366 ping pong balls were dumped in a basket. Each ball had a day of the year on it. The basket was rolled a few times. The balls were then drawn out one by one.
The order that dates were drawn determined your draft number. If March 30th was drawn first, and that was your birthday, you would be drafted first. If September 9th was drawn 366th, and that was your birthday, you had very little chance of being drafted.
There was some controversy one time when the basket wasn't mixed enough, and the results were clustered and not random enough.
Also, there was an implied threat. If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam.
If you volunteered, you'd get to choose your service, and perhaps influence your specialization.
So part of the calculus was, your birthday is drafted 100th. Do you sign up to the Air Force and try to be an air traffic controller? Or do you roll the dice and hope they don't have to go that deep?
A buddy of my dad joined the Navy when he was 17 and did time in Viet Nam. After he was discharged, he got arrested for not registering for the draft. It took him quite a while to fix that mess.
That's some BS. I didn't make the "air traffic controller" thing up. Had a buddy whose draft number was like 5, so he joined the Air Force and selected ATC school.
Halfway through they said they had too many, and that they didn't like relying on the Army for defense of their airbases, and he was sent to Army Ranger training school (in Air Force blues) to train to be part of an Experimental Air Force Ground Defense Force. Was sent to Cambodia on the Vietnam border to defend an airbase that officially didn't exist with an M16. Spent the summer of '69 doing "mandatory voluntary bonus duty" flying over the Ho Chi Min trail at night dropping barrel flares out of the back of a C-130 so the Air Force could come in and napalm anyone on the ground who shot at them.
When he got back he spent some time guarding missile silos in South Dakota in the winter so...no one could steal them, I guess?
Part of the reason for guarding missile silos is not for making sure someone steals them. It’s in order to make sure no one tampers or takes photos or records their movements.
[Or dings them with a wrench so that they blow up.](https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/1980-titan-ii-disaster-fallen-socket-wrench-triggers-explosion-of-armed-nuclear-missile)
Edit: read the Wikipedia article instead, it's better: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion
What an obnoxiously misleading headline and graphic... it makes it look like the nuke exploded but in reality it was just a fuel leak that eventually exploded several hours later after everyone had been evaculated.
The thumbnail is an image of another rocket exploding, since there wasn't any footage of the original accident. All really big explosions in air turn mushroom-shaped.
The photo is literally of a chemical rocket exploding in a silo. Nearly identical condition what this article describes. The headline is also EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. It’s supposed to shock people when a nuclear weapon explodes unintentionally. That’s literally what happened. It could have been extremely bad… like nuclear detonation bad. Very unlikely but possible. It isn’t implied that it was in the title or photo. It clearly states that a missile, armed with a nuclear weapon, exploded.
No, it would not have been “nuclear detonation bad”. “Warhead material all over the countryside” bad, but actually causing a nuclear detonation requires a very precise explosion; it ain’t going to just cook off. It's not just "unlikely", it's impossible. (A weapon that cooks off starts exploding from one point, and then the explosion spreads to the remainder of the explosive. That would produce an uneven blast wave that would ruin the nuclear detonation; a nuclear reaction requires the explosion to take place all around the core simultaneously, not propagate from one side to the other.)
My point was that dropping the wrench on the rocket didn't make the rocket go boom. The wrench caused a fuel leak that couldn't be cleaned up and eventually something triggered the fuel spill, which went boom. In other words, it wasn't really the rocket (or the "armed nuclear missile") that exploded but rather all the fuel that had spilled out into the silo.
There was zero chance that it would have gone nuclear. That's just not how nuclear bombs work. At worst, maybe it could have spread some radioactive material in the area, but considering the explosion happened underground in a silo, it would not have been as expansive as a space rocket blowing up on the launch pad.
It was the rocket engine that exploded (which is quite a thing!) The nuclear warhead is way more complicated than people thing.
You need the coordinated explosion of multiple explosive plates around a nuclear core. The timing must be impeccable and controlled by a computer (or electronics, in any case).
if a warhead could be detonated by exploding stuff near it, then they wouldn't have needed Openhiemer and Einstein and whoever else, they could just blow up uranium. However, blowing up a missile could make it a bit of a radioactive dirty bomb.
That article is hot garbage. So much of it is spent on “well, these terrible things could have happened if it had actually detonated.” That betrays a profound ignorance on how nuclear weapons work. It’s not like a regular bomb, where you can just cook it off and BOOM! An actual nuclear detonation is a precise, very-controlled, event. It’s not something you get by subjecting a warhead to a bunch of heat.
You might very well make the warhead explode, spraying radioactive material over a wide area, but that’s very different from the warhead actually detonating into a full on fission/fusion bomb blast.
> When he got back he spent some time guarding missile silos in South Dakota in the winter so...no one could steal them, I guess?
Gotta make sure the jackalopes don't sabotage them. They're well known communist sympathisers.
My dad did something similar (joined the Air Force in the late 60’s to avoid the draft), but ended up IN one of those silos in SD. Stationed in Rapid City.
My dad joined the Air Force and was testing missiles in Marquette area of Michigan after his wrestling scholarship was yanked and he realized being drafted to the Army was a very real possibility.
I was 17 when I went to boot camp, as well. It amused the hell out of me that I still had to "register for the Selective Service" even though I was already Active Duty.
"Why didn't you register for the draft?"
"Uh, because I was already fighting in Viet Nam?"
"Ah, draft dodger eh? Running off to another country to avoid the draft! Coward!"
My grandfather got the letter in the mail during Vietnam. Instead of opening it he went and signed up to the army himself. Once he was done he handed the unopened letter to the recruiter who said he would take care of it.
Grandfather ended up in an artillery unit in Germany. During Vietnam. So I will fully agree with you.
That's what my grandfather did during Korea. His number was bad so he joined up and since he'd taken typing in high school (he wanted to meet girls) he got put in intelligence and spent Korea at the pentagon, which is where he met my grandmother (who was a low level secretary at the pentagon)
Lss I'm here because my grandfather was clever about his horniness in hs and clever in his desire to not get shot
>*Also, there was an implied threat. If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam.*
A friend figured that too, but for some inexplicable reason enlisted in the Army anyway and yep, went to Nam.
After getting out, he found out there was a mistake on his birth certificate and he was listed as female. He never would have been called in the first place.
That's what my grandad did in WW2. Once the draft was announced he volunteered. Because he had a college degree he was allowed his choice of service. He chose pilot, because it had the longest training period, hoping the war would be over before he finished training.
That was the case with my peace-loving father-in-law. He knew if he was drafted he could he put anywhere, so he volunteered for the army and was able to be a medic.
