December Memory

The month of December brings up a slew of memories from my seventy-seven years.  Most are positive, but I’m happy to have some in my rearview mirror.  The selective service draft held on December 1, 1969 is one of those.  I had started teaching in the fall of that year and had a deferment because of my teaching assignment.  Those deferments were ignored when the draft was held.

The Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. reinstated the draft lottery on December 1, 1969. This event determined the order of call for induction during the calendar year 1970 for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. My brothers from the Lambda Chi fraternity and I were included in this draft.  They didn’t have the technology of today so three hundred and sixty-six blue plastic capsules containing birth dates were placed in a large glass jar and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the 18-26 age range specified in the Selective Service Law.

The capsules were drawn from the jar, opened and the dates inside posted in order. The event was broadcast live by radio and television. The first capsule contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1. The drawing continued until all days of the year had been matched to lottery numbers.  My birthday, May 29th, was the 226th number drawn.  June 8th was the last number.

My roommate, Mike, and I held a draft watch party in our apartment.  Many of my fraternity brothers attended.  We drank beer and kept a running list of who’s number had been drawn and who’s remained on the board.  The United States was involved in the Viet Nam war at the time.  Many of us thought if we were drafted, we were headed to Viet Nam.  In the end, that didn’t prove to be the case.

Several of my fraternity brothers entered the service through the draft as they were ordered to report throughout the coming year. Once they were in, they served for a year.  Others opted to join based upon their draft number.  They wanted a say in the circumstances surrounding their service, so they opted to join rather than be drafted.

Two draftees, Jeff and Jim, took unusual paths through their service.  Both were drafted during that first year.  Jeff went first and Jim about a month later.

Jeff married the weekend we graduated in June of 1969.  He started law school that fall prior to the draft.  He was legally blind in one eye, so I thought he’d fail his military physical.  He passed.  Because of his career path, he was assigned to a military court in Denver, Colorado.  He became a court stenographer and served his country in that fashion.

Jim was another unusual story.   He was a conscientious objector, and he refused to bear arms. He reported as required but wouldn’t accept a rifle when they attempted to give it to him.  He reported to his commanding officer on a daily basis and refused each time.   He said he would serve, but he wouldn’t accept a weapon.

He ended up going through basic training twice and followed the same procedure. At the end of his second run through basic, he was assigned to Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC.  He was a biology major in college, so they assigned him to work in the lab.  He received a stipend to live in an apartment.   After working an eight-hour shift at Walter Reed he reported to a second hospital and worked part time in their lab.

One of his assignments included conducting cancer research.  I’m not smart enough to know if his research affected his health, but he died of brain cancer when he was forty years old.  My court stenographer fraternity brother, Jeff, never worked in a hospital, but died of brain cancer as well within a year of Jim.  Too young.  Too soon.

As for me, each local board was asked to provide X number of men each month.  The men with numbers of 195, or less, were required to report.  At 226 I avoided being drafted.  Approximately 850,000 were required to report.  If called, I wouldn’t have wanted to go but I would have served.