What were your feelings and thoughts when you first opened your draft notice?

I joined at 18, after High School and one Semester at University of Alabama! (January-1969) Went to Balboa Naval Hospital Corps School January 1970. One of my dream sheet requests was Vietnam! They sent me to Naval Hospital Naples Italy instead for ward duty!!! This was a political Action or Conflict. Was a very controversial time. Veterans did their jobs and Duty for our Nation just to be cussed and spit on in Airports and Public Places!!! We Proudly Serve inspite of our Our Government and Political Leaders Actions to make it impossible to Win but cost so many unnecessary Lives with seneless Rules of Engagements and taking same places over and over again because of ordered withdrawals. No, my Parents or anyone else put things in my mind. I was a Patriot and Am Still. I'd serve again if I could!!!! John B

Was not drafted, too young at the time. Joined in '76.

I was a RAT at VMI in 1967. My brother had a medical discharge from the USCG Academy because a steel pin was in his leg. He was working in a defense industry (building nuclear subs) protected from the draft (IID??), when he got a waiver (with help from a VA Senator) to enlist in the Warrant officer flight program (2 tours, DFC, 35 AMs, ARCOM w/V, VnCG). I went from economics major-bank industry employee to hard corps history major patriot, when friends (HS & VMI) were killed in VN. I had spent last semester of HS in Taiwan, where the Red Chinese Army was greatly feared and invasion was threatened.

Well, I had already decided to enlist at that point so I was just curious about the draft registration process COL Mikel J. Burroughs. It was October 1974 and I had wanted to be a soldier since I was young. I supported the war in southeast Asia which put me at odds with my family. My parents had survived London and England during the blitz and my father lost his uncle and aunt to a German bomb so they were generally opposed to war.

I got my first notice in 65, arrested for drag racing and got disqualified.
In Aug. 65 got the second notice to absolve me of all
wrong doings. Just report to the draft board for further instructions.
Never heard of Vietnam or anything about what was going on over
there.
Looking back I viewed it as you were called, it's your turn do it.
Ft Gordon, Ft Jackson,Ft Polk, and here I am in Vietnam.
The big red 1-2/16 ranger bat. Took over a squad after being in
country for a month.This was another learn as you go experience.
You got three stripes on your sleeve and all the headaches to go with
them.

Laughter. I was living outside the U.S. when I turned 18. I registered for the draft at the local U.S. embassy. Years later I received a letter from the draft board in Arizona where my parents moved to while I was in college in Washington. I was ordered to report to a specific location on a specific date. The funny part of this is that a couple of months earlier I had been commissioned a 2nd Lt in the Army. The draft board had a little trouble understanding that I was not going to report as they had ordered.

Was not drafted. Coming from a military family joining the military after graduation was a given. I joined the Navy as the other three recruiters were to busy thumb twiddling to talk to a kid who just walked through the door. The Navy recruiter asked me if he could help and I told him I needed a job. He came up with one that fit me like a glove and lasted lasted 20+ years.

I raised my right hand on Dec 24th 1980, I was 17 years and 3 months and 24 days old. I reported for active duty on the 9th of September 1981, 9 days after my 18th birthday.
Soooo I didn't bother to register for the draft,....... I really didn't see the point, I had already raised my Right hand a little over 8 months before. (Delayed Entry)
Fast forward to sometime in the spring of 1983. By this time I had been assigned to A Co. 8th CAB, 8th Inf. Div. (Mech.) in Bad Kreuznach, West Germany for about a year. I was called into the First Sergeant's office, he wants to know "why the F&%$ didn't you register for the draft", and "do you know you can be prosecuted for not registering PFC?"
So I told him what just told you guys......He was not amused.
Soooo after he chewed on me for a minute or two. He made sure I filled out the form, and forwarded it on to wherever such forms are forwarded to. I never heard another word about it.

I imagine he and the rest of the orderly room had quite the laugh about it after I left.

I would not know, because the country eliminated the peacetime draft in 1973, ten years before I volunteered for Service in the Marine Corps as an 18 year old College Freshman, and shipped off to Quantico, VA to OCS as an 18 year old kid in the PLC Program (Junior session) in the summer of 1983. My PEBD was January 13th, 1983 (when I took the oath of office as an Officer Candidate in the Platoon Leaders Course).

Richard Nixon ended the draft: "During the 1968 presidential election, Richard Nixon campaigned on a promise to end the draft. He had first become interested in the idea of an all-volunteer army during his time out of office, based upon a paper by Martin Anderson of Columbia University. Nixon also saw ending the draft as an effective way to undermine the anti-Vietnam war movement, since he believed affluent youths would stop protesting the war once their own probability of having to fight in it was gone.There was opposition to the all-volunteer notion from both the Department of Defense and Congress, so Nixon took no immediate action towards ending the draft early in his presidency.

Instead, the Gates Commission was formed, headed by Thomas S. Gates, Jr., a former Secretary of Defense in the Eisenhower administration. Gates initially opposed the all-volunteer army idea, but changed his mind during the course of the 15-member commission's work. The Gates Commission issued its report in February 1970, describing how adequate military strength could be maintained without having conscription. The existing draft law was expiring at the end of June 1971, but the Department of Defense and Nixon administration decided the draft needed to continue for at least some time. In February 1971, the administration requested of Congress a two-year extension of the draft, to June 1973." From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States

I was in tech school at Keesler AFB when I received a letter from home telling me that they received my draft notice. My First sergeant wrote the draft board a letter explaining that I was already on active duty with the Air Force.

I didn't think much about the war before I received orders and served a tour. Our reception when we returned to CONUS resulted in my developing a life long hatred of hippy protesters and draft dodgers. I believe that the circumstances of that war resulted in VN Vets forming a special bond above that of most vets. I still greet my brother VN vets with, "Welcome home, Brother."