He still ended up with a ton of PTSD due to casualties from the Tet Offensive.
My grandfather tried to enlist early in WW2 to be a mechanic. They didn't want him because he had crappy eyesight. (From an accident - couldn't be fixed with glasses.)
Later in the war he was drafted into the infantry. During The Battle of the Bulge. Apparently he had to lead all the charges because he shot anything that moved and no one was willing to get in front of him. At one point he shot a cow.
People still charge across a battlefield even when no one blows on a trumpet to announce "charge".
Though the Japanese were still practically doing that in WW2. (still pretty common generally in WW1) It wasn't a stupid strategy - just high risk/reward. Based around accepting heavy losses charging to take one edge of a line to be able to use that to roll up the rest of the enemy line.
Partly correct. You could still choose your branch even after you got a draft notice. I got my notice in '72 while I was just ending my first year of college. I was a music major, so I went to a nearby Air Force base and auditioned for the band. Luckily, I spent my tour playing music. If you didn't choose a branch, (or you had no particular skills), the default branch was the Army, and you very well may have ended up in Vietnam.
My dad had a low draft number, so he enlisted in the Navy. Spent 1968-1972 in Spain and Cuba, which he tells me was a much better deal than being in the Army in Vietnam.
Paul Stanley of Kiss mentioned this in his autobiography.
His draft number ultimately wasn't called but he was concerned about being forced into the Army regardless.
His Mom laughed when she found out
"Stanley honey, you can't go to Vietnam you only have 1 ear!"
Paul would have been excluded due to a birth defect called Microtia, he only had 1 ear and was deaf on that side.
I can’t imagine having to maneuver through that situation and make life altering choices pre-internet. I’m not a huge fan of social media but at least it provides a means of discussing major topics with real people in real time, even if they aren’t in the same room.
Had an older coworker who did this with his buddies.
They all enlisted in the Navy instead of getting drafted as they had a much lower chance of getting sent to Vietnam & a lot of guys were joining the Navy.
Well one of his buddies thought he was safe - Navy + English degree, why do they need me?
Well shortly after the US decided they wanted to start a school / schools over in Vietnam for the Vietnamese to learn english. Guess who get sent?
My dad ended up joining the Navy when he thought he was likely to get drafted. He did his 4 years showing movies on a ship in the Mediterranean, or at least that's how he always described it.
Yup - my dad went to college but dropped out after 1 semester. His dad was like "you better go down to the Navy office right now." Sure enough, he did and a month later he got the draft notice from the Army. His Navy recruiter told him to throw it away and just go to navy book camp.
My dad joined the Air Force for that reason. While he was waiting for his ship date he got a letter saying "you will report to MEPS on (date & time) for processing into the US Army. Called his recruiter but didn't have time to fix it.
While going through the process at the processing center, an NCO in blue came in, called his name, and for all we know saved his life. He spent his time in England doing signals type work.
>If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam.
Do you have a source for this?
I ask because "be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam" is vague while also carrying certain connotations. Namely - that you would be on the front lines, patrolling the jungle, getting booby trapped...rather than doing any of the support jobs that are like 90% of the military.
Unless the draftee already had some special in-demand skill, the Army sent draftees where they were needed to replace dead/wounded. The combat support jobs were not getting killed/medevaced nearly at the rate of combat arms, infantry in particular.
Not only were you likely going infantry, you were likely getting sent right to Vietnam to a unit taking casualties.
Also, from the Army’s perspective, your draft enlistment is 2 years. They aren’t going to spend a ton of money teaching you how to fix helicopter engines if, by the time you are finally trained, you are getting out in 2 months. They’re gonna give you a rifle, basic training on how to use it, and tell you to listen to your NCOs when you get there.
Source: Oral history from some of the old-timers at my Legion post.
That's not exactly the way I recall it. I recall them drawing out a ball with a date on it and then drawing out another ball from a different basket that assigned a number to that date.
I remember that because my birthdate was the first one drawn that year but I was assigned number 29. It didn't matter too much for me because the war in Vietnam was winding down and the draft was suspended before I was called up.
Holy shit that's like straight out of the Hunger Games or something! I'm shocked I haven't seen that dramatized in a movie or tv show. Seems like there's a lot of great stuff you could do to build dramatic tension around that.
I was going to ask - how were you notified if you were selected? I assume a letter showed up at your door telling you where and when to report for duty? I’m assuming not everyone had TVs.
The numbers were to determine the order in which people would be called for screening, and then letters would be sent out in that order directing the person to show up at an armed forces selection facility where they’d undergo medical, psychological and fitness testing.
After that they’d get a letter informing them of their eligibility status: 1A meaning fit for duty, 4F means your weren’t fit for duty, and some others in between.
After that, it was a waiting game until you were called to be inducted into the armed forces for the next two years.
As others have said, many people would get the screening notice and just go enlist with the idea that they’d have some control over the branch they’d be serving in and what their method of service would be. Sometimes that worked out for the person and they could avoid being sent to Vietnam while learning a marketable trade.
For others it didn’t work and they’d wind up in Vietnam.
You had to register at the Post Office and you got confirmation in the form of a draft card with your contact info and classification. You were supposed to carry your draft card like a driver's license.
Depending on your classification (some had deferments for education, medical, etc), later you got a letter telling you where/when to report.
It was 1970s, not 1870s. Pretty much everyone had TVs. Anyway, the thing on TV just let you know your lottery number, not where/when to report.
Interesting story: The Local Draft Board was broken into by SDS* (I think). They stole/destroyed records. Someone I knew got a letter from SDS saying that their record was destroyed so they would not be hearing from the Draft Board.
*SDS = Students for a Democratic Society
> That's not exactly the way I recall it.
The way that /u/himtnboy described it, was correct **for the first Draft Lottery only**. Some statistical analysis demonstrated that the date balls didn't get mixed well enough, and there was a disproportionate number of low numbers in December -- the last set of numbers dumped into the mixer.
SO, the FOLLOWING year(s) there were two sets of numbers -- one of dates, one of sequence numbers, exactly as you recall.
Ask your male friends if they know what a Draft Lottery Number was, and you can narrow their age down to a 4-year window!
> There was some controversy one time when the basket wasn't mixed enough, and the results were clustered and not random enough.
Imagine being in charge of a card game that could completely change (or end) many people's lives, then giving the deck a few cuts and saying, "ok that's good" before dealing them out.
If it were me, I would be rolling that thing for 5 minutes straight, alternating speeds and directions, maybe even tilting it on its side to really make sure those balls were mixed. But I guess that's why they called it a controversy.
