Editor's Note: Meg Irish is the Member Services Director at Stars and Stripes.

My oldest of three brothers was a freshman in college when the draft lottery was implemented. His birth year was the lottery's first. On Dec. 1, 1969, he was on the West Coast; the rest of us were glued to the black-and-white set in the suburbs of New York City.

Right there on national TV, up popped the first date: Sept. 14 -- his birthday. That fast he went from "safe" with a student deferment to 1-A the minute he left college. I will never forget the terror of that moment.