It’s about the size of a credit card encased in plastic so it would survive the trip with him. And survived it has for 59 years. For six years between his 18th and 24th birthdays the document represented to him, an obligation. An obligation, he did not want to pay.

The obligation was to register with the Selective Service System and the document was his registration certificate made official on October 1, 1963.

When he graduated from high school in the summer of 1963 and headed to college that Fall. He did not think much about the form or the obligation. He registered as required with local Board #4 in Freeport, New York. This made him eligible to be called up for military duty if required. That status was called 1A.

But exemptions could be made by the local board. Deferments were made for physical or mental issues or as in his case because of enrollment in college. Every year the local board reviewed his status and every year made a decision on whether he would be granted an extension. Because he stayed enrolled in college he was granted the deferments.

In November 1963, the president of South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated by his own generals and there were 16,000 US soldiers there. In August 1964 the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was passed in Congress giving President Johnson the power to,“take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States.”

By 1965 the number of soldiers in Vietnam had risen to 184,300, by 1966 to 385,300.and by November 1967, the number of American troops in Vietnam was approaching 500,000, and U.S. casualties had reached 15,058 killed and 109,527 wounded.

It became clear to thousands of boys of that generation , that the issue of going to war, would have to be confronted. To go or not to go and if not, what?

By 1966 he knew that he would not fight in this war. The war made no,sense to him and seeing farmers and peasants in black pajamas and sandals as a real threat to democracy in the United States, seemed absurd.

Long before he had ever heard of South Vietnam, he had been moved and inspired by John Kennedy’s presidency. HeI was moved and inspired by the line in his inaugural address about,

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”

When the Peace Corps was created he was immediately drawn to it and in his junior year of college applied and was accepted. In June of 1967 after graduation he flew off to the Philippines to teach school in a very rural farming village, very similar to those in South Vietnam some 500 miles away. Again, because of the nature of the work, local board #4 granted him a deferment to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer.

When he returned to the US in the summer of 1969 Local Board # 4 informed him that his status was changed to 1A, eligible for immediate call up. 

Unemployed for much of that summer he jumped at an opportunity for a teaching job in South Carolina in the Fall.

On December 1, 1969, the first draft lottery  was held since 1942, during World War II. This drawing determined the order of induction for men born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950. A large glass container held 366 blue plastic balls containing every possible birth date that affected men between 18 and 26 years old.He remembered that night watching on TV the slow pulling of the numbers with birth dates on them.He ended up being number 244. And because it was a high number and the war was winding down.He was never called up.

But the Selective Service Registration card stayed with him for the next 53 years. 

Why?

Maybe because it was a reminder of a time when his life depended on getting deferments that were not always automatic. Maybe because the card reminded him of all the boys of his generation who did not get deferments, went to Vietnam, and were killed, wounded or badly scared.  And maybe in a way it served as a reference point for the state of his well-being.

On the card on October 1, 1963 it said he was 5’3” and 150 lbs and today at 76 he is 5’3’ and 148 lbs.

 Two pounds lighter and a lot wiser.