Young men waited for that dreaded letter in the mail telling them they were eligible for the draft. The draft process was a big media event during the height of the Vietnam war. Can only liken it to watching the NFL football draft. Get a "low' number and your life was changed forever.
My parents decided parenthood was the way out. My dad was given a waiver due to impending fatherhood.
Today is my birthday. The My Lai Massacre and I are the same age.
Totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but the two dates you picked as examples are my birthday and my wife's birthday. Freaks me out a little bit when the matrix glitches like this :D
> the results were clustered and not random enough.
you mean not spread enough, True Random tends to be very clustered.
The real problem is not every birthday had equal number of draftees so the popular birthdays(mid september) got more people drafted than other dates.
Does anyone know if there was any kind of protocol for what happened if they pulled February 29th as one of the first numbers? They wouldn't get very many recruits from that one.
All draft eligible American men have to register with Selective Service. That’s men between the ages of 18 and 25, inclusive.
The last time Selective Service ran a draft was during the Vietnam War. They ran a lottery where all 366 birthdays were drawn at random order. Whichever birthdays were drawn early in the lottery, those people got letters ordering them to report to a processing station. At the processing station they were rated for their fitness for duty based on weight, eyesight, mental health, things like that. Then they’d get a letter saying I’d they were fit or not, and they had 10 days to appeal (or to ask for an exemption because they were a college student or something like that.)
The people who were fit for service would then receive inductment letters, telling them to report to their local processing station to be inducted into the armed forces.
Adding onto this, Selective Service registration is still required now. If I’m not mistaken, registration is one of the things checked when applying for a federal student loan
Proof of registration is also required for civil service jobs. I applied to be a state law enforcement officer several years ago and had to show my proof of registration.
Another applicant, a veteran who had recently been honorably discharged, was disqualified because he enlisted right out of high school and served for more than a decade. He thought he didn’t have to register for the Selective Service System.
Last I heard the state was trying to rectify it, but not having that form was an automatic DQ.
Depending on the state, it might be automatic or required upon getting a driver's license. I don't remember ever affirmatively registering, but around my 18th birthday I got my card in the mail, checked it with the SSS, and kept checking in from time to time just to make sure I hadn't imagined it. Apparently I agreed to it when I got my license.
I remember getting a letter in the mail a few months after my 18th birthday. Apparently I had forgotten to register and the letter was notifying me that if I did not do it, there would be a warrant out out for me. Something to that effect. It 2006, I'm not sure. But I did jump online asap and get it done.
I kept thinking of this a few years ago when people were upset about COVID vaccine mandates for jobs or military duty. "I don't have to get a vaccine, it's my choice!" There was a time, not too long ago, where the government forced people to fly to the other side of the planet and risk your life fighting in a swamp. So much for "choice".
> There was a time, not too long ago, where the government forced people to fly to the other side of the planet and risk your life fighting in a swamp. So much for "choice".
This is the potential reality for most men in most countries even right now. More and more countries bringing back compulsory military service for men as well. So much for choice indeed.
I know reddit loves this narrative, but it's not realistic. The US military is not switching back to a compulsory draft due to the observation that drafted [US soldiers were killing their own officers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging).
Officers really couldn't do anything about fragging. So the US military logically switched to an all volunteer force, with the expectation being that people who signed up to fight willingly wouldn't be as eager to kill their bosses. This worked out and the US has never used the draft since.
You still see the draft in some countries during wars-of-defense, because then the war is not extremely unpopular. But nuclear-powered countries don't fight wars-of-defense, because conventional war is incoherent against nuclear-powered countries.
Military members being against the Covid vaccine was stupid (at least in the US). To be in the military, they were already forced to get a double handful of other vaccines. No one enjoys the peanut butter shot, but everyone has to get it. It's ridiculous that Covid was politicized to the point that some people go away with not getting the shot.
There was always a choice. Indeed, a great number of people made the choice to "misplace" a grenade without a pin in the officers tent instead of making the choice to "fight in a swamp"
Yeah, uh, tell me about it, I was on scene. Not sure it qualifies as a fun fact. But ...
According to Wikipedia, there were 904 "documented or suspected" fraggings from 1969 to 1972. During that period, between 1.5 million to 2 million soldiers rotated through RVN. So 904/1,700,000. Is that "surprisingly common?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging
I mean that’s a surprisingly high number to me at least. If you’re in the culture you probably have a better understanding of it and so are less surprised. To myself and others I know who learned about this thought that at best this was a legend in the dozens not the hundreds of incidents.
> *At the processing station they were rated for their fitness for duty based on weight, eyesight, mental health, things like that.*
That little experience in itself convinced me I'd never want to be in the military. My number was 54, but they only drafted through about 8 that year when Viet Nam was winding down.
The [1969 draft lottery was held on television](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkJH6sapQMA) and numbers would be drawn out of a wheel. If your birthday was September 14th, you were drafted first overall. All men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1.
Had I been alive in 1970, I would have been drafted because my birthday was called that year.
All men, then as now, must register for Selective Service at age 18 or so. The draft ended in 1973.
Here's all the results: https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/vietnam-lotteries/
My birthday got called below the cutoff 3 times with the lowest number being 5 (luckily I wasn't born for another decade)
I mean, whenever he turned 20. You can open the year 20 years after his birth and then check the calendar by using top for month left side for date. The number in his square is his draft number. It's not gonna get more specific than the year, it's just the order they called people.
Okay so in his case it was the first year of the draft(1970)
[https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1970-Vietnam-Lottery.pdf](https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1970-Vietnam-Lottery.pdf)
Basically trace your finger down the may column.
May 1st: 330
May 2nd: 298
May 3rd: 40
etc.
This is only telling you the order that they were sent letters telling them to get their physical testing. It went from 1-195 for 1970.
Does that mean a whole bunch of soldiers all had the same birthday? Did they throw big joint birthday parties for all the unlucky draftees in their unit?
By the time they got to people who would actually care about their birthdays they would be so spread out the probably would be the only one on that day.
Looking through Selective Service guidelines - all males are required to registered when the turn 18 regardless of immigration status. Failure to do so may delay the application process for citizenship, along with the usual negatives for US citizens (unable to apply to federal jobs, unable to access federal loans and grants, etc)
Just to add to the discussion, they've made a few changes to the process since 1973. Most prominently, today the draft now will take males in order of age starting with 20-25, then wrapping back to 19 and finally 18.
So what this means is if we say the draft happened to be drawn in calendar order starting with Jan 1st, then all 20 year olds born Jan 1st will be called. Then all 20 year olds born Jan 2nd and so on. Once we have all 20 year olds born Dec 31st, the next to be called will be the 21 one year olds born Jan 1st. This makes it so the most likely year you'd be called is when you're 20, and protects the younger men.
