re: #166 HappyWarrior

Help me out here Art and Jay but lottery was by Birthday wasn’t it? If I recall my dad, born in 1951 correctly he missed out because of his October birthday. My uncle, his older brother was drafted out of college I believe and served in Germany. I don’t know much about his service since he and my dad aren’t close.

As best I recall (and this off the top of my now-aging head), the annual draft “lottery” was indeed a random draw by birthday, for qualifying 18-yr-old men in the appropriate “class”. I think each birthdate was picked (Feb. 29 dudes were SOL and lumped in with Feb 28, IIRC) and given a number 1-365: low numbers were prioritized for inductions according to each years’ manpower needs, high-numbered guys might escape altogether. And not to mention -
as in my own case - other deferments also applied (until expired) to keep potential conscripts out of the pool.