I was classified as I-A because I took a semester off to work.  When I got back to Carolina, I was still I-A because my student deferment had not yet been reinstated.  I was called up and went for a physical somewhere—I can’t remember where exactly.  The doctor told me that my eyesight was terrible, my knee was injured and that I had a chronic back problem.  He stamped my form "OK for Service" and told me, as I was walking out of his office, that I would probably be one of the first people killed due to all my medical issues.  Then he laughed.  I was not amused, but that was the attitude at the time.

I was on track to graduate as a public school teacher, and when I graduated in August I got a job right away teaching, so my deferment was reinstated.  I was glad for that, as they did call my lottery number. I taught and went to grad school until August, 1972, when I graduated again with an MA.  I moved to FL on my birthday, July 31, 1972, and haven’t worried about the draft since then.  I remember it as a very scary time, however, as fellow Carolina students were called-up every day.

A good friend went and was a helicopter pilot ferrying out wounded soldiers and so forth.  He was a great guy, but when he got back a couple of years later and I saw him on campus, he was clearly a different person.  He refused to discuss his time over there at all.  I imagined that he might write about it someday as he was an excellent writer before he left.