I've never quite understood how Orange Julius Caesar dodged the draft by submitting a letter from his doctor [View all]

saying he had bone spurs.

I guess my own history with my draft board was similar in some ways, but the end result was quite different. I was chronically ill and underweight as a young teenager and still underweight as an older teenager. When I told my doctor that I had received a notice to report for my draft physical in October of 1972, his immediate response was, "They don't want you!" My doctor obtained his medical degree while serving in the army during World War II and served on draft boards. He also wrote me a letter which I presented at my draft physical, but my draft board either never received it or ignored it.

Of course, my draft board went ahead and classified me 1-A despite the fact I also failed the hearing test. (And I was not faking a hearing loss. I first tested with a hearing loss in the normal hearing range at age 7.) One day after receiving a notice in the mail in early January of 1973 stating that I was classified 1-A, I received another notice that I was classified 1-H ( a temporary deferment) because my draft board finally noticed that I was still wearing orthodontic braces, which I knew the army did not want to deal with as written policy. All of this turmoil became a dead issue when Nixon ended the draft in late January of 1973.

I've always felt that OJC's bone spurs deferment had more to do with money under the table than any letter from his doctor.