Is this true? "College kids don't get drafted"

[SeaSpray]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. I was born in the early 60's so I was pretty young during most of the Vietnam war, and I had no idea that many kids in college were not called into the armed forces, or rather, were deferred, because of being in school. .

Anyway, I think I'm going to try hard to keep my conversations with my co-worker to work-related topics only. She just went off the deep end because I said "It'll be interesting to see what our taxes look like this year since this'll be the first time in over 18 years that my income will amount to more than a few hundred dollars. I'm wondering if it'll put us into a higher tax bracket or not..." She then went on and on about how she used to hear her ex-husband complain about paying taxes and how she'd tell him "Oh you have such problems! You're complaining because you make so much money and have to pay taxes on them?! etc etc...." For a moment I was speechless. LOL Then I said to her "You know, taxes aren't always about people complaining about paying them. What *I* meant was, we know that we usually do not have to pay at the end of the year because we have enough withheld, but now if my salary bumps us up to the next tax bracket, we hope we don't have to end up paying. That's all." That pretty much quieted her down. lol

 

[barkley]

you can't register for college classes here until you provide proof you've registered in accordance with the law. i think when the draft was in effect there was criteria with the educational deferments that required successfull progression towards an educational goal (degree)-i know there were lot's of guys who lost their deferment status when they kept changing majors in order to extend their college careers to avoid being drafted.

 

[my3kids]

As the selective service stands now, there would not be deferrements for education if the draft were reinstated.

 

[Towncrier]

By the time I had reached the age where I could be drafted during the Vietnam War, the college deferment had (as I understood it) been abolished. It was replaced with a lottery system. Regardless of race, creed, or educational situation, if your number came up in the lottery, you were going to be drafted.

This is what I found on the web that seems to back up my above statement:

Before Congress made improvements to the draft in 1971, a man could qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a full-time student making satisfactory progress toward a degree.

Under the current draft law, a college student can have his induction postponed only until the end of the current semester. A senior can be postponed until the end of the academic year.

 

[Galahad]

By the time I had reached the age where I could be drafted during the Vietnam War, the college deferment had (as I understood it) been abolished. It was replaced with a lottery system. Regardless of race, creed, or educational situation, if your number came up in the lottery, you were going to be drafted.

This is what I found on the web that seems to back up my above statement:

That's the way I remember it too. My number was 278. They never made it that far.


More than a few guys I knew in college had already been to Vietnam and were doing college afterwards. There were those that legitimately walked around campus with an old "Army jacket" and those that bought them at the DAV hoping to pass themselves off as having been to Vietnam......

 

[MrsKreamer]

Well the college I went to ahd a majority of "poor and blacks". It was great diverse school! So tell her not to worry, even "poor and blacks" get to college now...

 

[cardaway]

Good to know. A true lottery, with no deferments at all, is the only way I see this as being both fair and benificial to our country.

 

[GraysMom]

This was true during Vietnam, but you did have to maintain certain grades or academic progress.

I had a professor who was in his 80s and just still teaching for something to do. He had once been the dean of students and had to tell a kid he was required by law to report his bad grades to the government. The kid begged him not to, saying he knew he would die in Vietnam. Sadly, the student was correct, and as of 2001 that professor was still going to visit his grave.

I'm probably oversharing as a response to your question, but obviously that story really stuck with me.

That's a sad story, and I'm sure the professor still feels bad about the situation he was stuck in. BUT, if the threat of being sent to Vietnam to fight in a war wasn't enough to make this student get good grades (whether with a tutor or whatever), then honestly he probably wouldn't have graduated from college and was just there to try and dodge the draft. JMHO.

 

[Towncrier]

That's the way I remember it too. My number was 278. They never made it that far.

Mine was 361. I had a friend in college whose lottery number was 2. But the draft was abolished before he was called up.

 

[amy4bruce]

I started college in 1969. At the time, a college deferment was a 2-S, and a high school deferment (yes, some high school students were over 18, and therefore susceptible) was a 2-HS. The lottery started in October or November of 1969. (I was in rehearsal for a play, and we kept yelling the numbers out.) I was not eligible that year, but the next year I was 195. I was told that the draft would not go above 180, so I should turn in my 2-S, and stay 1-A for a year, at which time, I would be given a (I think) 1-Y. My draft board gave me the 1-Y before I could do this.

I went to a state school, and there were plenty of blacks and plenty of poor people, and we could all get deferments. It stopped later.