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

Almost a year after I joined the Army I was stationed in Germany when my mother forwarded my draft notice to me.
Upon opening the letter I went right to my CO to tell him I needed to go home because I had been drafted !
The CO said "give me that letter, I will take care of this".
A short time later I submited a form 1049.
Within a month I received orders for a 30 day leave as well as orders to be reasigned to a unit in Viet Nam.
On the same orders I received notice of my promotion to PFC E 3.

My Lottery number was 58 so I knew it was just a matter of time. So when it came it was more oh well here i go.

At the time I thought we shouldn't be in the war but I still was going to serve my country that was never an issue or question. Luck of the draw I went to Korea instead of Vietnam. I did end up serving 24 years before I retired. As for my parents they never tried to influence me one way or the other. (My Dad was a WWII vet and also retired from the Navy)

This is a funny one for myself and many other draftees. I was in the Air Force at the time my draft notice came. Since all our mail was routed first to our parent organization, out detachment 1st sgt got all our mail. I was called into his office ( without knowing why), to get my mail. He separated the draft notice from the rest of the mail and asked me why I was a draft dodger. We were stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War at the time. I didn't want to go ARMY or MARINES, so I enlisted. He suggested that I go to a US ARMY post a few miles away, see the local re-enlistment officer/ nco, and fix the problem. Needless to say the ARMY NCO we ent from giddy to very sad when he saw my military ID. No bonus for him that month.

I enlisted in the US Army and spent 8 weeks in Basic Trng @ Ft Polk, La and then another 12 weeks in Communications school on an Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas. Upon completion I took a weeks leave before deploring and was given my envelope from my mom. I opened it and lord and behold, my Draft Notice. I took it to my previous recruiter and he laughed and said: I’ll take care of it soldier. We shook hands and I left. Pretty funny for me.

Lost my college deferment upon graduation so being drafted was inevitable and certainly expected. Got my invitation on my 22nd birthday on July 24th, 1967 and was in RVN the following April (1968). I had no strong feelings about the war and considered military service a civic responsibility. My mother was heartbroken about being in the military during wartime. However, I believe she was proud of me for doing my duty.

Lost my college deferment upon graduation in 1967 so being drafted was inevitable and I was just resigned to the fact.

Mine came while I was in boot camp. I never saw it, my dad took care of it.He probably enjoyed doing so.

As far as going, I knew I was going to be drafted, I had a low number. I decided if I was going to go in I wanted to be on the water. The only immediate influence my parent's had was when I told them my decision to enlist in the Navy, my WWII Navy vet father told me "Screw the Navy, join the Coast Guard, they know how to run an outfit!" The next day he took a personal day and drove me about an hour and a half to the nearest CG recruiting station.

The reason I said immediate influence is because, I suspect most of us in that era, I was raised to love my country. Did I question the war? Heck by the 70s who didn't? There was no question in my mind however that I would serve.

How do I convince my commander to let me go home. I had been in country Viet Nam about 9 months when I got my draft notice.

Got a letter from my mom with my draft notice when I was stationed at FT Rucker threw it in the nearest shit can.

I said to myself that the time has come! I had spoken out against the war in Vietnam, demonstrated, wrote to my congressional representatives and now finally I had to put myself on the line and telll my draft board how I felt about the criminal war in Vietnam, and see how they dealt with me then!