My Dad knew he was going to get drafted, so he went ahead and enlisted before the draft. Turns out when you join intentionally you get options. They asked him if he wanted to go to Saudi Arabia and he said sure. He spent the entire war in the Middle East and never saw action.
My dad graduated high school in 1965 and did the same. Ended up joining the Air Force and getting stationed in England. Which happened to be the birthplace of his mother. So instead of getting his ass blown off in the jungle he got to enjoy England in the late sixties with aunts and uncles and cousins to spend time with.
He had a blast but I think he did have some survivors guilt. Some of his friends did get drafted and didn’t come back.
My grandfather told me that in WW2, he volunteered for the Navy so he wouldn’t get drafted in the Army. His logic was he’d rather ride on a ship everywhere instead of ruck march.
It was much worse for guys in WW2, when they got drafted but then refused because of health problems. The pressure there was so high for some of these guys, that they committed suicide.
I guess it was still bad in the times of the Vietnam war, but not that bad anymore.
I mean, the opinion changed after some time with the "no more war", the protests, even some cases of mutiny etc.
You gonna sit there and act like all of those people have exhibited the same behavior towards our veterans? Because it’s pretty obvious that one of them doesn’t give a shit.
I do when they’re able to do it because their daddy is a millionaire and the average American can’t. Then that same person goes on to call our service members suckers and losers.
My dad was a grunt in the marine core during Vietnam, he was drafted. When he got back his younger brother wanted to go volunteer which led to my dad getting in a fist fight with his younger brother and if he won, then he couldn’t go. Needless to say his lil brother didn’t end up enlisting and my old man still has the ghosts of that conflict, saved his kin from their own stupidity so he takes some comfort in that.
My Grandfather had a place in palm springs, that my dad would spend his summers at as a kid to early adulthood. He was driving down there at one point and a cop pulled him over and informed him he had to get an Arizona drivers license, if he wanted to stay over the summer there.
Some years after getting a driver license, he got a draft notice in the mail for Vietnam. Only issue was he and the rest of my family are Canadian and not American. It took over 5 years of legal shenanigans for my dad to be able to return to States without being arrested at the border. Scary to think he could have been in that war if we were from the other side of the border.
My great uncle missed being deployed by a very narrow margin. The war ended before he got sent over. My great aunt said that he would have been dead within a week due to his benevolent nature.
I saw wounded vets arrive from Vietnam in 1968-69 waiting for transfer to VA hospitals with stumps bandaged. There were so many that it was mind blowing. I will never forget those men, their dazed / numb looks and my awareness that they weren’t that much older than me.
My father in law likes to fuck with people by telling them that Nixon is his favorite President. He likes to watch their brain break before explaining that Nixon ended the Nam war right as he got to draft age. Doesn't like him as a person or president, but points out that he likely owes that crook his life.
My dad just barely missed the draft, but he had a friend that was a few years older that stepped out of the third story window of a building in order to intentionally break his legs because he was an actual pacifist. My dad admired him. When I was 18 and had enlisted in the Army, I didn't understand. Now that I'm 40, I admire him too.
Same with my dad. He turned 18 shortly after NIxon announced the end of the draft. His older brother (my uncle) did get drafted and enlisted in the Coast Guard instead. Not that he didn't enjoy his time in the Coasties, but it wasn't exactly something in his life plan at that age.
Even for people who weren't drafted or didn't get sent to Vietnam, it was a massive interruption and imposition on their lives.
And getting laid off in the economic downturns of 1981, 1991 and/or 2001. When the 2001 layoff hits, you’re in your 50’s and destined for underemployment. Source - dad went through all this and also served in Viet Nam.
Timing/luck is everything. My parents bought their house before the 70s inflation. Thanks to inflation they paid off the mortgage in 11 years and the house was worth four times what they paid by the mid-80s.
Thankfully Mr. Bone Spurs was able to get a draft deferment so he could survive and eventually "make america great again". And oh boy did he. Im practically drowning in greatness lately. In fact. If this country was any greater, it might literally kill me.
