I was in the first lottery.  I was lucky.  I recall clearly that day.  I was sitting in the cafeteria at my college dorm listening to the radio broadcast of the numbers being called out, one by one.  I have a December birthday.  I was struck by how many December birthdays were being called out, compared to other months. I got one of the last December birthdays called, No. 165.  Only a handful of other Decembers had higher numbers.

If I had been eligible that year, I would have been drafted.  I’m not sure what I would have done.  Fortunately, I was not eligible until 1972, after I graduated.  By then, things in Viet Nam were winding down enough that my number didn’t get called.

A lot of friends were not so lucky.