My brother was #2 the year the 'birthday lottery' was instituted. He went to Fort Meade to have his Army physical. We had discussed taking a trip to Niagara Falls so that he could, literally, walk into Canada; we were at peace with that decision. As it happened, a terrible injury from a car accident resulted in burst eardrums which provided 4F status, thus making him ineligible for the draft. Our family breathed a sigh of relief! I personally knew a number of 18-year-olds who were drafted; many of them did not return and those who did were vastly different people than the boys who left.
I thought then, and still do, that the war was immoral and unjustified. The draft took boys just out of high school and made them 'soldiers,' a role for which they were entirely unsuited. They were young, disproportionately African American and in no way prepared for what they were to encounter. At the same time, boys from wealthier, white families, got 'college exemptions' that kept them safe. I worked for a time counseling boys how to avoid the draft, hoping that a few, at least, would be saved.