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F-4
the Draft
College & the Military Draft
by Richard
Keyt
In the fall of 1969, I was a senior at Penn State University enjoying
my last year of college and fraternity parties. The U.S. Army was
drafting young men to fill its need for soldiers in Vietnam.
Because I was a full time student in college, I had a student deferment
that had kept me out of the draft for three years. The deferment
would terminate on my graduation in June of 1970, and I would then be
eligible to be drafted. My draft number was 183, a number selected
at random by the U.S. Selective Service System by putting 366 birthdays
in a jar and picking them out one by one. My birthday was the
183rd pick, which gave me a draft lottery number of 183.
Each local draft board was given a quota of the number of draftees
that were to be selected by the draft board to be inducted into the
Army. People who had a draft deferment for reasons such as college
or medical problems were not eligible to be drafted. From the pool
of eligible potential draftees, the draft boards were obligated to draft
starting with people whose draft lottery numbers were started at 1 and
then proceed in order to lottery number 365 if necessary. Because
my number was in somewhat in the middle of lottery numbers, I was in a
gray area. I could not predict if I would be drafted or if my
number was high enough to avoid the draft.
I decided to hedge my bet by applying for admission to USAF flight
school. If I got drafted and if I got into flight school, I would
have the option to join the USAF and fly instead of being drafted into
the Army and possibly being sent to Vietnam. If I were drafted, I
would have to serve two years in the Army. I could also avoid the
draft by volunteering for the Army and get a choice of what my job would
be. By volunteering, I could get a "safe" job such as
computer programmer or cook, but volunteers had a three year active duty
service commitment. The Air Force commitment was three months of
Officer Training School, one year of flight school followed by
five years of additional active duty.
The application process for becoming an Air Force officer and
airplane driver was intense and took many months. I first
completed a lengthy application. I passed the first round of cuts
and had to take several tests such as an aptitude test, general
knowledge and eye-hand coordination. After passing the second
round of tests, I was given a very comprehensive flight physical,
including an eye exam. A common mis-conception is that you cannot
become a military pilot if you do not have 20/20 vision. Only a
select few (such as Air Force Academy cadets) know that it is possible
to get a waiver of the 20/20 requirement from the Surgeon General of the
Air Force. I also had to complete a detailed Department of Defense
questionnaire about my entire life, which would be used by the FBI to
investigate me to determine if I was eligible to hold a Top Secret
security clearance. After passing the FBI background check, the
last stage of the process was to be selected by a selection board.
I began the USAF application process in the fall of 1969, but did not
get notice of my acceptance until May of 1970, about the same time I got
a notice from my draft board to report for a draft physical. When
an Army recruiter told me that I had a good chance of being drafted into
the Army and being sent to Vietnam, I elected to accept my USAF slot and
go to Officer Training School and flight school. I goofed off the
summer of 1970 in Westport, Connecticut, were my parents lived. In
early September of 1970, I took the oath to protect and defend the
constitution of the United States and became an E-4 (for pay purposes)
and reported to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for three months of OTS.
About the Author
Richard
Keyt, J.D., LL.M. (income taxation New York University Law School) is a business, real estate, transactions, contracts and estate planning attorney licensed to practice law in Arizona. He has
formed over 1,600+ Arizona limited liability companies in the last few
years because his low cost high quality LLC package is second to none
and it only costs $599 for everything. Rick has practiced law in Arizona since 1980.
Rick can be reached by telephone at 602-906-4953, ext. 101. Email
at rickkeyt@keytlaw.com
and fax at 602-297-6890.
Rick's web site located at
www.keytlaw.com had over 1,000,000
visitors in 2006 and 2007.
Rick does not accept matters involving landlord / tenant disputes or
litigation of any kind (other than tax lien foreclosures). Communicating with Richard Keyt via email or otherwise does not cause
you to become a client or cause your communications to be confidential
or subject to the attorney client privilege.