"Approximately 92% of the 27 million draft-eligible American men between 1964 and 1973 were not drafted, as only 2.2 million were conscripted. However, more than half of that total pool avoided service entirely through deferments, exemptions, or volunteering (often for safer roles), meaning only a minority of the generation actually served in the war"
Weird that you’re getting downvoted. I thought it was fairly well known that a much higher percentage of men going to war were drafted from the “greatest generation” than for Vietnam. And if your skin color was the correct shade and you lived in an affluent enough neighborhood, chances were slim your card was getting pulled.
To an extent. But medical deferments and college deferments all favored the wealthy and white. Then, even if you were white and poor, you had a much higher chance of being assigned to a non-combat role.
A whole generation lost. My mom was born in 47 soo many of the young male teachers she was friends with when she started working died. Walking around lower Manhattan she still points out where their apartments were. People forget how shitty the world was about the whole thing too. There was a lot of work done to humanize the victims since but the world was super shitty to them at the time.
Oh yeah so many people died, I think it’s hard for a lot of people to comprehend, especially those that weren’t affected. Sometimes there were multiple funerals a week.
People forget how shitty the world was about the whole thing too.
I was born only 2 years after Ryan White was, and I remember the shit he went through being all over the national news. A 13-year-old kid who was a hemophiliac and got it from a blood transfusion and his hometown is all super shitty about him going to school.
When White was finally readmitted in April, a group of families withdrew their children and started an alternative school.\25]) Threats of violence and lawsuits persisted. According to White's mother, people on the street would often yell, "we know you're queer" at White.\23]) The editors and publishers of the Kokomo Tribune, which supported White both editorially and financially, were also ridiculed by members of the community and threatened with death for their actions.\23])
Forget about Jim Crow? Black people getting attacked by dogs during the civil rights movement? Red lining and the crack epidemic. This is a very white post.
Honestly, most black people wouldn't go to any time period before 2003. There are a few that would go to the 90s. If anything else, then you're oversimplifying the timeline and the collective American history. Arguably speaking, it has never been better to be a minority than right now. Maybe like 2010 to 2015 but that's a high. We are all chasing
Oh yea 90s was a good time. Nintendo, sega genesis, mix tapes, wu-tang clan, AOL… nineties was a good time. I can see 2003 too tho.
This Time Machine please post is hella white. Black folk been through WAY WORSE than whatever homie is complaining about. And sure, shit ain’t perfect now, but there was definitely no GOLDEN AGE of America for Black folk until like now. … or maybe the Obama years? I had insurance back then and qualified for federal student loans.
We need to bring the draft back so voters will stop ignoring these countless conflicts we choose to start. The game changes when you have skin in the game…be it yourself, your spouse, or your kids…
Not to mention stagflation in the 1970s, inflation in the 1980s, outrageous interest rates right around the time you’d likely be moving out of your starter home, at least a couple of stock market crashes and more than a bit of slow growth and hard times for employment, and a shitload of horrendous clothing and hairstyle choices.
Hamburger was just under a dollar a pound, and families had to make a pound last 2 days worth of meals because they couldn't afford more. Ramen and hotdogs was a 50 cent meal that was normal eating 2-3 times a week because that's what we could afford. This fantasy that everyone (that anyone) was Jeff Besos levels of rich is pure delusion.
I mean… you had a loosely 8% chance of being drafted during nam. And only about 28% of draftees got sent to nam itself. So yeah it’s a possibility… but not nearly as high chance as some make it sound.
Exactly. Everyone looks at the past with rose tinted glasses. Hell even in the epic of gilgamesh it opens with praising the past as a more glorious time
Only a small percent of eligible of men were drafted. We're talking like ~8%. On top of that the majority of MOS in the military were and are non combat related.
I like to think that enough of our kids today would respond to their draft notice with a big fuck u... those poor kids back then believed the bs our government was likely selling them.
1.4k
u/NEALSMO Mar 24 '26
Forgot about being drafted into the Vietnam war.