While I am a member of the Vietnam generation (I was 19 years old in 1969) I wasn't drafted. I was in the first draft lottery and had a high number.
I have a short Army train that I will be running from Flag Day till Independence Day. I found this interesting, Joe. I’m a year older than you and a Vietnam era veteran. I had the 2-S student deferment in college, then a high lottery number of 290 my junior year. So they wouldn’t have touched me. But because of my aviation background, I went into Navy AOCS after graduation which was almost a year and a half (was sworn in April, 1974) after the draft had ended. The good old days.
That’s awesome that you run an Army train between Flag Day and the 4th of July. 👍
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I was 2-S. TET Offensive, they were yanking us out of college so fast...got letters back....."You, you, you and you, that bus!" and they were Marines. Nope. I joined, signed in to finish my electronics, 6 years on glowboats, that was enough.
Eyesight. I have always had good eyesight. Found out after all the schools in the Navy, late nights...when I was tired, I couldn't read freeway signs a mile away in the dark anymore.
Navy eye doc, got gasses, prescription.....volunteered Submarines, all the testing for that, including psychological, to make sure you're not, you know, crazy (boy did they miss that!). One was eyesight. Had to be uncorrected at a specific point, like, emergency, glasses get lost, can you still read valve tags and gauges.
Two lines for checking your eyesight. One line, folks with no glasses. Other line, folks with prescription glasses. Now, you want to get it right...who knows, might be part of the testing, right?
So, there I am in the "prescription glasses" line. Glasses WITH Navy prescription in my shirt pocket.
Get to the front, corpsman with the requisite clipboard says "read the smallest line you can read".
This is a joke, right? Okay...."Bausch and Lomb Corporation, Chicago, Illinois". And the corpsman hit me on the back of the head with his clipboard.
"OW!" says I, and "what did you do THAT for?"
He tells me I am being a smart a.....llec, it doesn't say that.
Yes it does.
He puts HIS glasses on, walks all the way to the eye chart, and sure enough.
Wants to know what I am doing in his line?
Out comes my US Navy Prescription Glasses, WITH requisite prescription, and show him. He shakes his head, signs me off, and tells me to get out of his LZ.
20/10. Not so much anymore for reading, but the top half of my actual bifocals do about nothing.