Reply #114: The draft for the Vietnam War ended in 1972.

[Major Hogwash]

When I was a freshman in high school in 1971 there was a kid in my PE class who was 19 years old.
He kept flunking out of some of his classes so he wouldn't be elgible for the draft.
He had a full mustache while most of rest of us had fuzz on our nuts.

He told me to move one time when we were getting in line for the attendence roll call and I asked him how old he was.
He looked at me for a few seconds, and then he looked away, and then he looked back at me and then he said "I'm 19, why?"
I said "no big deal, I just wondered why someone your age is taking PE."

He looked to see where the coach was in the attendence line so he wouldn't be caught talking in line.
And then he said he had flunked out of PE on purpose by skipping the required 5 mile run we boys had to finish in order to get a grade in that class.
I was shocked because I didn't think they would flunk anyone just for not doing a run like that.

Later on that fall he told me that he purposely flunked out of a few classes so he could stay in high school to avoid the draft.
He said his older brother had been drafted in to the Vietnam War and that he came home all screwed up and was akways tearing shit up in his bedroom and was half crazy.
Later that spring we ran the 5 mile course and finished the class.

The next year that kid retook all of the classes that he had flunked on purpose and he graduated from high school.
In 1973.
After the draft ended.
He was 20 years old.