Is the Draft Lottery really random or do they have it all set up in advance?

Answer 1

it is random its not already picked its random like out of the blue

If you are talking about the selective service systems lottery the answer was yes. I say WAS because president Nixon ended the draft in the early 1970's after the Vietnam War ended.

If the this draft was made legal again I think they would do it similar to how they did it way back then. I am NOT advocating that they legalize it I'm just stating how it might be done. I was young back then and the Draft was a major thing for all young men of that era.

How did they do it? Before the draft you just sat and waited for your draft notice to come from the time you were out of high school until you were 25 or so. You worried for 7 years unless you were a college student, then you had an exemption. Most of the protests back then were about the draft.

When they went to the lottery system your call up time went to one year instead of seven. They decided what order you went in by birth dates. Lets say you turned 18 and your birth year was 1950. They took all the dates from that year, wrote each one on a piece of paper, put them in a ping pong type ball, put the balls in a drum, rotated the drum, and when it stopped they started drawing birthdates

out.

Let's say the first date they drew was July 7th 1950. Your number would have been No.1. All young men born on that date were the first to be drafted. The best option for you would have been to go to the recruiters office and volunteer for whichever service you wanted. if you waited for your draft notice they would decide where you went and you had no choice.

My own number was 131. It was the 131st number drawn. I was hoping for 365 the top number. I was still lucky though because that year they only drafted up to 125 or 126. I don't remember exactly now. When Dec31st rolled around i was in the clear.

I sound like a complete chicken now but back then I kept a close eye on how the war was going. I was a tall guy back then. I talked to vets who had been there. They told me that the Viet

Cong loved killing the tall people first. I got this idea in my head that if I went I would not be coming back except in a body bag. ALL of my friends were telling me to head for Canada. Family too. Had I been drafted I WOULD HAVE GONE. I did not have to because my number was just high enough to keep me out.

If the draft was started again this time women will have to go too. Equal rights you know. I see advantages and disadvantages with that. Quite frankly I am surprised that they did not start it up again during our last two wars.