-
GETTING
DRAFTED
Unpopular, unfair
and racially
prejudiced? The draft
system was how the
USA got over two
I'd been exempt from the draft for four years
following m y registration at age 18 with the
Elizabeth, New Jersey draft board - one of
thousandsof local boards staffed by citizen volunteers who chose which young men to draft into the
armd forces. The local boards w o r m with requirements set by the Selective Service System.
I had a student deferment. About s month
before I was due to graduate from George
Washington University, I received a letter from
my local draft board. I was ta be reclassified upon
graduation.I wouldthen be LA, h p ofthelist.This
was the big one I knew that the chancea were
extremely goad that I'd m n be going from my
college campus to the war mne in Vietnam.
I had eeveral options. I could have joined the
Army, Air Force or Navy for three years and
gotten a gumanteed non-combatjob. There ain't
no VC in submarines,' the saying went. I could
have gottenan exemption by takingajobteaching
high school, getting married, or joining the Peace
Corps or going on to graduate school.I could have
joined the National Guard or the Reserve. I muld
have declared myself a conscientious objedor,
pretended I was mentally unstable or homosexual. As a last remrt, I could have gone into exile
abroad or undergroundat home. I decided ta take
my chances with the draft.
-
wew ckrssi- for militory wmm, bvt
your draft qwlifd for milituvswb r w a s vita! to vice only in the event of
the future of ony young w a r o r n o l i o n o l
man.The maindassifiwtions were:
Ei%%ow
d&d
I=A Awiloble .for milit- because of c i v i l i a n
ary service.
owpution (except agri1-A-0 Conscientious culture or octivify in
obiector available for study).
non-combant rnilitory ICC Registmnt deferred
h a u s e of agricultural
service only.
I - C Member ot the ffcuphon.
o
d forcm of he Un- lldRagiskant defer&
ited States, the Cwgt and because of activity in
Geodetic Suney, or the sfulty.
Public Health Service.
Ill-A Registrant with a
1-0 Member of m r v e child or children; regcomponent or student istrant deferred by
kking military training.
reason of extreme
1 - 0 Conxientiws ob- hardship to dependants.
' & o r available for civi- IV-A Registrantwho has
ian work contributing to completed m i c e ; sole
h e maintenance of he survivin son.
nrrtionulhealth,safetyor IV-8 &cia1 ddemd
inkrest.
by low.
1-S %d&tdeferred by W-C Alien,
W-0Ministwofretigion
sbtute (high*I).
I-W Conxientiws ob- or divinity d e n t .
'ector performing civi- IV-F Registrant not
lion work contribulinglo qwlified for ony military
the maintenance of the m i c e .
nationalhwhh,sa#e~~w
V-A Registrant over fRe
interest.
oge of liabilrty for militI-Y Regishont available ary service.
ow ou
H
+id
b,
11-
I
Some draftees
went to extreme
lengths to avoid
servlce one
faked a stomach
ulcer by
consuming a pint
of his own blood
and then vomiting
in the examining
room. For others,
however, a close
crop was the
army's way of
welcoming its new
- r u b {right ,
Menthen ha the
opportunity to
meet their new
-
d
'buddies' (below).
From there, the Dl
took over (left).
Left: Destinedto
sea combat inthe
hills and rice
paddles of I Corps,
draftees geta
tastm for mud and
hard slog during
Marine Corps
basic twining.
Left: Moving on to
the rifIs range,
raw recruits are
shown haw to
zero sights by a
senior instructor.
In 1969, a
Pentagan survey
showed that the
death rate among
drerftees was
almost twice that
of regulars.
Left: Drill
instructors
continue lheir
efforts to raise the
pain threshold of
new recruits. The
inequalities
inherent in the
draft system
meant that most
druftees came
fmm a workingclass buckground
and hod lmle or
no education
beyond high
school, These
people were
sitting ducks for
the draft boards.
'Are you sure you know what y0u'l.e doing?'
That's what the clerk at the local Washington DC
draR board asked me on 20 June 1967, my 22nd
birthday. I wasabut tosign adocumentauthorizing my 1-1 b a r d to draft me as soon as possi ble.I
had decidedthat it was better to get the two yeare
over with rather than wait for Uncle Sam to get
me. I signed the form. The letbr came a week
later. Iwastoreporttothe Elizabethdrafkboardat
eight in the morning a week hence, where a bus
would take me and a p u p of fellow inducteesto
the big Armed F o m s Examining and Entrance
Station in nearby Newark. I was to pack a mall
bag with toiletries and a change of clothes.