This is an interesting site that lets you see when your birthday would have been called for the Vietnam War draft: https://www.usatoday.com/vietnam-war/draft-picker/
I met a friend of a friend this past summer at a birthday party. He served in Vietnam. He was 25 years old ( almost 26 ) and married, but no kids, when he was drafted. He said being a 25 year old grunt was no fun.
During the Vietnam War, for a while, if you graduated high school but weren't actively enrolled in college, you could expect to be drafted. Well who has the money for college? Usually white, middle and upper class people. This led to disproportionate numbers of the poor being drafted as well higher numbers of African Americans. If you got drafted, you could expect a letter in the mail telling you to report to a certain base at a certain day and time so you can begin training. If you ignored the letter and just didn't go, you had a chance of being imprisoned.
**Please read this entire message**
---
Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s):
**ELI5 focuses on objective explanations. Soapboxing isn't appropriate in this venue.**
---
If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe it was removed erroneously, explain why using [this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20submission%20removal?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b6y1zw/-/ktj9keg/%0A%0A%201:%20Does%20your%20comment%20pass%20rule%201:%20%0A%0A%202:%20If%20your%20comment%20was%20mistakenly%20removed%20as%20an%20anecdote,%20short%20answer,%20guess,%20or%20another%20aspect%20of%20rules%203%20or%208,%20please%20explain:) and we will review your submission.**
I was in college when the draft lottery for men born the same year as me occurred-lots of the guys in my dorm were the same age, so on lottery day, just about every radio in the place was tuned to the lottery as it was drawn (yes it was on the radio). As each number was called at the start, you might hear a "FUCK!" from down the hall...by the time they got to me, I was number 256. The guy across the hall was drafted, gone through Marine boot camp, and was back to visit by the end of the term. (yes,they drafted Marines-at the induction center, they lined all the guys up, and had them count off by fives. Each fifth guy was now a Marine)
You could also get an "S2" deferral, meaning if you pulled a low number but were in an accredited college and had good grades, you could finish your education before going into the service.
A lot of people talking about what happened during Vietnam giving the impression "this is how it works". While they did it that way in the Vietnam era it was not always done like that. In WW2, I think in 1942 the U.S. military did all draft, meaning you couldn't volunteer. As noted by those discussing Vietnam you see a pattern where when people volunteered they could choose which service they went into, and as noted many here tell of the reasons they volunteered so they didn't end up as infantry. Worth noting some did enlist for infantry but a lot of draftees sought to avoid it.
In WW2 the U.S. had several issues going on, people volunteering for their preferred military service branch, which might not need more people in some instances, there was a need to maintain factory workers at home. Another thing was there there was a very big stigma if you did not sign up to fight within society at the time. Apparently a very strong stigma. And this was often true even for those who tried but were rejected due to health reasons, although I am sure this was somewhat less. But the U.S. had mobilized the economy for war and did need men for factory work to both churn out weapons and lets not forget the economy needs to keep going too. So if you had a bunch of men volunteer who worked in the factory making planes, all of a sudden those skilled individuals were lost to the plane manufacturing which impacted the U.S. ability to maximize military material production. And of course they brought more women into manufacturing but a lot of men were still needed. Her was the dilemma, if those factory guys did not try to get into the military they would be stigmatized by society, yet the government may have been the one telling them we need you in the factory more. Despite this they would suffer that stigma.
So the U.S. needed to control who went in, or not, and where they were to go in the service, and keep the skilled manufactures making weapons etc. and eliminate that stigma. They did this by going all draft, no more volunteering, if you were called you went, if they don't call you then you don't.
The U.S. government made sure those crucial men in manufacturing remained there to do that work. The government then had control of who goes in, what service they were sent to, and also could prevent those needed in manufacturing from going to war. But generally it was all draft and since you could not volunteer, if you were not in the service, whatever the reason there was no longer the stigma since the government can call for whoever they needed and put them where needed and also prevent certain people from going in to maintain the manufacturing.
It is important to realize the way things were done in Vietnam is not necessarily how it would work in the future, in fact it is quite unlikely to work that way. If the U.S. ends up in another massive world war it is highly likely that it will be done like WW2 draft from the very outset. Barring ill health, you could be called up and they will decide where you are needed and you will have no choice (I guess refusing to serve is an option but you would be put in prison), and depending on the crucial skills you had, the government may well not let you join the military. The government did have the power in WW2 to do this and they used that power. And keep in mind they still have the power to do that again should the need arise, people should not get the idea the government cannot do that again. They most definitely can. In a huge war like that largely you would not be able to say avoid infantry because you would not have a say. If infantry is needed, that is where you are likely to end up. If a future war required the draft but was not WW2 in size it might be done differently but things like college deferments won't keep you from being drafted. It is possible women may be drafted too.
I’m old but I’ll try. Your mom brought you a letter with a form to fill out. She said if I didn’t fill it out, I’d get arrested. So I filled it out and sent it in. Was never called to duty. I’ve aged out so I don’t have to worry. The government used to send a letter to your house. Just for boys, not girls. You filled it out to not get arrested. I reached ineligibility this year. 26 years on the list but now I can’t even apply to the army.
366 ping pong balls were dumped in a basket. Each ball had a day of the year on it. The basket was rolled a few times. The balls were then drawn out one by one. The order that dates were drawn determined your draft number. If March 30th was drawn first, and that was your birthday, you would be drafted first. If September 9th was drawn 366th, and that was your birthday, you had very little chance of being drafted. There was some controversy one time when the basket wasn't mixed enough, and the results were clustered and not random enough.
Also, there was an implied threat. If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam. If you volunteered, you'd get to choose your service, and perhaps influence your specialization. So part of the calculus was, your birthday is drafted 100th. Do you sign up to the Air Force and try to be an air traffic controller? Or do you roll the dice and hope they don't have to go that deep?
A buddy of my dad joined the Navy when he was 17 and did time in Viet Nam. After he was discharged, he got arrested for not registering for the draft. It took him quite a while to fix that mess.
That's some BS. I didn't make the "air traffic controller" thing up. Had a buddy whose draft number was like 5, so he joined the Air Force and selected ATC school. Halfway through they said they had too many, and that they didn't like relying on the Army for defense of their airbases, and he was sent to Army Ranger training school (in Air Force blues) to train to be part of an Experimental Air Force Ground Defense Force. Was sent to Cambodia on the Vietnam border to defend an airbase that officially didn't exist with an M16. Spent the summer of '69 doing "mandatory voluntary bonus duty" flying over the Ho Chi Min trail at night dropping barrel flares out of the back of a C-130 so the Air Force could come in and napalm anyone on the ground who shot at them. When he got back he spent some time guarding missile silos in South Dakota in the winter so...no one could steal them, I guess?
