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

My thoughts would have been, "Why are they drafting an elementary school student?"

I did have to register for the draft after serving 15 months active duty.

"#$%^&*!!!"

I was not totally in favor of supporting the corrupt government of South Vietnam. However I was then and remain a staunch anticommunist. I really had mixed feelings on that subject. When the time came, I went to Vietnam without hesitation because I wore a U.S. Navy uniform.

WHEN I OPENED IT I THOUGHT "OH SHIT"!!
I NEVER WANTED TO BE IN THE MILITARY!
ME AND MY DAD NECER HAD "THAT TALK"
ABOUT MILITARY SERVICE.
MY DAD HOWEVER WAS NEVER IN THE MILITARY DUE TO HIS BAD HEARING.
MY DAD WAS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
WHO HAD A CIVIL SERVICE JOB AT A NAVAL AVIATION TRAINING FACILITY!
IT ALSO ENABLED ME TO SEE HOW MILITARY RECRUITS WERE ABUSED! AS I WENT ON POST WITH HIM ONE DAY WHEN HE WAS CALLED FOR AN ELECTRICAL ISSUE
EMERGENCY WHILE ON VACATION!
LUCKILY I WAS ABLE TO GET INTO ARMY RESERVES BEFORE THE DRAFT GRABBED ME!
WHEN I WENT ON BASIC TRAINING ,
I DECIDED TO DO MY BEST AND SEE WHAT
I COULD LEARN AND GAIN!
HOWEVER DUE TO BALANCE AND GRACE
PROBLEMS, (I COULD BARELY RIDE A BIKE OR ROLLER SKATE) I WAS BADLY HARRASSED FOR BEING A KLUTZ!
AFTER OUT OF BASIC AND BACK HOME
DAD RAISED HELL WITH ME FOR JOINING THE ARMY RESERVES VS NAVY RESERVES!
HE WAS AFRAID THAT IF THEY GOT TOO
FEW RECRUITS THE PLCE WOUD BE SHUT DOWN!
I TOLD HIM I FOUND OUT ARMY RESERVES
WOULD BE LEAST TIME SERVED, AND LEAST LIKELY TO BE ACTIVATED!
ALSO THE RESERVES UNIT I WAS IN WAS NON COMBAT!
HE WASNT HAPPY WITH THIS!
BUT I TOLD HIM THAT IN A YEAR OR SO
THEY WILL HAVE GUYS COMING OUT OF THE WOODWORK TRYING TO JOIN ANY RESERVE OR NATIONAL GUARDS UNIT THEY COULD FIND!
DAD ASKED ME WHY, AND I TOLD HIM THAT VIETNAM WAS GOING TO GET MUCH BIGGER!
HE THEN SAID THAT IF THEY REALLY WANTED TO DO SO A BUNCH OF GREEN BERETS WOULD HAVE THE JOB DONE IN 3 MONTHS!!
THIS WAS IN MAY 1964. AUGUST 64 DAD PASSED AWAY AND NEVER SAW WHAT HAPPENED OCT 28 1967 I GOT OUT OF THE RESERVES BARELY IN TIME BEFORE MY RESERVE UNT WAS ACTIVATED MAY 16 1968!

My lottery number was #6 in 1970. Heard my number called on the radio on my way to school! Oh shit! I'm going to Vietnam.

Indeed, those notices have some strange ways of finding you. My wife forwarded mine to me in Nam. I looked at it, had a good laugh and gave it to my signal officer. I don't know what he did with it, but I never heard back from the little man at the draft board. (remember when the little man from the draft board was after bugs bunny? Or was it daffy duck, can't recall for sure, but that was the way I pictured him after getting the notice. Ah well, it's all water over the bridge, I loved my time in the US Army, even the time I spent in Nam, most of it anyhow. I was in a fairly peaceful location on both my assignments, I had a transfer mid tour because my unit went home. Well the General, the TOP NCO, and the unit colors went home, the rest of us went to sub-units which were now under the command of a combined Engineer Command instead of the 18th Eng BDE and the 20th. Funny how that worked and at home my folks and wife were celebrating because they heard my unit was coming home. I had to write and tell them how it really worked..

I was attending high school and my Mom got the notice first. I came home that afternoon and opened the notice. My parents were in disbelief about my calm reaction. My reporting date was 14 days before my graduation. My decision was to quit school the next day (which I did) and enlist before I reported. I side-stepped a bullet in one way, but I still served in Vietnam.

I joined the Navy Reserves on my 18th birthday in March 1968, went active duty for four years that July. Never got my draft notice.

Never got one, I enlisted just after I turned 17. I was in Vietnam at 18 and home at 19.

I joined AFROTC and served in the Vietnam Era on active duty from 1972 to 1976. I bought all 3 extant editions of the Pentagon Papers (18 books) and a book about the unpublished diplomatic volumes. I read them all from cover to cover which convinced me that I made the right decision at the time.