RE: the draft
I had a student deferment during my four years of college, but immediately upon graduation, I was sent my preinduction notice (which bk talked about in the notes).
Now, I was gay and I knew I was gay, but this was the early 1970s, and one never knew then what information you imparted to the military would end up getting back to employers, housing managers, etc. Younger people today have NO idea the kind of discrimination being gay entailed during this era.
At any rate, though quite a few guys claimed to be gay to get out of serving, I kept it to myself. I had been assured that should I be drafted, I would not be placed in an infantry unit. With a college degree and practice teaching experience and a teaching credential, I was assured I'd either be serving as a clerk in an office, or with some political wheel-greasing, I'd be teaching the children of army bigshots on some military post somewhere. Since my family were great friends of Senator Strom Thurmond who was quite pwoerful in national politics at the time, I knew I'd have the pull to get a teaching appointment if I got drafted.
So, even though they never reached my number, I was fully ready to go in if I got called.