The Luck of the Draw

Michael Hurd, a 19-year-old sophomore at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, sprang to his feet and hurled his chair through the screen of the television set at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house. His birthday--Sept. 14--had come up No. 1 in the national draft lottery. Harvard Senior Nat Spiller, too nervous to watch the drawing on TV, was playing pingpong in an attempt to calm himself. Returning to his room when the selection was well under way, he looked at a list his roommates had been keeping and slumped into a chair. His birthday had come up fourth. Across the country in California, Stanford University Sophomore Tyler Comann stared at his roommate, Charles Thulin, in disbelief. Against all the odds, his birthday had come up first, Thulin's 366th and last.

With variations, the drama was played in college dormitories and homes throughout the U.S. last week as, one by one, members of the Selective Service System's Youth Advisory Committee walked to the giant fishbowl and drew out small plastic capsules containing 366 dates. That drawing was followed by a second in which the 26 letters of the alphabet were picked to determine by the initial letter of their last names the order in which young men born on the dates already drawn would be drafted. If U.S. military manpower needs remain unchanged, the armed forces will have to draft about 250,000 men next year. Those whose birth dates were among the first third drawn are virtually certain to be called. Those in the middle third have a fifty-fifty chance of receiving induction greetings. Barring a national emergency, those in the last third are home free, though some local draft boards warn that they cannot guarantee even that, so low are their manpower pools.

Search for Alternatives. Like any good drawing, the draft lottery was no respecter of persons or odds. President Nixon's son-in-law, David Eisenhower, whose birthday came up 30th, is almost certain to be drafted. Harvard Senior Joseph Blatt learned on the same day that he was one of 24 members of his class chosen for membership in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society and tenth in the lottery. He is almost sure to be called, as is Seth Grossman, chairman of the Duke University chapter of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom. "I support the war," he said, "but I like it better on TV." His date came up 14th.

Not all were willing to accept the luck of the draw. While a few talked of flight to Canada and some of seeking exemptions on physical or psychological grounds, most searched for alternatives to the draft. A few planned to seek conscientious-objector status; some expected to enlist in a reserve or National Guard unit. Others, including David Eisenhower, are considering going into teaching, which can bring a draft deferment, to postpone their service until the war is over. A few, whose birthdays fall in the uncertain middle third, are even considering playing a numbers game with their futures. They feel that it may be advantageous to write their draft boards and ask to be reclassified 1-A. If they are, and are not called next year when there will be more draftable young men in the pool than in succeeding years, they will be draft-free even after graduation.

Who's Left. At some schools, students whose birth dates fell in the last third to be drawn thought about dropping out of school. "One reason I'm at Stanford is to keep out of the draft," said Thulin. "Now I can take some time off and not worry." Others with high numbers looked for ways of getting out of ROTC programs in which they had originally enrolled in an attempt to beat the draft.

Although most of those spared in last week's drawing felt that the new system was fairer than the old, many found fault. "It's involuntary servitude," said Grossman. Those opposed to war are also worried about the lottery's effect on the protest movement. "People with high priority numbers seem resigned to go in," said Thulin, "and people who are free seem self-satisfied. Who's going to be left to criticize the draft?"

One who has no plans to criticize the draft is Harvard Junior Mitchell Jacobs, whose birthday was the 362nd drawn. He was simply grateful. "Now I feel a lot less guilty about my going to college," he explained. "I can look at guys my age who didn't go to college and say that I had to go through the same drawing that they did."

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