USS MULLINNIX DD-944
Draft Lottery 1969 
What was your number? Do you remember?
Mine was 141
My story: 1 December, 1969…
I graduated from Lincoln (Nebraska) Southeast High School in May 1968 at the ripe ole’ age of 17 and entered Kearney State College the following month for summer school. Yep, I attended college at 17, trying to get a jump on the world.
I had not drunk a beer, smoked a cigarette, or kissed a girl before entering college. By December ’69 I was a journeyman at all three. Grades? 2 weeks later I would set a world’s record with a 0.7 grade point average on a 4.0 scale for the semester. Yep, 3 ‘technical Fs’ (I’d stopped going to class), 1 “D”, and a “A” in Advanced Beginning Swimming (1 hour class).
The evening of 1 December, Kearney State had a home basketball game on campus. In those days, Kearney had a really really good team and I had a good friend (Tom Wilkerson from Woodriver, NE) who was the #6 guy on that team. Home games were pretty much sold out. At half time, the autotorium was devoid of males – virtually everyone left the game to go back to the dorms to watch the national lottery.
They had already cancelled 2S deferments (getting out of the draft by being in college). They had said they were going to take the first 250 birthdays from Nebraska. Not good odds. The “TV room” at the dorm was packed – standing room only. What was that old Carly Simon song lyric? “Anticipation…” The first birthday drawn? 14 September! I’ll never forget, I kid from Sydney, Nebraska fled the room crying like a baby. You can guess when his birthday was.
I gutted it out until 18 August (141st number) was drawn then went out and got shit-faced. Flunked out of college 2 weeks later and volunteered for the draft back in Lincoln, Nebraska. 2 weeks after that, joined the Navy and found myself in boot camp in San Diego, CA on 16 February, 1970. After boot and 18 weeks “A” School in Great Lakes, I reported aboard USS Mullinnix DD-944 – were I met, got to know, and have never forgotten all your crazy f-ckers. To this day, the best friends I have ever made were ALL veterans of the Migthy Mux.
God bless us all!
Cheers, Woody
PS: See you all at the next reunion…
1969 Draft Lottery Story, Vietnam Magazine, February 2010 (PDF File)
Back to 1969
Back to Ship History
Home
© 2010 by Frank Wood, All rights reserved