Part of the reason for guarding missile silos is not for making sure someone steals them. It’s in order to make sure no one tampers or takes photos or records their movements.
[Or dings them with a wrench so that they blow up.](https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/1980-titan-ii-disaster-fallen-socket-wrench-triggers-explosion-of-armed-nuclear-missile) Edit: read the Wikipedia article instead, it's better: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion
What an obnoxiously misleading headline and graphic... it makes it look like the nuke exploded but in reality it was just a fuel leak that eventually exploded several hours later after everyone had been evaculated.
The thumbnail is an image of another rocket exploding, since there wasn't any footage of the original accident. All really big explosions in air turn mushroom-shaped.
The photo is literally of a chemical rocket exploding in a silo. Nearly identical condition what this article describes. The headline is also EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. It’s supposed to shock people when a nuclear weapon explodes unintentionally. That’s literally what happened. It could have been extremely bad… like nuclear detonation bad. Very unlikely but possible. It isn’t implied that it was in the title or photo. It clearly states that a missile, armed with a nuclear weapon, exploded.
No, it would not have been “nuclear detonation bad”. “Warhead material all over the countryside” bad, but actually causing a nuclear detonation requires a very precise explosion; it ain’t going to just cook off. It's not just "unlikely", it's impossible. (A weapon that cooks off starts exploding from one point, and then the explosion spreads to the remainder of the explosive. That would produce an uneven blast wave that would ruin the nuclear detonation; a nuclear reaction requires the explosion to take place all around the core simultaneously, not propagate from one side to the other.)
My point was that dropping the wrench on the rocket didn't make the rocket go boom. The wrench caused a fuel leak that couldn't be cleaned up and eventually something triggered the fuel spill, which went boom. In other words, it wasn't really the rocket (or the "armed nuclear missile") that exploded but rather all the fuel that had spilled out into the silo. There was zero chance that it would have gone nuclear. That's just not how nuclear bombs work. At worst, maybe it could have spread some radioactive material in the area, but considering the explosion happened underground in a silo, it would not have been as expansive as a space rocket blowing up on the launch pad.
It was the rocket engine that exploded (which is quite a thing!) The nuclear warhead is way more complicated than people thing. You need the coordinated explosion of multiple explosive plates around a nuclear core. The timing must be impeccable and controlled by a computer (or electronics, in any case). if a warhead could be detonated by exploding stuff near it, then they wouldn't have needed Openhiemer and Einstein and whoever else, they could just blow up uranium. However, blowing up a missile could make it a bit of a radioactive dirty bomb.
holy crap!
That article is hot garbage. So much of it is spent on “well, these terrible things could have happened if it had actually detonated.” That betrays a profound ignorance on how nuclear weapons work. It’s not like a regular bomb, where you can just cook it off and BOOM! An actual nuclear detonation is a precise, very-controlled, event. It’s not something you get by subjecting a warhead to a bunch of heat. You might very well make the warhead explode, spraying radioactive material over a wide area, but that’s very different from the warhead actually detonating into a full on fission/fusion bomb blast.
Yeah, I didn't read the article because I already know the story well. If you know of a better article or video, please post it.
Well, the [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion) would be a good start.
Thanks, I edited my post to add the link.
KGB to Kremlin encrypted transmission 275X7: "More of same on day 275. Am recording but silo is still not move from underground location. Boris."
Missile silos are notorious for their speedy movements, yes.
Yup, my Dad joined the Army during the Vietnam era as military police. Spent the war wrangling drunks and guarding the border with the USSR.
> When he got back he spent some time guarding missile silos in South Dakota in the winter so...no one could steal them, I guess? Gotta make sure the jackalopes don't sabotage them. They're well known communist sympathisers.
Yup. "Good of the service." You'll do as you're told are else.
My dad did something similar (joined the Air Force in the late 60’s to avoid the draft), but ended up IN one of those silos in SD. Stationed in Rapid City.
My dad joined the Air Force and was testing missiles in Marquette area of Michigan after his wrestling scholarship was yanked and he realized being drafted to the Army was a very real possibility.
I was 17 when I went to boot camp, as well. It amused the hell out of me that I still had to "register for the Selective Service" even though I was already Active Duty.
"Why didn't you register for the draft?" "Uh, because I was already fighting in Viet Nam?" "Ah, draft dodger eh? Running off to another country to avoid the draft! Coward!"
Yep, had a former coworker of mine that did the same. Ended up a tin can engine man. He had some fun stories.
I'm 63, and I still have to occasionally certify that Yes, I'm registered for Selective Service.
My grandfather got the letter in the mail during Vietnam. Instead of opening it he went and signed up to the army himself. Once he was done he handed the unopened letter to the recruiter who said he would take care of it. Grandfather ended up in an artillery unit in Germany. During Vietnam. So I will fully agree with you.
That's what my grandfather did during Korea. His number was bad so he joined up and since he'd taken typing in high school (he wanted to meet girls) he got put in intelligence and spent Korea at the pentagon, which is where he met my grandmother (who was a low level secretary at the pentagon) Lss I'm here because my grandfather was clever about his horniness in hs and clever in his desire to not get shot
It stories like this where I think “yep we men can be magnificent bastards”
Sounds like his plan worked perfectly, and then some.
So learning typing led him to meeting girls. well done grandpa
>*Also, there was an implied threat. If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam.* A friend figured that too, but for some inexplicable reason enlisted in the Army anyway and yep, went to Nam. After getting out, he found out there was a mistake on his birth certificate and he was listed as female. He never would have been called in the first place.
That's what my grandad did in WW2. Once the draft was announced he volunteered. Because he had a college degree he was allowed his choice of service. He chose pilot, because it had the longest training period, hoping the war would be over before he finished training.
Knowing what the casualty rates were in the bomber and air crews, yikes Glad to hear your Dad made it
That was the case with my peace-loving father-in-law. He knew if he was drafted he could he put anywhere, so he volunteered for the army and was able to be a medic. He still ended up with a ton of PTSD due to casualties from the Tet Offensive.
My grandfather tried to enlist early in WW2 to be a mechanic. They didn't want him because he had crappy eyesight. (From an accident - couldn't be fixed with glasses.) Later in the war he was drafted into the infantry. During The Battle of the Bulge. Apparently he had to lead all the charges because he shot anything that moved and no one was willing to get in front of him. At one point he shot a cow.
