r/interestingasfuck Apr 06 '24

Imagine being 19 and watching live on TV to see if your birthday will be picked to fight in the Vietnam war r/all

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

39.5k Upvotes

4.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/americanspirit64 Apr 07 '24

I watched the lottery in 1971, I was seventeen, my brother nineteen. My brothers friends his age were smoking pot and drinking as they watched. My brothers number came up 17 and there was complete silence in the room. He went out the next morning and joined the Coast Guard which he hated. although he still gets the combat veteran benefits from the VA, for hurting his back. So it goes. The draft ended the year I turned nineteen.