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

OK, Sir- 1st my number was 315 in 1970, 2nd I was scheduled for my ROTC physical at Ft McPherson that Oct. 3rd I was the eldest son of a WWII Disabled Vet. 4th We had found out the year before(69) that we had lost 3 cousins in SVN in 1968 (82nd Lt, 173rd SGT, 1st Avn Bde SPC crew chief). Yes I supported the war.

When I got my draft notice in 1968, I was in basic training at Lackland AFB. I joined the USAF to avoid being drafted. I had options on my career field in the USAF.

I enlisted in my own. I am R.A.

Since I wasn't planning on going to college after graduation from high school, my uncle suggested I talk to a recruiter he knew. That was a good move since he set me up with an MOS that was something other than Infantry. I was half way through Basic Training when my mother forwarded my draft notice to me. I had enlisted in the next county so my local draft board wasn't aware of my enlistment. I took the letter to my DI and he said not to worry about it, it would catch up with them in due time. Not sure how long that took, but the next time I darkened their door was with my discharge papers in hand. I still have that card in my collection of papers and things. I think I was reclassified IV-A.

I was already on a ship in Viet-Nam, sent then a note with my address and the ships location, told 'em come get me, I'll wait !!

I enlisted when I was 17 out of high school in March 1963, got out in March 1966 & was home 20 years old & got a call from the local draft saying I had not registered for the draft at 18. I told the lady that I had joined at 17 & was in Germany when I was 18. She said I need to register or face charges for not registering for the draft. I told her to register me & send me the card. She came by my brothers printing company, I signed a form she filled out & a few weeks I got my card in the mail. Small town of 20,000 people & everyone knew everyone.

First thought, Oh No. I had just landed a job with a large national company which I later retired from with 31 years service. I went to the draft board and got a year's deferment so I could work a year because the company would bridge my service when I got out and went back to the job. When I went in I got a quicky discharge so I could join for 3 years and pick my MOS. Got it, served my time, got my second Honorable Discharge, and went back to work. The company bridged my previous service with my following time with them and counted my time in the Army too.
I came from a military family, father, uncle, and great uncle served in WWII so there were no conflicting opinions.

I was in BCT U.S. Army at Ft. Leonard Wood Mail Call the only pc. of mail I got was my Draft Notice that I had been drafted. LOL! So after mail call I go up to the Drill Sgt. and told him I got this in the mail today. He laughed and I will take of this.

I received my draft notice late 1966 after I had been in-country about three months. The first thing I did was to bust up laughing! It had me rolling on the ground! I went to my PSG and asked for permission to speak to the Lt. When he asked me what for I explained to him that I need to go back to the States right away or they were going to come looking for me! We both had a good laugh. Wished I would have kept it as a momento, but; it was lost as were many other things through an ugly divorce when I reterned to CONUS. Another 'Nam statistic'

My dad was a career Navy guy (32 years) and retired a CBM (Cheif Botswans Mate) at the Fleet Boat Pool in San Diego, He saw his first sea duty during the mid-late 30's aboard the Battleship Oklahoma. So as I grew up I was surrounded by accounts of WWII & Korea from him and his buddies, and all my early friends were Navy brats in Navy Housing. When I graduated H.S. I was 17, and I wanted to join the Marines so bad I could taste it! So dad was at work one day when I brought the Marine recruiter home (dress blues of course) to meet my mother. I knew she would sign for me, when dad wouldn't (so I thought). The problem was my mother was a native of SD Ca. and grew up hating the Marines, which I didn't know about until that day! So I'm at the front door with this Gunny in dress blues and I go to open the door to call for Mom to come to the door. The door was immediately yanked open, almost pulling me into the house, and as I leaned forward she brushed me out of the way with her free hand stepped into the space I had been in. She yelled at the Gunny "what are you doing here on my doorstep?". From behind her, I tried to stammer out an answer when he quietly announced who he was and why he was there. She wasn't going for it and told him in no uncertain terms (with a few words I had never heard come out of her mouth before; dad yeah, but mom, never) To get off the porch and our property and never come back! I was speechless. She told me that if I was determined to enlist, she would sign for any branch other than the XXXX'n Marines (bless her heart)! So I thought, well then, OK, it's gonna be the Army! Mom signed and a few days later I was on the Greyhound Bus to Portland Or. for all the recruit testing and so forth, then the swearing in (an oath that I feel I'm still bound by), then off to Ft. Ord for BCT July 1963.

I could go on about the training received from the old 'Brownshoe' Army NCO's, whose hands were not tied by a PC culture, and who were determined to produce soldiers who would survive the types of combat they had known, and the years leading up to 'Nam, but if anybody is still reading this, I only intended to post a few lines, so I must be 'venting' about a long held patriotic belief that we are the best, at everything we set ourselves to do! My father instilled the belief in me that the only way to preserve the Freedom that we hold so dear was to serve and to make the ultimate sacrifice for our brothers in arms if called to do so. He was not an educated man so he couldn't verbalize it like that but that's what he taught me through example. So whether I was gullible or not, I went to 'Nam in 1966 with the idea in mind that somehow I was going to help someone, who desperately needed it. I left thinking that I would not return when I climbed aboard an Oklahoma A.N.G. DC-3 (canvas seats facing the tail) at Lackland AFB, San Antonio TX. My ex-wife was hanging onto the nearby chain-link fence and calling (don't go!-don't go!) as I turned my back on her and did the duffle bag drag.

Back when my folks told that when I graduated from high school that I could live with them for the summer, but in the fall I either had to go to college or join the military. Summer ended and fall came and I had not applied for college so they told me that I couldn't live at home. Because of my age (17) they has to sign for me, I signed up for the Air Force but the recruiter had no enlistment slots, I switched to the Navy, but 3 days before I was to report for Navy AD, I received a call from the AF recruiter saying that he had an electronics E-80 slot and I could request an A/C maintenance slot on future testing at Lackland AFB TX during basic training. Future testing at Lackland produced two career possibilities (security duty and communications/electronics). I looked into the crystal ball and saw myself with Rin Tin Tin (German Shepard) guarding B-52's at Minot AFB and quickly decided that maybe comm/electronics at Keesler AFB wasn't such a bad deal after all. That was probably the best decision of my life and haven't looked back! Because I enlisted 5 days after my 18 birthday, I never received a draft notice although I signed the day after my 18th birthday.