40 Years Ago: 1969 - When winning the lottery meant that you would be drafted and sent off to war

I can't imagine what it must have been like forty years ago sitting down with your family to watch a happy show like Mayberry RFD (a spin-off of The Andy Griffith Show), only to discover it was interrupted to show the draft lottery. While I watched the video, I imagined what it was like to be a mother, and to hope to God that your son's birthday would not be drawn early on. In fact, I imagine many mothers were praying that night that their son's birthday would be drawn last. 366 numbers were drawn - one for every day of the year, plus leap year. September 14th was the first date to be drawn. From that moment on, young men between the ages of 18 - 26 who were born on September 14th knew that their lives would change forever. They would soon receive their first letter from the military - a letter requiring that they get a physical exam. 

These young men were born between the years 1944 and 1950. I hesitate to call them "young men" because when I see photos of men who went off to Vietnam, they often look like boys to me now. When I was a little girl, they looked like men. But, now I can see how young they were. The 18 year olds didn't even get to experience life as an adult yet in America before  they were drafted to go to war in Vietnam. I'm sure to their mothers, it only seemed like yesterday that they were holding their little blessing in their arms. One of the first few birthdays to be called in the draft lottery was February 14th. I can imagine how thrilled their mothers were to get a special Valentine's gift on the day those baby boys were born, yet only 18 to 26 years later, that same date of February 14th must have knocked the wind out of those mothers when they saw it on TV. They must have sat there wishing their babies would have been born just a day later. To put it into perspective, if the draft lottery was on TV today, the young men to be drafted would have been born in the 80's and even the early 90's. The youngest ones would have been only 9 years old when we celebrated the new millenium. That seems like only yesterday. Time flies, especially for parents. Those soldiers may have been young men, but to their moms and dads, they were still their babies... their babies who were going to be sent off to war. 

The highest number that was drafted from the 1969 draft lottery was 195. I was curious what would have happened to me that year if I had been a young man. I looked up the chart and discovered I would have been drafted. Of course, women weren't drafted, but I was curious anyway. My husband would have been drafted early on. So would my brother. They weren't born until the 70's, but I still had to check on their birthdays. My dad was actually born within the time frame that was eligible for the draft, and I checked on his birthdate. He was also within the first 195 numbers. However, my dad was already in the Army by the time of the draft lottery. 

I was going to start off "Woodstock Week" with something about Woodstock specifically, but it didn't feel right. I wanted to remember the Vietnam Veterans first.

58,209 American soldiers were killed in Vietnam. 303,635 were wounded in action. 1,948 are missing in action. I have nothing but respect for those soldiers, and all veterans, and I'm sure this is something Americans all agree on today. 

Americans weren't the only ones who were killed or wounded. Millions of people died in the Vietnam War. See here for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties  

The war is what the people at Woodstock were protesting. Less than four months after Woodstock, this draft lottery was shown on TV. It is very likely that many of the young men who went to Woodstock were drafted too, since so many of the people who went to that festival were so young. I can't imagine the contrast of going to a festival of peace and love, only to find a few months later that you were going to be drafted and sent off to war. 

This wasn't the last draft lottery either. The draft didn't end until 1973, so those whose birthday was at the end of the list this year may have been at the beginning of the list the next year. Such uncertain times...

For more info on the draft lottery, and to see if you and your loved ones would have been drafted, look here: http://www.landscaper.net/draft.htm

Thank you to dcat918 for posting a video on YouTube that made me nauseous, although it is one of the most important videos I have ever seen. To see a cheery Christmas commercial right in the middle of the draft lottery was even more surreal.