Men Born in 1951 Vietnam Draft Lottery
October 6, 1971, Page 21
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5—The Selective Service System announced today that no one with a lottery number above 125 would be drafted this year.
As a result, all men born before 1952 who hold numbers higher than the ceiling are safe from being drafted unless there is a major national mobilization.
The agency said in its official announcement that all men who had numbers 125 and below and did not have exemptions or deferments would be drafted between now and March.
The announcement does not affect men born in 1952, who were assigned lottery numbers this summer. They are not eligible for the draft until next year.
To do this, a man with deferment must write his local draft board before Dec. 31 asking that his deferment he rescinded. The board must comply with his request.A man with a number below the ceiling who holds a deferment may keep his deferment and avoid the draft this year. When his deferment lapses in a future year, he will be liable for the draft only if his number is below that year’s ceiling.
Technically, those with lottery numbers above 125 are placed in a low priority group that is subject to conscription only if all those in positions of higher priority are drafted.
Selective Service officials said today that the low priority pool would not be tapped unless annual draft calls exceeded 400,000 men. There has been no year since World War II when calls lave been this high.
The Government is prohibited by law from increasing draft calls substanttially before reserves are called to active duty.
Last year, the first year in which the lottery system of selection was in effect, the cutoff number for those drafted was 195.
Dr. Curtis W. Tarr, director of Selective Service, said in today’s announcement that draft boards would now give 30 days’ notice before a man was inducted. Up to now, regulations required only a 10‐day notice.
Dr. Tarr also directed draft boards to defer all decisions on classifications, appeals and personal appearances until new regulations were announced in the next few weeks.
According to today’s announcement, 6,500 of the 10,000 men to be drafted during the rest of this year will be inducted between Nov. 1 and Nov. 15. The remaining 3,500 men will be inducted between Nov. 29 and Dec. 9.
Men with lottery numbers below 125 who are not inducted this year will be drafted in the first three months of next year.