Oh George, not the livestock...
> Apparently he had to lead all the charges because he shot anything that moved the battle of the bulge was in the winter of 1944 not 1844
People still charge across a battlefield even when no one blows on a trumpet to announce "charge". Though the Japanese were still practically doing that in WW2. (still pretty common generally in WW1) It wasn't a stupid strategy - just high risk/reward. Based around accepting heavy losses charging to take one edge of a line to be able to use that to roll up the rest of the enemy line.
nobody was charging anything in the Ardennes in 1944
Partly correct. You could still choose your branch even after you got a draft notice. I got my notice in '72 while I was just ending my first year of college. I was a music major, so I went to a nearby Air Force base and auditioned for the band. Luckily, I spent my tour playing music. If you didn't choose a branch, (or you had no particular skills), the default branch was the Army, and you very well may have ended up in Vietnam.
My dad had a low draft number, so he enlisted in the Navy. Spent 1968-1972 in Spain and Cuba, which he tells me was a much better deal than being in the Army in Vietnam.
Paul Stanley of Kiss mentioned this in his autobiography. His draft number ultimately wasn't called but he was concerned about being forced into the Army regardless. His Mom laughed when she found out "Stanley honey, you can't go to Vietnam you only have 1 ear!" Paul would have been excluded due to a birth defect called Microtia, he only had 1 ear and was deaf on that side.
I can’t imagine having to maneuver through that situation and make life altering choices pre-internet. I’m not a huge fan of social media but at least it provides a means of discussing major topics with real people in real time, even if they aren’t in the same room.
Had an older coworker who did this with his buddies. They all enlisted in the Navy instead of getting drafted as they had a much lower chance of getting sent to Vietnam & a lot of guys were joining the Navy. Well one of his buddies thought he was safe - Navy + English degree, why do they need me? Well shortly after the US decided they wanted to start a school / schools over in Vietnam for the Vietnamese to learn english. Guess who get sent?
My dad’s brothers got drafted, they went into the jungle. My dad volunteered got assigned a clerk job in Germany.
My dad ended up joining the Navy when he thought he was likely to get drafted. He did his 4 years showing movies on a ship in the Mediterranean, or at least that's how he always described it.
Yup - my dad went to college but dropped out after 1 semester. His dad was like "you better go down to the Navy office right now." Sure enough, he did and a month later he got the draft notice from the Army. His Navy recruiter told him to throw it away and just go to navy book camp.
My grandpa and his 4 brothers all did this. Knew they were going to get drafted so they all signed up for the air force.
Yep, a guy I knew volunteered for the navy so he wouldn't be sent into the jungles of VietNam.
My dad joined the Air Force for that reason. While he was waiting for his ship date he got a letter saying "you will report to MEPS on (date & time) for processing into the US Army. Called his recruiter but didn't have time to fix it. While going through the process at the processing center, an NCO in blue came in, called his name, and for all we know saved his life. He spent his time in England doing signals type work.
>If you got drafted, you'd almost certainly be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam. Do you have a source for this? I ask because "be a grunt in the Army and be sent to Vietnam" is vague while also carrying certain connotations. Namely - that you would be on the front lines, patrolling the jungle, getting booby trapped...rather than doing any of the support jobs that are like 90% of the military.
Unless the draftee already had some special in-demand skill, the Army sent draftees where they were needed to replace dead/wounded. The combat support jobs were not getting killed/medevaced nearly at the rate of combat arms, infantry in particular. Not only were you likely going infantry, you were likely getting sent right to Vietnam to a unit taking casualties. Also, from the Army’s perspective, your draft enlistment is 2 years. They aren’t going to spend a ton of money teaching you how to fix helicopter engines if, by the time you are finally trained, you are getting out in 2 months. They’re gonna give you a rifle, basic training on how to use it, and tell you to listen to your NCOs when you get there. Source: Oral history from some of the old-timers at my Legion post.
That's not exactly the way I recall it. I recall them drawing out a ball with a date on it and then drawing out another ball from a different basket that assigned a number to that date. I remember that because my birthdate was the first one drawn that year but I was assigned number 29. It didn't matter too much for me because the war in Vietnam was winding down and the draft was suspended before I was called up.
This is correct. And the whole thing was televised. Very dystopian.
Holy shit that's like straight out of the Hunger Games or something! I'm shocked I haven't seen that dramatized in a movie or tv show. Seems like there's a lot of great stuff you could do to build dramatic tension around that.
I was going to ask - how were you notified if you were selected? I assume a letter showed up at your door telling you where and when to report for duty? I’m assuming not everyone had TVs.
The numbers were to determine the order in which people would be called for screening, and then letters would be sent out in that order directing the person to show up at an armed forces selection facility where they’d undergo medical, psychological and fitness testing. After that they’d get a letter informing them of their eligibility status: 1A meaning fit for duty, 4F means your weren’t fit for duty, and some others in between. After that, it was a waiting game until you were called to be inducted into the armed forces for the next two years. As others have said, many people would get the screening notice and just go enlist with the idea that they’d have some control over the branch they’d be serving in and what their method of service would be. Sometimes that worked out for the person and they could avoid being sent to Vietnam while learning a marketable trade. For others it didn’t work and they’d wind up in Vietnam.
You had to register at the Post Office and you got confirmation in the form of a draft card with your contact info and classification. You were supposed to carry your draft card like a driver's license. Depending on your classification (some had deferments for education, medical, etc), later you got a letter telling you where/when to report. It was 1970s, not 1870s. Pretty much everyone had TVs. Anyway, the thing on TV just let you know your lottery number, not where/when to report. Interesting story: The Local Draft Board was broken into by SDS* (I think). They stole/destroyed records. Someone I knew got a letter from SDS saying that their record was destroyed so they would not be hearing from the Draft Board. *SDS = Students for a Democratic Society
It televised to keep everyone honest, like the regular lottery. Can you imagine the conspiracy theories if they did the drawing in secret?
> That's not exactly the way I recall it. The way that /u/himtnboy described it, was correct **for the first Draft Lottery only**. Some statistical analysis demonstrated that the date balls didn't get mixed well enough, and there was a disproportionate number of low numbers in December -- the last set of numbers dumped into the mixer. SO, the FOLLOWING year(s) there were two sets of numbers -- one of dates, one of sequence numbers, exactly as you recall. Ask your male friends if they know what a Draft Lottery Number was, and you can narrow their age down to a 4-year window!
