The Draft and I — A Considerate Doctor

As the war in Viet-Nam intensified, I was in college, graduate school, and a program for prospective monks, all of which carried an exemption from being drafted. Fairly soon after I left the monastery in 1968, my local draft board sent me a notice to report on a certain date to a facility in Boston where potential draftees were examined. An acquaintance from my home town was also there along with scores of other people.

The exam was primarily medical, and included a questionnaire. After the routine physical (http://militaryexperience.org/draft-physical/ the actual exam is described toward the end), there was a one on one interview with a doctor who had my questionnaire. One of the questions on it was whether I was homosexual, which I had answered truthfully. He asked me, "Do you want me to write that you're homosexual?" "It's the fact." "Do you want me to write that you're homosexual?" "Well, it's true." "Do you want me to write that you're homosexual?" The third or fourth time he asked, I finally realized I should answer the question he was asking — not was I homosexual but did I want it included in whatever record would exist of the interview — so I answered truthfully and with considerable relief something like, "Not if you don't have to." In 1968, being outed would have been disastrous for someone who wasn't interested in being part of the gay scene, and if I were classified 4-F with no apparent medical problem it would have been extremely difficult to explain the status truthfully without disclosing my orientation.

I don't know what the doctor wrote, but in due course I received a card from the draft board with a classification other than 1-A but not 4-F. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I think it was 2-something, which would hold me out as long as there were people available in the 1 classifications. This morning I looked up the classifications and didn't find anything that actually fit my situation. The closest to what I think it was is 1-Y. As it turned out, nobody ever asked about my draft status. At times, especially on Veterans Day, I feel ashamed that I didn't serve in the military, but I'm happy to have had a good life, and the fact is that back then Uncle Sam didn't want me. And I am still grateful to that doctor who realized that I didn't want to be out and somehow contrived to get me a status which had the same result as 4-F (which would have been correct) without raising the questions that 4-F would have raised.