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

Enlisted Apr 1960

I had registered with the draft board as I should have but i never got a draft notice, I had already enlisted in the Air Force. i had already been a Cadet in Civil Air Patrol and also had been in an Army ROTC program at a Military Academy and beside with a family that has served in every War from the French and Indian War in the 1600s and with My Dad a WWII Veteran the choice seemed clear to Me, besides I was classified !A, figured it was just a matter of time.

I enlisted in the army in 1965 was sent to Fort Lewis Washington while there my dad wrote to tell me I had been drafted we had a good laugh about it,did a tour in Vietnam returned in one piece trained troops at Fort Polk and can honestly say that was the defining part of my young life

I had already enlisted in the Navy (didn't want to wear a tie). I enlisted under the delayed entry program since I had yet to graduate from High School, my lottery number as it turns out was 39. I received my draft notice in the mail, and called to ask if I needed to report. There was a long pause after which the voice said in a rather hang-dog tone, "No, since you have enlisted in the Navy there is no need to show up!" Mike Fields (EM1SS)

How many know that draftees were actually selected to enter the Marines. In '69 I enlisted in the Army in PA. After processing in with a load of draftees we were lined-up and ten name were called out to step forward. I was one of the ten. A Marine Gunny said "You are now Marine".
I stepped back. He got in my face yelling a lot of good stuff that cannot be said today and ordered me to step forward.
I was a military brat and I know I was safe because I was RA. I replied I cannot be a Marine. I scored to high on the ASVAP.
You can imagine the rest. I sure felt sorry for the boys he took with him.

Feelings: "Well, at last. Let's get on with this."
Stance: I bought into the "Domino" theory. There were things that needed to be done.
Parents: had no specific effect on my ideas.

Over the years, as I have learned more about the complexities of the whole set of affairs, my opinions are also more complex. Although I'm not proud of everything my country did in that span of time, I remain proud of what my unit and I personally accomplished.

I volunteered for the Marine Corps 1958. Still have my draft card.

Started the process of enlisting in the USAF during my jr. year of high school. My dad had been a SeaBee in WW2 so I saw the Service as an honorable semi-obligation. Plus, since my dad had died when I was barely 12 yo, college was not high on my options list. A neighbor was retired AF, and he encouraged me to go AF and gave me advice about which jobs to go for. (I ended up in Avionics, the training for which served me well post-discharge).

My stance in the war at the time was apathetic trust in the leadership of our Country. Research since then has convinced me that it was a BIG mistake. Why...?

Beginning in 1919 (the conference in Paris where the Allies were deciding how harshly they should punish Germany for 'the Great War'/WW1) Ho Chi Minh sent a letter to the American delegation asking for America's help in obtaining some relief from, or even freedom from, France's harsh colonial rule.

As a relatively unknown 29yo of no standing, he was ignored. He joined the French Socialist Party because their platform included freedom for all French colonies around the world.

Fast forward to 1941. Spring 1941: Germany invades France. French forces in Viet Nam are effectively cut off from support from the mother country. Summer 1941: Japan invades French Indochina. With no support from home, French Forces capitulate with little or no resistance. Several groups of Vietnamese nationals, including what came to be called the Viet Minh, begin harassing the Japanese with whatever weaponry they can find, steal, or manufacture. (They're more of an irritant to the Japanese than a threat.)

Dec. 7, 1941; Japan attacks; America enters the War. In addition to everything else we did, we sent teams to the Pacific Theater to equip and train groups like the Viet Minh in guerrilla warfare.

Sep 2, 1945; VJ Day; that same day, Ho Chi Minh reads Viet Nam's Declaration of Independence from France. Based on Pres. Roosevelt's vocal anti-colonial stance, HCM fully expected that America would be supportive of Viet Nam independence (and Cambodia and Laos, which were also part of French Indochina). What HCM didn't realize is that Pres. Truman, who became President with FDR's death, didn't share FDR's anti-colonial convictions.

After that, France, with US support, re-invaded Viet Nam, fought to re-conquer VN, and lost at Dien Bien Phu. The US picked up where France left off, eventually committing to full combat in Viet Nam. What started as their Revolutionary War morphed into their Civil War, which, I'm convinced, we were on the wrong side of their 'Mason-Dixon Line'.

I don't remember my parents saying anything that greatly affected my decision to enlist. I remember, as a kid after we got our first b&w TV, watching just about every 'The Big Picture' and 'Victory at Sea', et al. documentary that came on.

My dad was heroic in my eyes: he was a quiet man, but he could do just about anything he decided to. We lived in a house he built himself, and I watched and helped him add to it twice (a two bedroom wing for my brother and I, and a full kitchen/dining room for our mom). I once built a model of the USS Missouri (I think). When it was done, he told me that his CB Battalion was transported from Alaska (where they had built and developed Dutch Harbor) to Okinawa on the Missouri. He pointed out on the deck, beside one of the big guns, where he slept. That's the only time I can remember that he ever mentioned about the war to me.

Mine didn't get there till after I joined. Mute point. The draft was over.

I enlisted when I was 17. Never registered for the draft.