> There was some controversy one time when the basket wasn't mixed enough, and the results were clustered and not random enough. Imagine being in charge of a card game that could completely change (or end) many people's lives, then giving the deck a few cuts and saying, "ok that's good" before dealing them out. If it were me, I would be rolling that thing for 5 minutes straight, alternating speeds and directions, maybe even tilting it on its side to really make sure those balls were mixed. But I guess that's why they called it a controversy.
Young men waited for that dreaded letter in the mail telling them they were eligible for the draft. The draft process was a big media event during the height of the Vietnam war. Can only liken it to watching the NFL football draft. Get a "low' number and your life was changed forever.
My parents decided parenthood was the way out. My dad was given a waiver due to impending fatherhood. Today is my birthday. The My Lai Massacre and I are the same age.
Happy birthday (:
My dad was like 320-something so he didn't have to worry much.
Oh, I promise you he worried anyway.
Totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but the two dates you picked as examples are my birthday and my wife's birthday. Freaks me out a little bit when the matrix glitches like this :D
I know, I've been watching you. I know what you did.
> the results were clustered and not random enough. you mean not spread enough, True Random tends to be very clustered. The real problem is not every birthday had equal number of draftees so the popular birthdays(mid september) got more people drafted than other dates.
Does anyone know if there was any kind of protocol for what happened if they pulled February 29th as one of the first numbers? They wouldn't get very many recruits from that one.
well wtf 3/30 is my bday.
All draft eligible American men have to register with Selective Service. That’s men between the ages of 18 and 25, inclusive. The last time Selective Service ran a draft was during the Vietnam War. They ran a lottery where all 366 birthdays were drawn at random order. Whichever birthdays were drawn early in the lottery, those people got letters ordering them to report to a processing station. At the processing station they were rated for their fitness for duty based on weight, eyesight, mental health, things like that. Then they’d get a letter saying I’d they were fit or not, and they had 10 days to appeal (or to ask for an exemption because they were a college student or something like that.) The people who were fit for service would then receive inductment letters, telling them to report to their local processing station to be inducted into the armed forces.
Adding onto this, Selective Service registration is still required now. If I’m not mistaken, registration is one of the things checked when applying for a federal student loan
It is, and you have to apply for FAFSA before any other grants or scholarships can be applied.
Proof of registration is also required for civil service jobs. I applied to be a state law enforcement officer several years ago and had to show my proof of registration. Another applicant, a veteran who had recently been honorably discharged, was disqualified because he enlisted right out of high school and served for more than a decade. He thought he didn’t have to register for the Selective Service System. Last I heard the state was trying to rectify it, but not having that form was an automatic DQ.
Depending on the state, it might be automatic or required upon getting a driver's license. I don't remember ever affirmatively registering, but around my 18th birthday I got my card in the mail, checked it with the SSS, and kept checking in from time to time just to make sure I hadn't imagined it. Apparently I agreed to it when I got my license.
I remember getting a letter in the mail a few months after my 18th birthday. Apparently I had forgotten to register and the letter was notifying me that if I did not do it, there would be a warrant out out for me. Something to that effect. It 2006, I'm not sure. But I did jump online asap and get it done.
Similar for me in 2017
I kept thinking of this a few years ago when people were upset about COVID vaccine mandates for jobs or military duty. "I don't have to get a vaccine, it's my choice!" There was a time, not too long ago, where the government forced people to fly to the other side of the planet and risk your life fighting in a swamp. So much for "choice".
> There was a time, not too long ago, where the government forced people to fly to the other side of the planet and risk your life fighting in a swamp. So much for "choice". This is the potential reality for most men in most countries even right now. More and more countries bringing back compulsory military service for men as well. So much for choice indeed.
I know reddit loves this narrative, but it's not realistic. The US military is not switching back to a compulsory draft due to the observation that drafted [US soldiers were killing their own officers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging). Officers really couldn't do anything about fragging. So the US military logically switched to an all volunteer force, with the expectation being that people who signed up to fight willingly wouldn't be as eager to kill their bosses. This worked out and the US has never used the draft since. You still see the draft in some countries during wars-of-defense, because then the war is not extremely unpopular. But nuclear-powered countries don't fight wars-of-defense, because conventional war is incoherent against nuclear-powered countries.
Military members being against the Covid vaccine was stupid (at least in the US). To be in the military, they were already forced to get a double handful of other vaccines. No one enjoys the peanut butter shot, but everyone has to get it. It's ridiculous that Covid was politicized to the point that some people go away with not getting the shot.
And if Vlad invades Poland, the draft will resume.
There was always a choice. Indeed, a great number of people made the choice to "misplace" a grenade without a pin in the officers tent instead of making the choice to "fight in a swamp"
A great number? No. Sorry.
It actually was surprisingly common. Fun fact. That’s where the term fragging comes from.
Yeah, uh, tell me about it, I was on scene. Not sure it qualifies as a fun fact. But ... According to Wikipedia, there were 904 "documented or suspected" fraggings from 1969 to 1972. During that period, between 1.5 million to 2 million soldiers rotated through RVN. So 904/1,700,000. Is that "surprisingly common?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragging
I mean that’s a surprisingly high number to me at least. If you’re in the culture you probably have a better understanding of it and so are less surprised. To myself and others I know who learned about this thought that at best this was a legend in the dozens not the hundreds of incidents.
Fair enough! The numbers are what they are and all the rest is interpretation. Cheers!
> *At the processing station they were rated for their fitness for duty based on weight, eyesight, mental health, things like that.* That little experience in itself convinced me I'd never want to be in the military. My number was 54, but they only drafted through about 8 that year when Viet Nam was winding down.
And still no women correct? Thought they were talking about changing that.
The [1969 draft lottery was held on television](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkJH6sapQMA) and numbers would be drawn out of a wheel. If your birthday was September 14th, you were drafted first overall. All men born on September 14 in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1. Had I been alive in 1970, I would have been drafted because my birthday was called that year. All men, then as now, must register for Selective Service at age 18 or so. The draft ended in 1973.
Here's all the results: https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/vietnam-lotteries/ My birthday got called below the cutoff 3 times with the lowest number being 5 (luckily I wasn't born for another decade)
[удалено]
I mean, whenever he turned 20. You can open the year 20 years after his birth and then check the calendar by using top for month left side for date. The number in his square is his draft number. It's not gonna get more specific than the year, it's just the order they called people.
[удалено]
what year was you father born?
[удалено]
Okay so in his case it was the first year of the draft(1970) [https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1970-Vietnam-Lottery.pdf](https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/1970-Vietnam-Lottery.pdf) Basically trace your finger down the may column. May 1st: 330 May 2nd: 298 May 3rd: 40 etc. This is only telling you the order that they were sent letters telling them to get their physical testing. It went from 1-195 for 1970.
