* * Chas wrote:

The bottom line is this:

During the Vietnam era it wasn't too difficult for the draft
age sons of the wealthy and/or politically well placed to
find ways of avoiding the posibility of going to Vietnam or
in many cases avoiding military service altogether!

Yes, that's true; they dodged the draft by attending college,
hoping their deferment would last longer than the war.
The wealthy and well-connected had a much easier time gaining
entry somewhere - when there were three qualified male applicants
for every available college slot... and every one of them trying
to dodge the draft.

That said, I think at the time, most of the reluctance to
serve in the military was more of an issue of facing the
regementation, dicipline and the loss of personal freedoms
encountered in every day military life rather than the fear
of bodily harm from combat in Vietnam.

Horse****.
If you were classified 1-A (physically fit and mentally competent)
you would be drafted, period, at age 19 or upon completion of your
four-year college deferment. (Ask me how I know. There was no
draft lottery back then.) With a 1-A classification, most employers
would not hire you - because you would definitely be gone in less
than six months (and they'd be required by law to rehire you if
you returned).

The prospect of Boot Camp and military service was ( and
probably still is) just plain scary!

One side effect of the Draft and Vietnam war in the 1960s
was the number of young men who went to college or got
married and had children just to get a Draft Deferment.

Now you're talking; but the deferment for fathers disappeared
in 1967 or 68.

Things changed after 1965. There were many young men who
enlisted the same day they received a notice from their
Draft Board.

Only in a service that had plenty of openings: the Army or
Marines.

They tried to get into the Air Force or Navy
(or reserves) thinking that a 4 year enlistment was better
than 2 years in the Army as a draftee.

They were right - but very foolish not to have gotten their
name on a waiting list a year earlier. The waiting lists
for the guard, reserves, or Coast Guard in most cases extended
far into the future - longer than any enlistment in one of
those services.
A year's wait was about right - though even the AF was taking
Sky Cops on short notice, as was the Navy hiring common deck
hands for immediate enlistment.

- John T, former Msgt, USAF (drafted during the Tet Offensive,
and magically moved up on the AF waiting list to avoid the
draft by a couple of days.)