{"id":119,"date":"2026-05-12T05:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/du5.us\/?page_id=119"},"modified":"2026-05-12T05:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:13:17","slug":"3-uncle-sam-wants-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/du5.us\/?page_id=119","title":{"rendered":"3. Uncle Sam Wants Me?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

3. Uncle Sam Wants Me?<\/h1>\nCall on God, but row away from the rocks.<\/strong><\/em>
\n-Robert M. Young\n

It was after my sophomore year in college that my civilian flying career plans were drastically altered, changing the course I had plotted toward the left seat of a commercial jet airliner.<\/p>\n

To retain a student deferment from the draft, an individual had to be enrolled full-time in an accredited college or university while maintaining at least a “C” average, which qualified me for a student deferment of military service. But, because I had attended the junior college in my freshman year, taking only general studies courses, and had not enrolled in the two-year aviation curriculum until my sophomore year, I was uncertain as to whether I would retain my deferment for a third year at this two-year institution to acquire my associates degree in Aviation Technology. Before registering for the third year, I decided to visit my college counselor for the correct answer.<\/p>\n

I found my well-meaning advisor nestled in a small cubicle amongst other counselors, all in their busy season but remaining personable. He looked over my transcript.<\/p>\n

“You are a full-time student. You have achieved the required grade point average to date. The College is an accredited institution<\/em> of higher learning under the guidelines.” Looking up, smiling, he stated, “Yes, you would be deferred from military service during your third year of attendance.”<\/p>\n

Life has gradually led me to discover that I have “trust issues.” That is, I have more than once been messed up by trusting authority figures<\/em> without cross examination or obtaining second opinions from other concerned parties. At this point, believing him, I enrolled for the third year without further investigation of this issue with the Selective Service office, as I should have done.<\/p>\n

While the Viet Nam War raged in full fury, many of my friends who had elected not to attend college were being scooped up from the streets by the Selective Service draft process. Married men were initially exempt, which caused the wedding industry to flourish for a period. Then, when the rule changed, requiring that these individuals also be parents, the population of the United States may well have increased exponentially due to all the new-born babies, although some dodged more than just the draft and undertook evasive maneuvers to Canada as their own life-affirming option.<\/p>\n

The war was broadly and deeply unpopular. Some chose to be conscientious objectors. Some joined the National Guard or one of the “weekend warrior” military reserve units. Extreme cases of military duty avoidance included severance of a digit, or other drastic measures which would physically disqualify an individual for military duty.<\/p>\n

In my own case, I thought my student advisor’s assurance had granted me an extended deferral, so I proceeded immediately to the registration tables.<\/p>\n

In the earliest years of the information age, when IBM 360 computer systems required the space of a full room, registration for classes via computer was nonexistent. Manual registration required students to stand in line to manually fill out forms along a string of tables. The last table one visited during this process was draft registration for a student deferment, where we banked on our answers causing us to receive a “1-D deferment classification,” versus a “1-A availability for induction” status. The bureaucratic review of applicants normally took several weeks before a young male student received a “1-D” draft card from the Selective Service office.<\/p>\n

Imagine my utter dismay several weeks later, when I opened the letter from the Belleville Selective Service advising me of my 1-A status and ordering<\/em> me to report to the Army induction office in St. Louis for a physical examination!<\/p>\n

My old clunker of an automobile exceeded my expectations in rapidly conveying me to the domain of the blue-haired elder ladies in the Belleville Selective Service office, located above the S.S. Kresge Store downtown. My jaw hit the counter when a kindly old lady informed me that I would not receive a 1-D deferment in attending the junior college for my third year.<\/p>\n

Being certain that she was either mistaken or senile, I rushed back to my trusted college counselor’s office for reassurance. I still remember his words, “Mr. Hanley, you cannot receive a deferment for a third<\/em> year at a junior<\/em> college.” