This week is the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, ending American involvement in the war du jour of my generation.Don't you just love history.
Vietnam Yesterday & Today: Chronology of U.S. Vietnam Relations, Timeline: "1945: An OSS (Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA) team parachutes into Ho Chi Minh's jungle camp in northern Vietnam and saves Ho Chi Minh who is ill with malaria and other tropical diseases. " Hey, glad we could help.For the record, I registered for the draft at a time when young men were still being assigned a number. According to this site, people weren't actually drafted after 1973. I came of age in 1974.The way the draft worked in those days was that every day of the year was randomly selected concurrent with a random number between 1-365/366. So, pick a date, pick a number. Then, the selective service would draw upon those in the top X rank, depending on their needs. If they were calling the top 50, i.e. your birthdate was picked with the numbers 1-50, you'd get called up. If your birthdate was 51 or above, you were safe.My number was 365. One of the few times the lottery has paid off for me. :-)Update: My memory of the process was wrong. The process is correctly described (I assume) here.
Vietnam Yesterday & Today: Chronology of U.S. Vietnam Relations, Timeline: "1945: An OSS (Office of Strategic Services, forerunner of the CIA) team parachutes into Ho Chi Minh's jungle camp in northern Vietnam and saves Ho Chi Minh who is ill with malaria and other tropical diseases. " Hey, glad we could help.For the record, I registered for the draft at a time when young men were still being assigned a number. According to this site, people weren't actually drafted after 1973. I came of age in 1974.The way the draft worked in those days was that every day of the year was randomly selected concurrent with a random number between 1-365/366. So, pick a date, pick a number. Then, the selective service would draw upon those in the top X rank, depending on their needs. If they were calling the top 50, i.e. your birthdate was picked with the numbers 1-50, you'd get called up. If your birthdate was 51 or above, you were safe.My number was 365. One of the few times the lottery has paid off for me. :-)Update: My memory of the process was wrong. The process is correctly described (I assume) here.