The method was changed from the 69 draft to the the 70 and later drafts.

Before my time, but was curious after reading some of the comments below.

In 69, the dates were put on paper slips into plastic capsules that were then drawn, the order drawn was the draft number. September 14 was drawn first and was draft number 1, this was for men born in 1944 - 1950. After the draft was completed people noticed that an unexpectedly high number of low draft numbers were from December. The capsule had been placed in a box by date sequence and then mixed, but the mixing efforts were insufficient to overcome the sequencing so a large number of later in the year dates were selected early.

In 1970, for those born in 1951, they changed to using two drums that were supposed to be rotated for 1 hour before starting the drawing, one only rotated for 1/2 hour because its rotating mechanism broke. From one drum a date was drawn and the other a draft number.

CBS aired a 30-minute primetime special report that showed part of the 69' draft.

(In response to this post by HokieAl)

Link: Draft Lottery

Posted: 10/17/2018 at 09:39AM

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Don’t know if anyone here watches This Is Us -- HokieAl 10/16/2018 10:36PM

Remember listening to it on the radio in AJ. You could hear the cheers or -- DRR72 10/18/2018 10:23AM

The method was changed from the 69 draft to the the 70 and later drafts. -- Wythe Hokie 10/17/2018 09:39AM

The only lottery I ever won! Rugged Ron got 13 so he enlisted upon graduat ** -- aint2Hokie4me 10/17/2018 09:09AM

Did that get Ron a choice in assignments? I had another friend that said -- Hokie360 10/17/2018 10:36AM

He was an acquaintance. Don't know what happened after that. ** -- aint2Hokie4me 10/18/2018 10:12AM

I remember registering at the post office, but they hadn't drafted anyone.. -- EDGEMAN 10/17/2018 09:01AM

Registration is still required. ** -- 48zip 10/17/2018 09:12AM

I heard my number (346) announced on the radio while I was driving. ** -- Femoyer Hokie 10/17/2018 07:11AM

Mine was 365, but it could have been better -- Rockville Hokie 10/17/2018 09:16AM

My luck I had just joined and they pulled my number 335 -- okiehokie1 10/17/2018 03:28AM

Lol! I did the same when I was prematurely sent to Saudi by a reservist -- HokieinTampa 10/17/2018 06:59AM

Havent seen the show but went through the process -- HokieR 10/17/2018 01:17AM

They drew two numbers. One was a 1-365, the other was a dateIIRC -- 48zip 10/17/2018 07:35AM

Thanks. I did not remember the specifics. -- HokieR 10/17/2018 08:18AM

Semi related story -- VT Pops 10/16/2018 11:45PM

Hmm, "VT Pops", I thought this may be your era.How old might you be? ** -- thankbud 10/17/2018 12:28AM

In retrospect, a horrible name choice that I’ve never made -- VT Pops 10/17/2018 07:08AM

That was a good episode. It was before my time, but I knew there was a -- Hokie360 10/16/2018 11:25PM

As best as I can remember it was a one time thing. -- HokieR 10/17/2018 01:37AM

We were kinda aware of it, even if it wasn't our year... -- `lag 10/16/2018 10:59PM

They stopped the draft when I was 17. Whew! ** -- 133743Hokie 10/16/2018 11:24PM

There was one? ** -- statmanfromHCyrs 10/17/2018 09:28AM

Well yeah, even in '72, '73 they didn't draft a whole lot... -- `lag 10/17/2018 06:25AM

My brother was #97 and they went past that for 1948 born men. He didn’t -- Hokie`79 10/16/2018 10:53PM

My draft year they went to around 130 -- HokieR 10/17/2018 01:51AM

The method was changed from the 69 draft to the the 70 and later drafts.

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