My rnothet drove me to the draft board. I
boarded the bus at eight o'clmk. Six hours later I'd
passed my physical and had taken an oath swearing my allegiance to flag and country. I was then
Private E-1 Leepson, service number US
51979277.
Haircuts, uniforms and inoculation
I joined a busload of fellow draftees for the 90minute h v e to the US Army Infantry Training
Center at Fort Dix. We were given military haircuts, uniforms, numerousinoculations.and, after
a series of military lectures, we all underwent a
battery of aptitude and intelligence tests. At one
point I wau ushered into a room with a couple of
dozen others.An officer told us we'd scored highly
on our tests and were therefore eligible to go to
officer's candidate schml. A11 we had to do was
sign up for an additional year. I said no thanks.
Lakr, I was given the chanm to get a guaranteed
non-combat enlisted man's job if I'd say yes to a
tkree-year commitment. 1said no.
f i r four days of processing,a group of 200of us
were b u d acmsv the sprawling base to our basic
training company for eight weeks of what promised to be drill instructor-inducedtorture. I was
assignedtoCompany A, 3d Battalion, 5th Combat
Training Brigade.
As it turned out, only the ti rat couple of weeks
were hellish. Once 1 got into physical shape, the
forced marches, the running and the endless
drilling were easier tobear. And once I figured out
that the Db'yelling and harassment was a lot of
sound and fury signifying almost nothing, my
mental burden eased considerably - I learnd t h e
spirit of the bayonet, the manual of m,the
rudiments ofthe M14 rifle and lots ofotherthings.
ARereightweekait was
to eight more weeks of training in a specific area,
something the army called advanced individual
training (All?.
Wetsainees, as our DIs called us,b g a n getting
our orders two daye before graduation. My orders
came down one night after evening formation.
'Leep~on,Smith, Jones, Wilson. Report to Buildin g C for odem,'our Dl commanded.The fourO ~ U S
kept up a stream of falsely cheerful banter as we
walked off to find out what fate held for us.I was
clinging to the hope, v o i d once by a friendly DI,
that maybe, possibly, I would be lucky enough to
ga to artillery AIT.Or,better yet, ifthe gods were
with me, MP school. We'd heard that the day
before, a college grad drafke in the first platoon
had gotten orders for MP school.I was praying for
anything but Fort Polk and the dreaded IIB,the
infantryman's MOS (military occupational speciality).
My buddies and I entered Building C,took our
sent8 and waited as graduating trainees from
other compania filed in. Then a clerk, adyspeptic
Spec. 4 (a rank that is the same pay grade as a
corporal, but carries no authority t o iswe orders)
came inta the room. 'Men, I'll h passing out your
201 files.' he announced. They contain all your
oficialmilitaryrecorda, indudingyourorders.Do
not open them until Sergeant Barn- says so.'
Above: A chance
to write home.
Accordins to US
authorities, draft
policy not only
provided
manpower for the
armed services, it
also enabled them
to rehabilitate
what MacNamara
called the
'subterranean
oof. Far from
elng given
valuable new skills,
however, those
who falled to score
at least 31 per cent
in the written *st
were almost
certain to be sent
into combat. Even
men who
obviously had no
aptitude for
g
They were goiug to Tigerland
The Spec. 4 handed out the manila folders. We
opened them immediately. I saw several pages of
mimeographed orders with lots ofcoded numbers
and letters. Then I saw my name on one page. It
was underlined in red pencil. n i p is what it said:
'USATCENGR FT LEONARD WOOD MO FOR
TNG 1N MOS 70A10, LEEPSON MARC N.! In
plain English: US Army Training Centre, Engineering, Fort Leonard Wood, Mismuri, for combat
training in MOS 70A10.I knew what 'MOS were given a rifle
meant, but had no idea what 70A10 stood for. All and sent to
I'd ever heard ofwas IIB. As the clerk pas& by my Vietnam (right).
seat, I looked up and asked him in a quavering
Lefk Havin
completedt77eir
basic infantry
training, new
recruits board a
plane at Truvis Air
Farce base,
heodlng for
Vietnom. Four out
of six of these men
are black, and
could well be the
victims of Robert
McNamara's
'Prolea 100,MWY
a blatant attempt
to pluck
-
underprivileged
youths from the
straets of Amerka
and place them
on6the
buttl&elds of o
country half a
world away.
voice, 'What's 70AlQ? I'll never forget his exact
words: 'Same as me, cIerk.'
