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I Was drafted from Detroit On January 10 1966 into the the Marine Corps. There were 80 of us in line and they took the first 16 to the Corps. Well if you don't think the Marine Corps drafted, I was from England, been in the U.S 1 year. A guy in the same 16 was from Wales. They drafted aliens with green cards. Irony..I had been in the country 1 year, spent 2 in the corps, I was not eligible for citizenship until I had been here for 5 years. Ive had people tell me I've been lying for years.
Semper Fi, Alvar Green 66-68
I Was drafted from Detroit On January 10 1966 into the the Marine Corps. There were 80 of us in line and they took the first 16 to the Corps. Well if you don't think the Marine Corps drafted, I was from England, been in the U.S 1 year. A guy in the same 16 was from Wales. They drafted aliens with green cards. Irony..I had been in the country 1 year, spent 2 in the corps, I was not eligible for citizenship until I had been here for 5 years. Ive had people tell me I've been lying for years.
Semper Fi, Alvar Green 66-68
And there were British citizens who enlisted in the Marine Corps. Met one while I was stationed at Henderson Hall Virginia in 1967. The Brits also ran a jungle warfare school in Johore Bahru Malaysia and accepted American forces as trainees. The Marines also had a number of Canadians who were either drafted or enlisted. There is an active Vietnam Veterans of Canada group up North. I enlisted in the Marines and went to MCRD San Diego in 1966 with two draftees. They were in their mid 20's, married and not happy campers. But the did their job and served. Don't think that would happen today.
A high school friend was drafted into the Marines in late 65. He had gone for his physicals, etc. and went back a month later for his induction. Just before they were sworn in, a Marine came down the line and picked every other guy in the line to be a Marine. Said he damn near wet himself.
Yes, that actually happened. It almost happened to me.
June 1965 at the induction station, Ft Holabird, MD. Back in those days the Army would guarantee the MOS of your choice in exchange for a three or four year enlistment, depending on the training, so long as you qualified. I had enlisted right out of high school. I was not a good enough student or athlete to get a scholarship, and there was no money for college. Getting drafted was an absolute certainty so I decided to give them an extra year in exchange for not being cannon fodder.
About 20 of us were lined up in a room about to take take the oath. It was a mix if draftees and enlistees. There was a Marine NCO there, which seemed odd. Just before the oath the officer in charge asked if anyone wanted to be a Marine. No one volunteered. The Marine went down the lines and picked out every third or fourth guy. I was one of them. I spoke up about my enlistment guarantee. They didn't realize not all of us were draftees! So they separated us and did it again. That Marine gathered up their paper work and walked away with four very confused new Marine draftees.
Yes, that actually happened. It almost happened to me.
June 1965 at the induction station, Ft Holabird, MD. Back in those days the Army would guarantee the MOS of your choice in exchange for a three or four year enlistment, depending on the training, so long as you qualified. I had enlisted right out of high school. I was not a good enough student or athlete to get a scholarship, and there was no money for college. Getting drafted was an absolute certainty so I decided to give them an extra year in exchange for not being cannon fodder.
About 20 of us were lined up in a room about to take take the oath. It was a mix if draftees and enlistees. There was a Marine NCO there, which seemed odd. Just before the oath the officer in charge asked if anyone wanted to be a Marine. No one volunteered. The Marine went down the lines and picked out every third or fourth guy. I was one of them. I spoke up about my enlistment guarantee. They didn't realize not all of us were draftees! So they separated us and did it again. That Marine gathered up their paper work and walked away with four very confused new Marine draftees.
I witnessed the same thing in 1968 in Chicago. Only difference was after he asked for 10 guys to volunteer to be marines with no show of hands.................he swept his hand at 10 guys seated in the front row............."you ten guys, you are now united states Marines"
I did meet one guy drafted into the Marines. He said it was Jan of 66.
The reason I asked is after I returned from the Navy, many people called me a liar when I said I got drafted into the Navy ( even Navy men)
They usually said-------" you got your draft notice,then enlisted in the Navy"
That's interesting. I read the book "Combat Medic" which had several historical narratives about different branches of the service for corpsmen. One of the accounts was of a Navy medic who had joined and thought he would be on a ship. He did not know that the US Marines took their combat medics from the Navy.
So the guy who thought he would be safe out at sea on a ship as a combat medic wound up by the DMZ with Marines deep in the most dangerous fire fights. The book pointed out the irony.
I witnessed the same thing in 1968 in Chicago. Only difference was after he asked for 10 guys to volunteer to be marines with no show of hands.................he swept his hand at 10 guys seated in the front row............."you ten guys, you are now united states Marines"
I has a similar experience.
October of '69 was the last draft under the old local selective service board system. Iirc, the October quota called for 50,000 draftees, equally spread over October, November and December. I was in the November call-up... 11/3/69.
I was inducted in Chicago as well. There were about 40 of us and just before we took the oath, a Marine sergeant walked into the room and asked if anybody wanted to volunteer to join the Marines. Nobody moved a muscle let alone spoke up.
So the sergeant told us to spread out and line up in front of him at arm's length.. and then told us to count off by fours. So we did. I was a 2. His next order was... "All number ones take two steps forward." And the last thing that he said was to those poor souls was... ""Welcome to the Marines."
I had three good friends with me that day... all of us escaped the claws of the USMC.
I was drafted into the navy in Oct. 7; 1965 at Cincinnati ; Oh. Like Marmac who ask the question in a post back in 2009; no one believes me either. At the induction center they ask for 10 volunteers for USMC. Not one hand went up so they pointed out 10 guys and informed them that they were going to become marines. Later they informed us that the navy would be taking 5 draftees. Lots of volunteers raised their hands; including me. They took us for a battery of test and later that day called 5 names; including me; and told us we were going to the navy. When I reported aboard ship they didn't know how to classify me; USNR or regular navy. I for sure was not USNR ;and had never been USNR; so they finally decided I was regular navy and that is what my records would show. I have never met another navy draftee and can't find any info on how many of us there were. I do recall hearing that the count was less than 2000 and it was the first draft for the navy since WW2.
I was drafted into the Navy on October 20, 1965 in Philadelphia Pa. As I recall all the recruits that day were given a sheet of paper asking us to list our choices on Army, Navy or Marines. I had Navy as my least preferred choice - true to form I was put in the Navy. You were correct about everywhere we went, nobody knew our true status, even the personnel departments at our bases. After being discharged in 1967, I keep running into people who think I am telling a tall story because they do not believe that the Navy ever drafted. Little information about the subject is available via search engines to show doubters but that is okay. I actually think that the October 1965 drafting into the Navy was the first since the Korean War rather than WW2. I did see somewhere that the amount of Navy draftees was 4600 - a figure that was much higher than I had expected. Went to boot camp at Great Lakes and was based at Key West Naval Station.
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Marine draftees
