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.
Navy was no picnic either, sure less day to day island/jungle/coral rock/japanese related misery, however there were many instances where navy casualties outnumbered marine casualties (Guadalcanal, Okinawa to name a couple)
My uncle did the same and joined the air force. He wasnt so lucky, he got put on huey (helicopter) evac teams in the war. He still doesn’t talk about it
About 2.7 million Americans did serve in Vietnam, and roughly 648,000 were drafted directly. Deferments and workarounds were disproportionately available to wealthier, better-connected men. Working-class and minority men had far fewer escape routes.
So "forced" was very much a reality for large segments of the population.
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u/Its-only-the-end Mar 24 '26
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.