Every male between 18 and 26 that lived between 1966 and 1972 has some type of story about the military draft. Mine is a bit unusual and I have been wanting to tell the story in print for many years. The military draft was conducted by the Selective Service System, an agency of the federal government. Every large city had it's own draft board and these draft boards carried out the function of processing every male that was eligible for military service. Between 1966 and 1972....you either joined the military or you were drafted into it or, like many....you tried to figure a way to get out of it, either legally or illegally!!. It was the height of the Vietnam conflict (war had not been declared) and the military needed every male they could get their hands on.
This is my story and I swear every bit of it is true. I have all my documents stored away and some day, I will find them and print them but I wanted to get this saga written down first. If you have ever heard the song by Arlo Guthrie called Alice's Restaurant (now playing)...you can get an idea about how the local draft board operates.
Let the saga begin (I hope you read it all..it is interesting)
It's May 1965 and I have just been kicked out of Trinity University in San Antonio. Trinity informs my local draft board that I am no longer in school and that I am no longer classified I-S (student deferment). I get a notice from the draft board that my classification will change to I-A (available for the draft). I scramble to find another school to take me and in June of 1965 I get into SAC, San Antonio Community College. SAC informs my draft board that I am a full time student and I get reclassified I-S (full time student)...WHEW...I just dodged a bullet.
In June of 1967, I had taken all the classes I could at SAC (SAC was a two year school) and could not stay there without being reclassified as I-A (available for the draft) so I had to find another school fast. I enrolled in Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos...it was a four year school and was within driving distance from my home in San Antonio. I drove to San Marcos everyday. What I didn't realize at the time was that Southwest Texas State was a shit kicker school (that means it was 100% cowboys who drove pick up trucks and had at least one gun on their gun rack). By June of 1967, I was a full blown hippy, long hair, funny clothes and a little Austin Healey Sprite convertible, red in color. I soon learned that cowboys and hippies didn't mix and since there were more of them than me, I dropped out of SWTSU after about 2 months.
OK, now I'm in trouble....SWTSU informed the draft board that I had dropped out so I was immediately reclassified as I-A (available for the draft). It was now about September of 1967. I received my pre-induction physical notice from my draft board telling me what date to come in to take my military physical to see if I was physically fit to be drafted.
In early 1968, I went down and took the physical and PASSED. DAMN IT!!!!!!!!!
In May of 1968, I RECEIVED MY DRAFT NOTICE. I was ordered to report immediately (they gave me a date and time in mid-June) to my draft board for induction into military service (the Army to be exact).
On June 5, 1968 Robert Kennedy was assassinated. I received a letter telling me that my induction into the military had been postponed for two months.
My best friend's father was the Commanding General of one of the largest military bases in San Antonio (there are 7 large military bases in San Antonio). I won't use his name because I don't have permission. I was at their house one day discussing my pending military induction when I mentioned that I was under a doctor's care for ACNE (that's right, don't laugh....ACNE). The General told me to have my doctor write a letter to the draft board, telling them I was under his care and that as an ex Marine doctor, he felt that I was not fit for military service. The doctor agreed to write me the letter and I took it with me to the draft board on the day of my induction.
So in early August 1968 my mom and sister drove me to the draft board early one morning. After a tearful goodbye, they drove away and I entered the San Antonio draft board building, where in a little over 6 hours, I would be inducted into the Army and sent to Fort Polk Louisiana.
NOTE...there is a song playing right now called Alice's restaurant by Arlo Guthrie and it really tells the story about getting inducted, Take a few minutes to listen to it....it was a very popular song back in the late 60's.
OK, here I am at the draft board. I'm going to keep this as short as possible. I go through the whole procedure. I even take the oath and I get officially welcomed to the US Army. All I had to do now, was to take one more light physical, then stop by and talk to a doctor one more time and then I was on my way.
Here I was, sitting in this military doctor's office in my underpants and nothing else. He asks me a bunch of questions and stands up and gives me the once over, He asks me to lower my draws and grabs my balls and asks me to cough. He then sits down and has me return to my chair. Then he said...."I understand you have a letter for me from your doctor"...I said, yes sir and gave it to him. He opened it, read it, shook his head...looked at me and said...."you have got to be kidding", (remember...the letter said that I was not fit for military service because I had a bad case of ACNE). He then took my file and stapled a form to the top of it and stamped REJECTED!!...he said to me, "I can't believe that I just did that". He then stood up, said "good luck son", handed me my file and said when I leave his office, to follow the red line and stop at the first station. There were three colored lines on the floor to follow, green, yellow and red. The green line was for those who were accepted. The yellow line was for those who had to see other doctors or still had a question about their eligibility and the red line was for those who were rejected for military service.
