2 words as the artical said , selective service draft . they were ordered to yo goof ball.

I considered the war stupid, pointless and cruel, and joined protests against it. But for everybody who slipped the summons, whether by continued studentry or dummied up medical excuses, some poor greaser or black kid was taken up instead, and without even receiving the bounty an evader had to pay a substitute in the first draft during the Civil War.

Also question those who joined up all gungho to kill Asians and Muslims, particularly the innocent, like they were our enemy.

But, everyone else -- especially draftees in Vietnam -- were victims or misguided politics, militarism, saw the military as a way out of poverty or a better education, etc. They weren't losers of suckers.

You didn't have a lot of options.
1. You had a deferment
2. You fled the country, risking certain arrest if you returned
3. You tried to convince the draft board they shouldn't take you (see "Alice's Restaurant" )
4. You got inducted, and went where they sent you
5. You saw they were going to take you, and you pre-empted them by enlisting

I was #1 (last year they allowed college student deferments).
Some guys I knew were category #4.
My brother in law was category #3 (he was German, but they had compulsory military service for men at the time).
One friend of mine was category #5: he flunked out of college (lazy, not stupid), and knew he was going to get drafted. So, he enlisted in the Air Force, and emphasized that he spoke German and Russian (true). They sent him to the military spy school in Syracuse, NY, and posted him in what was then West Berlin to eavesdrop on and record Soviet Air Force radio communications. Some of the things he had to record were out of a George Carlin comedy routine, I swear. They were required to record and transcribe word for word and translate into English the communications they listened in on, and some of them were hilarious. The Soviets may have been dangerous with their nuclear weapons, but their Air Force was sometimes straight from the Keystone Cops.

When a male reached the age of 18, he had to go to the selective service board in his town and register for the Draft. His name went into the Draft Lottery. One of two things happened in the Lottery, a person either got a number that required that they go into a military branch immediately unless they got a deferment, or a person drew a number that put him into an un-drafted reserve status and that 18 year old could continue with life as it was unless his number was activated at some point during the future - so there was a way to not get drafted that didn’t involve a deferment or going to Canada.

How do I know that stuff? I was one of 9 male kids in my family. I was the oldest of the four youngest males. Of my five older brothers, four got drafted, two failed the physical and two served, one as a Paratrooper and one as a Marine. I turned 18 just as the US was heading toward ending the Draft, but because that had not happened, I had to register and have my name put into the Draft Lottery, I drew a deferment number, which made my Mom happy because she wanted me to go to college (which I did, going on to earn an Engineering Degree). Even though I drew a deferment number, the letter from the Draft Board advised me to keep the number with me, because I could get called in the future - that didn’t happen, the Draft and every thing associated with it ended less than a year later.

I got my S2 deferment in 1970, and it's a good thing, because with a number of 53 for guys born in 1952, I was sure to get inducted the moment I graduated, and I was class of 1974. Fortunately, the draft ended a year before I graduated. Just in case, by that time, I was near-fluent in Swedish, and might well have made use of it.

There he was sent to the far north and spent a year in combat with the 101st Airborne...
Why did he go? Well his father and 5 of 7 uncles served in WW2 and Korea. One more was too young and the other had a heart condition. My family was middle class without connections...It was serve or run to Canada disgracing the family. He fought and killed not for an abstraction but for the survival of the guys on either side of him.
What did he get out of it? Simple pride and friends he still talks with after 50 years. Also he tells me the right to piss on Trump's grave should he outlive him.
Good enough, Donnie?

But two of my uncles had served in the military, one in the Army as a young Black draftee guarding German POWs that were treated better than him. The other was younger and didn’t see wartime service, but got drafted and did his hitch with the Navy. Four of my five older brothers got drafted, two failed physicals legitimately, two served. The two that served were in when Trump was getting deferments, the younger of the two did 4 combat tours in Vietnam as part of a Marine forward howitzer crew. I have three younger relatives that are in the military now, all of them career, one is a Master Sargent in the Army, a second a Master Chief in the Navy and the third youngest of the three in Army Officer Candidate School.

The guy who did four tours is insane and I hope he was rewarded with a ton of promotions and a great career. My brother was the family guy in the sweet spot to get hosed. He came home whole but changed. He turned the thing into a 30 year career as a firefighter. I joined for 2 years with a promise to stay in the states and it worked. I maxed their tests and turned wrenches on Hueys in the Rockies...But only because two years of having my ass owned was what you chose when the possible alternative was worse. I don't regret it but I do resent that Donnie didn't have to make the choice most of our generation had to. It helped make him the garbage heap of a human he is. Your entire family is to be commended.

of his job, sometime because pilots may have wanted to get kicks out of spraying gunnery crews and other forward troops. No one knew how dangerous that stuff was. My brother passed away 21 years ago as a man in his forties after years of physical and mental decline, all the while with the Pentagon denying that Agent Orange was responsible for killing troops that were exposed to lots of it.

I am very proud of my younger relatives also. I am not anti-military, though I believe that we can and should be spending a lot less of some aspects of it while properly supporting troops and Vets that enlist and serve.

"one in the Army as a young Black draftee guarding German POWs that were treated better than him." I pray were going to an America that is better than that.

But he was never bitter, he realized those times were different than the ones he eventually lived. I see that things are better now, two of my younger relatives are at the second highest enlisted rank in their respective branches now and a third was encouraged by his superior officers to go to Officer Candidate School. So things are better, stuff like that is why I take a nuanced view of our nation’s history, it has been really bad and there is systemic racism now, but the lot of Black people is a lot better now than it was for my uncle when he was young and for a good part of his early adult life.