On 12/9/2021 1:22 PM, Mike Lazzari via olympus wrote:
...landed me in CG boot camp, rather than Vietnam.
With an on again, off again 2S (student deferment) I entered the birthday lottery. Pulled #217. They called up to
#215 and drafted to ~190. My backup was the Canadian border just 100km north.
I would have been drafted in '66, no lottery, just dread. And certainty, as people I knew got their "Greetings . . ."
notices, and I was very healthy.
A bit of background for those outside the US. Someone thought up a scheme to give draftable guys a bit of certainty.
All birthdays were put in a hat and the order they were drawn was the order of the draft. I remember a lot of
celebrating and/or crying going on that night in the student union as the numbers were pulled.
My next youngest brother fought them tooth, nail, endless appeals, lawyer. They eventually gave up. I suspect he came
out to them before the family, and they just didn't want a super feisty gay guy in that man's army.
I was one of the lucky ones, many of my friends were not. 2 did not come back. All who went were profoundly affected
both physically (scrapnel, agent orange, etc.) and mentally. I lost a friend to complications from agent orange many
years after the fact. And a kid I grew up with turned out to be a hero...
My two youngest brothers got good lottery numbers.
Seems history continues to repeat itself.
So far, so bad . . .
Coastie Moose
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What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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