<div style="color:black;font: 12pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Certainly not a big deal... but the draft lottery "winners?" were somewhat dependent on the local board's quotas. I had been getting college deferments. The lottery came out just as I started graduate school. A bunch of us guys went to a local pizza place in Tempe to watch the draft lottery in I think October of 1969,.. we were still on our first pitcher of beer when my birthday got called. I got my draft notice in February, and got to finish out the school year. I was 23 years old when I went in. I always felt that the quotas were hard on the rural counties, at least in Oregon. Very lucky, never had to go to Vietnam.
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<div>There is almost a tractor reference here.... it was my lucky day when I was processing in to be a medic at Fort Sam Houston, they pulled some of out of the line and asked us for our driver's licenses. ???? To get to the point, we were going to be truck drivers for our groups of medic trainees. We went to a training..... backing up a bit... the farmer/rancher I worked for during high school hauling hay, etc., had purchased several military surplus 6 X 6 trucks for farm use. So, I was very familiar with them, and for example double clutching, and backing a trailer, and with my knowledge of diesel engines...etc., the instructor didn't even let me finish the test. Some how I seemingly got lost in the motor pool at Ft. Sam Houston. I sometimes think the sergeant of the motor pool was looking out for me...he knew I could get those trucks in and out of tight spaces, was reliable and was easy on the equipment. He must not have minded that my military protocol was lacking. I was there a lot longer than I should have been. When they finally found me, I was too short to go to Viet Nam, so they put in the medical lab of a large hospital since I essentially had a masters degree in chemistry. <br>
<br>
John Maxwell</div>
<div>Ferndale CA<br>
<br>
<div style="font-family:helvetica,arial;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Phil Auten <pga2@basicisp.net><br>
To: at <at@lists.antique-tractor.com><br>
Sent: Mon, Jan 20, 2020 8:37 pm<br>
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Draft Exemption Exam<br>
<br>
<div id="yiv3870454231">
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<div>I had several different deferments during Vietnam (never served).
First, when I registered for the draft at 18 I was still in high
school. While I was still in high school, I started electronics
school. I got a deferment for that. Then when I graduated from
tech school in '68, I went to work for Texas Instruments in their
defense division and received a different deferment. I was
repairing radar systems for the F4 Phantom, A7 Corsair II and P3
anti-submarine aircraft. When the draft lottery came around in
'69, I was already 21 and they were only drafting 19 year old
guys. I had a high school friend that was sent to Vietnam, He was
pretty crazy before he enlisted, but his experiences as a door
gunner on a Huey changed him drastically. Another of our mutual
friends went to see him out in California and he said that Butch
had become pretty anti social and really didn't want to see any of
us. He came home physically intact, not so much with his psyche.<br clear="none">
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<div>Phil in TX<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv3870454231moz-cite-prefix">On 1/20/2020 5:36 PM, Indiana Robinson
wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div>My employer kept me out of Vietnam in the mid 1960's but I
didn't know about it until I was told by someone later. Then
when they did the lotteries in I think 1969 I was just barely
too old to be included. I was born in 1942 but the lottery
draws started including those born in about 1943 / 44 I
believe.</div>
<div>I had some friends who went and some co workers who went.
Some didn't come back... Most who came back were changed
forever... One co worker enlisted after his younger brother
was killed. I never heard anything of him again. I know
nothing of his fate. I know that he had a wife and very young
child.</div>
<div>A friend had gone and came back about 1968 or so and we
were best friends for about 45 years. Our kids grew up
together and we were all together constantly. Still he almost
never talked about his time there. On very rare occasions when
it was just he and I he would talk a bit. I never pushed him.
I did learn that his job was to sneak way out into the hills
and call in target locations, "forward spotter"? I forget. I
do remember him once saying that if he had been there 100
years that he would never have gotten used to waking up to
machine gun fire... He has been gone about 5 or 6 years now I
guess. As you get older time gets fuzzy... Diana and I
currently board a horse for one of his daughters.</div>
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<div>.<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv3870454231gmail_quote">
<div class="yiv3870454231gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Mon, Jan 20, 2020 at 4:39
PM <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:bradloomis@charter.net" target="_blank" removedlink__7ce61b50-110c-4054-aaf8-d8e69f26b6df__href="mailto:bradloomis@charter.net">bradloomis@charter.net</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
</div>
<blockquote class="yiv3870454231gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex;">As
was my father. 1 class short of dual engineering degrees in 4
years at NC State, civil and mechanical. He spent the war
developing sound tracking torpedoes for the Navy, spending
time at sea. As an engineer, not in uniform. He would have
been in his 30s. Sadly polio killed him four months before I
was born in 52. <br clear="none">
Brad<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
-----Original Message-----<br clear="none">
From: AT <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com" target="_blank" removedlink__7ce61b50-110c-4054-aaf8-d8e69f26b6df__href="mailto:at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com">at-bounces@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>>
On Behalf Of <a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:szabelski@wildblue.net" target="_blank" removedlink__7ce61b50-110c-4054-aaf8-d8e69f26b6df__href="mailto:szabelski@wildblue.net">szabelski@wildblue.net</a><br clear="none">
Sent: Monday, January 20, 2020 1:12 PM<br clear="none">
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com" target="_blank" removedlink__7ce61b50-110c-4054-aaf8-d8e69f26b6df__href="mailto:at@lists.antique-tractor.com">at@lists.antique-tractor.com</a>><br clear="none">
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Draft Exemption Exam<br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
My dad was called up for WII, but didn’t serve. His boss made
an argument that he was un-replaceable at his job and they
needed him above everybody else. He was deferred from serving.<br clear="none">
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<div>-- <br clear="none">
<br clear="none">
Francis Robinson<br clear="none">
aka "farmer"<br clear="none">
Central Indiana USA<br clear="none">
<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com" target="_blank" removedlink__7ce61b50-110c-4054-aaf8-d8e69f26b6df__href="mailto:robinson46176@gmail.com">robinson46176@gmail.com</a><br clear="none">
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