I met a fellow student at Johnson & Wales Jr. College in Providence, RI, in 1964, and talked about going into the military. He had served in the Coast Guard and highly recommended completing my military service in the Coast Guard.

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I met a fellow student at Johnson & Wales Jr. College in Providence, RI, in 1964, and talked about going into the military. He had served in the Coast Guard and highly recommended completing my military service in the Coast Guard.
Like so many young men in the late 1960’s and early 70’s, I found myself with a 1A classification in the draft. When the first draft lottery was drawn, my birthday came up number 23. Growing up on Coastal Maryland, I had always been around the water, although had not spent that much time on boats, enough to know that I would rather rock and roll than sleep in a tent. My Dad knew a couple of people, as did I who had gone into the Coast Guard and really enjoyed their duty. Hoping to find myself on small boats possibly in Ocean City, Maryland or Chincoteague, Virginia, I went into the recruiter’s office. I was immediately informed that there was a long wait to get into the Coast Guard, so being between semesters at college, I went to enroll for the spring semester. A couple of days later, my mother called to let me know that someone had backed out and decided not to go into the Coast Guard and that I could go in the next week.