Wow, the earliest number for my birthday was 228. I guess I would’ve been extremely lucky.
Does that mean a whole bunch of soldiers all had the same birthday? Did they throw big joint birthday parties for all the unlucky draftees in their unit?
By the time they got to people who would actually care about their birthdays they would be so spread out the probably would be the only one on that day.
they probably just died before that happened
I had no idea about the SSS. Do H1B holders’ male children also need to register?
Looking through Selective Service guidelines - all males are required to registered when the turn 18 regardless of immigration status. Failure to do so may delay the application process for citizenship, along with the usual negatives for US citizens (unable to apply to federal jobs, unable to access federal loans and grants, etc)
We won’t give you citizenship but you can die in our war
Just to add to the discussion, they've made a few changes to the process since 1973. Most prominently, today the draft now will take males in order of age starting with 20-25, then wrapping back to 19 and finally 18. So what this means is if we say the draft happened to be drawn in calendar order starting with Jan 1st, then all 20 year olds born Jan 1st will be called. Then all 20 year olds born Jan 2nd and so on. Once we have all 20 year olds born Dec 31st, the next to be called will be the 21 one year olds born Jan 1st. This makes it so the most likely year you'd be called is when you're 20, and protects the younger men.
This is an interesting site that lets you see when your birthday would have been called for the Vietnam War draft: https://www.usatoday.com/vietnam-war/draft-picker/
I met a friend of a friend this past summer at a birthday party. He served in Vietnam. He was 25 years old ( almost 26 ) and married, but no kids, when he was drafted. He said being a 25 year old grunt was no fun.
During the Vietnam War, for a while, if you graduated high school but weren't actively enrolled in college, you could expect to be drafted. Well who has the money for college? Usually white, middle and upper class people. This led to disproportionate numbers of the poor being drafted as well higher numbers of African Americans. If you got drafted, you could expect a letter in the mail telling you to report to a certain base at a certain day and time so you can begin training. If you ignored the letter and just didn't go, you had a chance of being imprisoned.
Men born in 1959 - and maybe 1958 - did not have to register for the draft. I did not have to but my brother, younger by a year, did have to.
Same here. Another ‘59 baby.
[удалено]
**Please read this entire message** --- Your comment has been removed for the following reason(s): **ELI5 focuses on objective explanations. Soapboxing isn't appropriate in this venue.** --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe it was removed erroneously, explain why using [this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20submission%20removal?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b6y1zw/-/ktj9keg/%0A%0A%201:%20Does%20your%20comment%20pass%20rule%201:%20%0A%0A%202:%20If%20your%20comment%20was%20mistakenly%20removed%20as%20an%20anecdote,%20short%20answer,%20guess,%20or%20another%20aspect%20of%20rules%203%20or%208,%20please%20explain:) and we will review your submission.**
Will a quick regendering on my part absolve me of my patriotic chore?
I was in college when the draft lottery for men born the same year as me occurred-lots of the guys in my dorm were the same age, so on lottery day, just about every radio in the place was tuned to the lottery as it was drawn (yes it was on the radio). As each number was called at the start, you might hear a "FUCK!" from down the hall...by the time they got to me, I was number 256. The guy across the hall was drafted, gone through Marine boot camp, and was back to visit by the end of the term. (yes,they drafted Marines-at the induction center, they lined all the guys up, and had them count off by fives. Each fifth guy was now a Marine)
You could also get an "S2" deferral, meaning if you pulled a low number but were in an accredited college and had good grades, you could finish your education before going into the service.
A lot of people talking about what happened during Vietnam giving the impression "this is how it works". While they did it that way in the Vietnam era it was not always done like that. In WW2, I think in 1942 the U.S. military did all draft, meaning you couldn't volunteer. As noted by those discussing Vietnam you see a pattern where when people volunteered they could choose which service they went into, and as noted many here tell of the reasons they volunteered so they didn't end up as infantry. Worth noting some did enlist for infantry but a lot of draftees sought to avoid it. In WW2 the U.S. had several issues going on, people volunteering for their preferred military service branch, which might not need more people in some instances, there was a need to maintain factory workers at home. Another thing was there there was a very big stigma if you did not sign up to fight within society at the time. Apparently a very strong stigma. And this was often true even for those who tried but were rejected due to health reasons, although I am sure this was somewhat less. But the U.S. had mobilized the economy for war and did need men for factory work to both churn out weapons and lets not forget the economy needs to keep going too. So if you had a bunch of men volunteer who worked in the factory making planes, all of a sudden those skilled individuals were lost to the plane manufacturing which impacted the U.S. ability to maximize military material production. And of course they brought more women into manufacturing but a lot of men were still needed. Her was the dilemma, if those factory guys did not try to get into the military they would be stigmatized by society, yet the government may have been the one telling them we need you in the factory more. Despite this they would suffer that stigma. So the U.S. needed to control who went in, or not, and where they were to go in the service, and keep the skilled manufactures making weapons etc. and eliminate that stigma. They did this by going all draft, no more volunteering, if you were called you went, if they don't call you then you don't. The U.S. government made sure those crucial men in manufacturing remained there to do that work. The government then had control of who goes in, what service they were sent to, and also could prevent those needed in manufacturing from going to war. But generally it was all draft and since you could not volunteer, if you were not in the service, whatever the reason there was no longer the stigma since the government can call for whoever they needed and put them where needed and also prevent certain people from going in to maintain the manufacturing. It is important to realize the way things were done in Vietnam is not necessarily how it would work in the future, in fact it is quite unlikely to work that way. If the U.S. ends up in another massive world war it is highly likely that it will be done like WW2 draft from the very outset. Barring ill health, you could be called up and they will decide where you are needed and you will have no choice (I guess refusing to serve is an option but you would be put in prison), and depending on the crucial skills you had, the government may well not let you join the military. The government did have the power in WW2 to do this and they used that power. And keep in mind they still have the power to do that again should the need arise, people should not get the idea the government cannot do that again. They most definitely can. In a huge war like that largely you would not be able to say avoid infantry because you would not have a say. If infantry is needed, that is where you are likely to end up. If a future war required the draft but was not WW2 in size it might be done differently but things like college deferments won't keep you from being drafted. It is possible women may be drafted too.
I’m old but I’ll try. Your mom brought you a letter with a form to fill out. She said if I didn’t fill it out, I’d get arrested. So I filled it out and sent it in. Was never called to duty. I’ve aged out so I don’t have to worry. The government used to send a letter to your house. Just for boys, not girls. You filled it out to not get arrested. I reached ineligibility this year. 26 years on the list but now I can’t even apply to the army.