The evening of the first lottery drawing, I was listening to the radio in my apartment while shaving and showering in preparation for a date with my wife-to-be, Carol. I thought I’d heard my birth date announced very early, but I wasn’t sure. They kept repeating the first 10 numbers drawn, and mine wasn’t among those. Later in the broadcast, I heard my birth date announced as #13.
I was in my senior year of Chemical Engineering that December, and was worried as hell about being called up. I was called within 4 weeks for my physical, but with an allergy to penicillin, I was given a I-Y, or limited medical deferment. I finished my degree in the spring of 1970, married Carol to whom I’m still devoted, and went to work for Dow Chemical. I was never called up again.