Draft Rules For Vietnam In Mecklenburg
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Most draft-eligible men who avoided conscription took advantage of legal deferments extended to students, fathers, certain professions and people deemed physically or mentally “unfit” for service.
A Brief History of the Vietnam Draft. In the early 1960s, nearly all 18 to 26-year-old male U.S. citizens and most noncitizens living were required to register for the draft. Following registration, the U.S. Selective Service (SS) classified registrants as available for service, deferred, or ineligible for service.
The United States military conscripted approximately 1.9 million service personnel into their ranks over the course of the Vietnam War. Commonly known as the draft, conscription had been conducted in the U.S. through the Selective Service System (SSS) since 1917.
In the early 1960s, nearly all 18 to 26-year-old male U.S. citizens and most noncitizens living were required to register for the draft.
This was the first military draft in the United States since World War II. With capsules filled, they were poured into a tumbler and drawn, one-by-one, until all 366 dates were assigned a number. September 14th, April 24th, December 30th, and so on, until the last date, June 8th, was called.
It was the first time a lottery system had been used to select men for military service in the US since 1942, and established the priority of call based on the birth dates of registrants born between January 1, 1944 to December 31, 1950.
Registrants birthdays for those born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950 were drawn.
A lottery drawing – the first since 1942 – was held on December 1, 1969, at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year 1970; that is, for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950.
All men of draft age (born January 1, 1944, to December 31, 1950) who shared a birthday would be called to serve at once. The first 195 birthdays drawn were later called to serve in the order they were drawn; the last of these was September 24.
The various exemptions which draft-eligible men could use to avoid service, such as still being in university education or being medically unfit, were thought to allow better-connected and middle class men to evade the draft more easily than working class or minority men.
