to live in prosperity." (This is not a quote from the story; it is my interpretation of the message.)

[MaineDem]

11. I remember the '69 lottery

I was in a women's dorm but we all had friends and brothers who were impacted. I remember it like it was yesterday. Sad.

Here's a link to the first lottery and the numbers drawn: http://www.landscaper.net/draft.htm#How's%20your%20%22Luck%20of%20the%20Draw%22?

[sinkingfeeling]

12. And before the 'lottery', you turned 18 and were classified when you

registered for the draft. That's where you got your deferments for college (and boy, did college-bound males increase between '62 and '68), having dependents, etc. Then each draft board filled the slots with those who were physically and emotionally tested and classed as 1-A.

[ComerPerro]

13. Just keep in mind... The REASON we have drafts in the first place

is because Republican chickenshits lack the moral courage to actually go defend this country in a war they broght on and they actively support.