The Navy and the Air Force didn't need to use the draft directly. I knew a number of young men who 'volunteered' for the Navy as a means of escaping being drafted into the Army, where they were much more likely to be sent to Vietnam, or if sent to that arena, were much more likely to find themselves on patrol in the jungle. If there were no draft, they would not have entered the military at all.

Just in case anyone should misinterpret, I am not denigrating the service of those who opted to go into other branches of the military during the Vietnam War. I also value the courage of those young men who chose to go to jail or into exile. And I am ashamed that the antiwar movement behaved in a blaming manner toward the soldiers themselves.

Art, I was wrong. The classification system regarding deferrment did not change. See this.


Janie