OK, I followed the red line to station #1 and the military guy sitting there ask me for my file, told me to get dressed, stamped my file 1-Y (medically not fit for military service AT THIS TIME) and told me that I would get a notice to return in about 6 months to see if I would then be fit to join the Army. He then told me to follow the red line to station #2.
At station #2, there were two Catholic nuns. The lead nun ask me if I had any questions or did I need any spiritual help. I guess, when someone is found to be UNFIT for military service, they fall apart. My answer back to the nun was "no, I think I just received all the spiritual help I needed, but thanks anyway"!. That made them both smile. They then gave me some paper work, a brochure on spiritual help if I needed it later and a phone number to call to an outreach center. The head nun then said good luck and handed me a dime. I ask, what is the dime for and she said...."for a phone call to have someone come and pick you up....follow the red line and there will be a pay phone at the end of it".
I thanked the two nuns and followed the red line to station #3 and the EXIT. At station #3, there was a Marine...he asked me for my file and my paperwork. He too, asked me if I needed anything...I said no thank you. He proceeded to read all the paperwork....he looked up at me and said..."I can't believe that they found you UNFIT because of ACNE....that's the first time I have ever seen that reason to find a person UNFIT". He smiled, shook my hand and said, we will see you in about 6 months. He then pointed me towards the exit and the pay phone. As I walked away, he said that I will regret this decision and 50 years later he may have been right!! I followed the red line to the exit door and the pay phone. I took the dime the nuns had given me and called home. My mom answered, I told her what had happened and 20 minutes later, there she was with my sister, picking me up.
The story is still not over!!
It's now April 1969...I received my second notice to come and take another physical. I was still seeing my doctor for ACNE and again, he wrote me a letter. This time, it was just a physical and if I passed, I would receive another induction notice. I was still found UNFIT for military service and was still classified as 1-Y (temporally unfit for military service). I was told that I would probably get another physical notice in January of 1970.
I was still out of school, still getting into trouble, still doing all the stuff I shouldn't be doing. I had beaten the draft for a second time and thought I was invincible. I was still working at the hobby shop (a story for another time) and I was still doing my little side business (again, a story for another time).
Sometime in early summer I was over at my friends house...the one with the General for a father. The General was telling us about a local job that he had heard about. I was a government job for the summer that paid $15-$20 an hour. That was huge money back then. He said that the Post Office was taking applications (it was a government facility) and he said he would write us both a letter of recommendation (that was a BIG DEAL). I think his ulterior motive was to get us off the street and start doing something useful. The job was working an assembly line at a local manufacturer make of all things...ammo boxes. We applied and with the letter of recommendation we had, we were immediately hired.
So now, not only was I classified as 1-Y (temporally unfit for military service)..I was also classified as 2-A (civilian job CRITICAL to the military). I really thought that I was sheltered from the draft. There was no way it would get me now. We both worked all summer...we worked both our regular hours and volunteered for overtime that paid time and a half. We made a ton of money that summer but sadly, the contract ended and the great job dried up. It was about September 1969 and I went back to the hobby shop and my old job.
I knew that I was going to be called back for another physical in January of 1970 and I had heard that my type of deferment was going to be done away with and that I would be reclassified as 1-A and be drafted some time in February of 1970.
THEN THE BIG DAY ARRIVED!!!!!
It was announced by the Selective Service System that a draft lottery was going to be put in place and that all eligible men would be entered into this lottery to see who would be drafted first. The first lottery was scheduled for December 1, 1969. The lottery was televised that evening. The Selective Service System had this big drum and there were balls in the drum that had numbers from 1 to 366 (leap year). They started with the birth date of January 1. They reached in and pulled out a number. The number was then assigned to your birth date. The lower the number, the more likely you would be drafted...the higher the number, the less likely you would get drafted. When they got to my birth date, February 3rd....we were all glued to the TV set. My number was 297...I WAS SAVED!!!!!!!! There was no possible way I would ever be drafted as long as war was NOT declared. I couldn't believe it..I'm sure I let out a scream!!. Later that night, I met up with all my friends at a bar...we discussed the lottery and shared our lottery numbers with each other. All my friends had high numbers and we were all safe from being drafted.
I had waited it out. I certainly owed a big thank you to my friend's dad, the General and my Dermatologist who wrote the letters to the draft board. I remember buying them both a bottle of their favorite liquor!!
In early 1970....my dad was transferred to Oklahoma City where another adventure in my early life was about to begin. But that's another story for another blog.
I received one more letter from the draft board officially telling me that my lottery number was 297.....like I didn't know that.
WHEW!!!!!!!
You were one of the lucky ones--My brother wasn't.
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