Wyoming Wrestling
As a sophomore in high school, I was a wrestler. Of course I ran track in the spring, and later track would become my predominant sport, but in 1972 I trained for wrestling all fall, even running distance to get ready. Our Coach, “Tink” Miller was a young, new teacher, just out of the University of Cincinnati wrestling program. He was a dynamic leader, who could take you onto the mat and show you what he needed you to do.
We wrestled in the middle school, the “old” high school in Wyoming, Ohio. The program shunned the facilities in the brand new high school. That balcony above the gym couldn’t get hot enough. Coach Miller wanted the steam heat in the old school, he wanted to test us, and make us sweat. We practiced six days a week, the day after Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve, and the days after Christmas. We were a tough, smelly, and dedicated crew.
So it surprised me that Coach Miller allowed the seniors to miss practice on February 2nd. There was no excuse for missing Wyoming wrestling practice, and the seniors led the way enforcing attendance. But that day, they were all gone.
Vietnam
When I was growing up, the Vietnam War went on and on and on. The United States first started major combat operations in 1964, when I was eight. By the time I was eleven in 1967, there were almost half a million American forces there. Not only did the conflict rage in Southeast Asia, by 1967 protests against the war here at home were growing. The Presidential election of 1968 was fought over Vietnam, with the winner, Republican Richard Nixon, promising a secret peace plan.
But by 1972 when I was fourteen, we figured out that the “peace plan” was to gradually withdraw and let the South Vietnamese take over, “Vietnamization”. Americans were still going to Vietnam, and unlike today, it wasn’t an “all volunteer” Army. Most of the US soldiers in the jungles were drafted, required to serve whether they wanted to or not.
Conscription
The “Draft” was nothing new in American life. The Continental Congress asked the states to conscript men for their militias during the Revolutionary War, and both the North and the South required men to serve during the Civil War. In World War I men eighteen to forty-five were required to register for service, and almost half of the total army, 2.8 million men were required to serve.
But the draft that we knew it began in 1940, in the lead up to World War II. The system was set so that when you turned 18 you registered with the Selective Service System. You were required to take a physical, and then your “status” was determined. If you were healthy and didn’t have an “exemption” from service, you were certified 1-A, ready to go.
There were a series of exemptions that could keep you out of the Army. If you weren’t physically able to serve, you were classified 4-F. If you were in a job that was too important to leave, you were 2-A. There were other exceptions as well, but the US military had to fill the quotas for numbers. In World War II, ten million American men were drafted out of the sixteen million who served.
The Draft was a universal experience for American men. After World War II was over, the US government decided to continue the system. My Dad, drafted in 1941, served until 1946. But he had friends who served in World War II and then were re-called to fight again in the Korean War in 1949.
The system went on through the 1950’s and 60’s. Elvis Presley was drafted and served in the Army in Europe about the year I was born. The heavyweight-boxing champion, Mohammad Ali, went to jail rather than be drafted to go to Vietnam.
Dodging Service
The draft system had some big flaws. If you could stay in college, you could get a deferment. If you stayed long enough, you might avoid being “called up” – drafted for service. And if you were in a religious group that banned fighting, Amish or Quaker for example, you could be a “conscientious objector”. You still might get drafted, but you would be in a non-fighting role. That didn’t mean you were safe, you might be a combat medic, in the middle of the fight.
But the biggest flaw was that if your family was wealthy, there were ways to avoid the draft. Stay in school, get a doctor to say you were medically unfit, or get hired in the right job, and you could avoid going to war.
Making the Draft Fair
In the protests in 1968, that was one of the biggest arguments; that the draft was unfair. So in 1969 the government switched to a lottery system. It was like a big “bingo” machine, with every day of the year in the hopper. The birthdates of men born eighteen years before were pulled out and announced. Born on September 14, 1951? In 1969 you were number 1, the first group of eighteen year olds to go. While religious and medical exemptions continued, the rest were done. As the song goes – “…and it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vietnam!” (Country Joe and the Fish).
The Lottery
So February 2nd, 1972, my senior wrestling teammates were all together, watching television, and waiting to find out what their lives were going to be like. For some, they got good news. Their birthdates were “pulled” late. If you had a “number” of 125 or higher, you weren’t likely to be drafted. You could go on planning for college, and life. But if you had a low number, you needed to prepare: you were likely to go to war.
The seniors came into practice late. Most were pretty excited, and jumped into the drills to pound on us younger and tired wrestlers. But for a few, there were long faces and long conversations with Coach Miller, then back into the practice fray. The draft was looming, but the Harrison Invitational was this weekend. Back to work, got to make the weight.
By the end of 1973, the Vietnam War was winding down. No one after that was drafted, though you still had to “go downtown,” register, and get your draft card. And they still pulled the numbers, just in case they needed to re-start the draft again. I was in the last group pulled, in 1975. It was a “good” number, my birthdate, September 14, 1956 came out 343rd. Even if they did start drafting, I would be a long way down the list.
Today
They soon stopped even issuing draft cards, and for a few years didn’t even register folks. It wasn’t long though, in 1980 President Carter ordered the Selective Service to begin collecting registrations again. So every eighteen-year old man is required to register with the Selective Service, even today.
The US military has been an all-volunteer force since the end of Vietnam in 1975. When men and women join up, it’s for four years or more, not the two years of active service of the draft years. We avoided the kind of wars that require long-term service of large numbers of ground troops, the kind of situation that calls for draftees. But if that comes up again, the Selective Service has the lists and is ready to go. And the “bingo hopper” still works.
