Disclaimer

I turned 18 during the summer between high school and college. Being the good citizen that I was, I promptly registered for the draft.

I had already been accepted by The College Of My Choice. Having such an offer (and acceptance!) was A Big Deal in those days. (It might well still be.) I therefore:

• received a nice embossed certificate to that effect from the college's admissions office, and

• attached it to my draft registration form, thus avoiding the dreaded "1-A" classification: Available for military service:

My Local Board, quite sensibly, waited until that fall to get confirmation from my college that I had actually shown up, had enrolled, and appeared to be actually attending classes. When it got that confirmation, it promptly issued its classification:

• ordinarily, the classification would have been "2-S": Registrant deferred because of activity in study;
• however, I had signed up for Army ROTC, so I got classified "1-D": Member of a Reserve component or student taking military training;
  • hey, I'm going to get drafted, anyway:
    • with all of this Gulf of Tonkin bull-crap, the draft is likely to be in full force when I graduate in four years; and
    • under "oldest first" regulations, I'm going to be dead meat at age 22; so
    • I might as well do my time as an officer, and not as an enlisted man;

    plus which

  • Army ROTC will let me out after two years of active duty; whilst
    • Navy ROTC requires three years; and
    • Air Force ROTC requires four.

By the summer of 1969, however, reports of the fragging of Army officers had reached a crescendo. By then:

• Navy ROTC and/or Air Force ROTC were no longer options;

• my Army career was necessarily going to be two years long -- no more and no less, and whether as officer or as enlisted man: and

• my chances of getting discharged in one piece were substantially enhanced by doing those two years as an enlisted man (without fragging) rather than as an officer (with fragging).

So I enlisted in the Army on September 3, 1969 -- and necessarily dropped out of college for the required two years to do so.

Later in 1969, and until the end of the war, the law was changed from "oldest first" to "lottery-by-month-and-date-of-birth for 19-year-olds".

• 1 each year was definitely going to go, and very probably in January of the following year.
•  365 was very probably not going to go.

On December 1, 1969, the government conducted the lottery for folks born in 1951 (and in previous years, as a transitional measure). By then, I was three months into Basic-Training/Advanced-Infantry-Training.

So what would my number have been if I had:

• decided not to sign up for ROTC; and
• not enlisted as a means of avoiding getting fragged?

287.

The highest number that they called for that year (and, indeed, the highest for any year)?

195.

OUCH!

Morals of the story, for me to remember the next time Shirley MacLaine and I get reincarnated:

• Don't take ROTC.
• Don't enlist.
• As conscription approaches, consider moving to a neighboring country that speaks my language and that won't conscript me. That's what Einstein did.

How did I get out of Vietnam? With the help of my friend Debbie.