The Way Back Machine

[stuckmotor]

So as I recall, the phone was ringing off the hook sometime before noon
on a day in February, 1972. I woke.
My head was pounding like the base drum in a parade.
I thought, oh crap, what is going on?
I was the only one home at my parents house and no one else was gonna get it.
"Hello" I said. My headhurt, my stomache was talking dirty to me and I had to pee.
"Ron, what was my number?" It was my friend Bob.
"What?" I said.
The room shifted a little under my feet and I tried to figure things out.
"What number did they draw for me?", He said.
It started to dawn on me.
The draft lottery was last night.
"I don't know." I said. "Hey I'll call you right back."
"No, I'll be right over" he said and hung up.

I started to sort things out.
We had heard about a draft lottery party for the night of the drawing.
The 1972 drawing was for those born in 1953. The drinking age was now 18
instead of 21. The drawing was on tv but it was not fast enough to keep up with
our alcohol intake. It was a blur. Guys were saying that they were going to the
Air Force recruiter in the morning. Guys were saying they'd go into the Navy instead.
Guys were thinking about Canada. Last night was not in clear focus for me.

I peed, brushed my teeth and grabbed a couple aspirin.
I got a large glass of coke and a handfull of Oreo cookies.
When you are 18 you can eat like that.
It was the age of gas allocation, wage and price controls, and
hippies and hard-hats.

Bob showed up with bloodshot eyes and a funny color to him.
We decided to get a paper.

We didn't know that the war was gonna wind down.

We found that we both had numbers that were not going to be reached.

That was 50 years ago.

My draft lottery number was 289. Who can say what common product of the time was known by that same number?

 

[tacticalturnip]

I just want someone to explain what 50k Americans died FOR in Vietnam, where the US Constitution gives the government the right to conscript citizens and force them to fight in another country’s civil war, and why we should ever again trust any president that says to our kids “You need to go and fight and die in a foreign land.”

The US would be a stronger, richer country if those 50k had stayed home, raised children and grandchildren and contributed for 5 or 6 more decades to making this country a better place.

We didn't learn a damn thing; the only difference is that now we piss away our volunteer force, as opposed to conscripts.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Eisenhower warned about the danger from the "industrial-military complex".

...and Smedley Butler before him.

 

[Doughknob]

My draft lottery number was 289. Who can say what common product of the time was known by that same number?

Mustang V8

 

[Jstpssng]

I just want someone to explain what 50k Americans died FOR in Vietnam, where the US Constitution gives the government the right to conscript citizens and force them to fight in another country’s civil war, and why we should ever again trust any president that says to our kids “You need to go and fight and die in a foreign land.”

The US would be a stronger, richer country if those 50k had stayed home, raised children and grandchildren and contributed for 5 or 6 more decades to making this country a better place.

Also consider that the last war we actually won was in 1945.

 

[MossRoad]

I remember when I was 11 in 1972, I was sitting in the back seat of my mom's VW bus. We were in the high school parking lot waiting to pick up one of my sisters. She came running up to the open passenger window screaming hysterically "WHAT'S HIS NUMBER? WHAT'S HIS NUMBER?" and my mom replied "One." My sister fainted. I didn't know what was going on. My mom got out, went around the van, opened the sliding door, then sat on the asphalt holding my sister until she came around. Then she had me help her put my sister in the van and we went home. I asked mom what was going on, and she asked me to be quiet.

Later that afternoon she explained to me what the draft lottery was. My future brother in-law got number one.

He ended up getting rejected with flat feet and knee issues.

 

[stuckmotor]

Mustang V8

Go it! The engine probably went faster in a Mustang. My mother had one in a Galaxy.

 

[stuckmotor]

I remember when I was 11 in 1972, I was sitting in the back seat of my mom's VW bus. We were in the high school parking lot waiting to pick up one of my sisters. She came running up to the open passenger window screaming hysterically "WHAT'S HIS NUMBER? WHAT'S HIS NUMBER?" and my mom replied "One." My sister fainted. I didn't know what was going on. My mom got out, went around the van, opened the sliding door, then sat on the asphalt holding my sister until she came around. Then she had me help her put my sister in the van and we went home. I asked mom what was going on, and she asked me to be quiet.

Later that afternoon she explained to me what the draft lottery was. My future brother in-law got number one.

He ended up getting rejected with flat feet and knee issues.

Moss,
Aren't you the member with the crazy brother-in-law? Was that him?
Sorry if I'm thinking of someone else.

 

[MossRoad]

all US citizens too.

Just asking, and maybe I don't understand the statement, but non-citizens have served in the U.S. armed forces for hundreds of years. Non-citizens can volunteer, and, they could be drafted. There are numerous stories about non-citizens with green cards being drafted.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Just asking, and maybe I don't understand the statement, but non-citizens have served in the U.S. armed forces for hundreds of years. Non-citizens can volunteer, and, they could be drafted. There are numerous stories about non-citizens with green cards being drafted.

If I may be so bold, I would presume he wrote 'U.S. citizens' to add the emotional emphasis of the lost and wounded being the youth of our nation. I can't think that it was meant to be divisive.