I graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in accounting June 1969. I began work in Atlanta several days after graduation for Arthur Andersen & Co., a large international CPA firm. I was worried about being drafted so was able to join the Eatonton (Georgia) National Guard with a six-year commitment. As a member of the National Guard, I was required to attend basic training for four months, attend monthly 2-day weekend meetings in Eatonton, and attend the 2-week summer camp each year held at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Arthur Andersen offered to all National Guard members an unpaid leave of absence for the months away at basic trainings, but would pay for the summer camp time off and not count it toward vacation.
I left for basic training in Fort Polk, LA Thanksgiving weekend, 1969. Right after I arrived at basic training the first lottery was held on December 1, 1969. I remember being in my barrack and aware of the dates and numbers being called over someone’s radio and thinking my number was so high that I probably would never be drafted. But it really didn’t matter as I’d taken out an insurance policy and joined the National Guard instead–so in reality I could have the lottery number 1 or 366, it really didn’t matter at this point! I haven’t really thought of my number or the lottery since. I’ve just always sort of had a feeling that if I had been a risk taker in 1969, my lottery number was high enough to have avoided both the National Guard and the draft. But after looking up my number recently (195), I learned that it was the last number called in 1970, so I would have been drafted if not for my National Guard service.