But that couldn'tbe, 1thought.Drdhesweren't
supposed t o get ta go to clerk school. You had t o
enlist for that. At least that's what the recruiting
sergeant told one of the guys in our outfit who'd
joined with a guarantee to get into clerk school. I
lwked back down at the orders. MOS 70A10, it
said. Same as me, the clerk said.
I was going to clerk school. As I pondered this
shocking, unexpected turn of events, my mind
reeled. It was as if the the sword of D a m d e s had
been lifted from above my head-a death wntence
commuted.I looked around in a daze. My three
buddies were silent. Then I caught the drift of
what had happened to them. They got Tigerland.I
immdately retreaM into silence.
We left the buildmg and headed back to the
company. My budhes talked philosophically ahout their bad luck. I minirnised my g o d fortune.
But once back in the barracks I couldn't hold back
any more - I actually jumped up and down and
shouted my godnews. Imlledmy girlfriend, then
my parents. There were tears ofjoy onlmthends of
the line, as I. recall.
'Cornba t, clerk typists!'
With US foms now h v i l y embroiled in corn&, the gmu*ingn u m b or M y
b g s arriving hohomeprvmp&d some Americans to look long and hard ai a d d
q s k m that seemed to discriminn& behwen rkh and poor
26,800,000 young American males were eligible for
selective service legislation of 1948. Of these,
Vietnam war,
DmilitarythevoIunteered
the
for
wring
service under
6eWlCe and 2,215,000were drafted. This left
15,980,000men who never set foot in Vietnam. But, contrary to common belief,
only 3.5 per cent of t h ~ -e little over 570,000men - were technically 'draft
ddgers'. Whether they avoided the call-up by failing to register, or by moving
residence abmad, isof little sigmficanoecornparedwith the 15.4 10,000 men who
were dqualified or obtained deferment or exemption from military service.
There were t h e who lodged conscientious objections. Marriage and even
self-mutilationwerealmemployedtosidestep thedraft,but enrollingfor college
or graduate educationwas by far the most popular method used to frustrate the
draft boa&?
Only 23 per cent of college students were d r a w and just 45 p r cent of high
school graduates. As students were general1y the offspringof the more m u e n t
sectors of American wciety, it m n became clear that the burden of US
commitment to Vietnam was being shouldered by the under-privileged.
The inequality of the dr& systcm w s exemplified by Robert McNamara's
infamaus ' h j e c t 100,000'.Initiated in 1966,this was a b l a m t attempt to use
the armed forces as a dumping ground for those of low intelligence.
In the face ofmountingpmteat,Borne attemptwas made to m e d y the obvious
inqualities in the draft system.Graduate deferment was abolished in 1967,and
a random iottery draft was intmduced in December 1969. Other exemptions,
such asthatfnraollegestudents,hadbeenphasedoutby 1971.But it was too late
to make the dr& system equitable -the Nixon administration was forced ta
introduce a volunby ayatem of enlistment in January 1973.
8,120,000
The next eight weeks of clerk school at Fort 'Last
in the w d ' in the Ozark Mountains, were a
breezecompared to basic. Our company was made
up of about halfdraftees and halfenlistees. Nearly
all the drafted guys, Iike myself, were college
grads. We had much more time off than we &d
during basic. At times, the atmosphere was more
like a fraternity house than an army unit.
Our battalion commanderwas a physical training nut, though. That meant we were c o n s h t l y
doing PT and running long distances before
d a m , between classes and in the evenings. 1
remember one of our marching songs. We are
typists!' the sergeant would shout. Combat,clerk
typists!' we'd reply.
Besides running everywhere, our days were
filled with classroom instruction on the finer arts
ofmilitary paperwork.Then,eightweeks later,on
14 November 1967,my newly minted Army clerk
budd~esand I got our orders. All 200 of us were tn
report on 13 December to the US Army Replacement Station at the Oakland Army B e in Cahfornia. From there we were to be =signed to thc
US Army, Republic ofVietnam,90thAG Fkplacement Battalion at Long Binh Post in South
Vietnam.
I was one of the lucky ones. I wound up serving
my year in Vietnam in a clerical job at the 527th
Personnel Services Company in fairly quiet Qui
Nhon. W e had to pull a lot of guard duty and dodge
some sniper fire and an ~ i o n asatchel
l
charge,
but that was the worst of it.
Oh, I also found out why the army didn't aend
me ta Tigerland. One day, while I was going
through my 201 file, I noticed that I'd madeahigh
clerical w r e and a low infantry score. It was 33
simple as that.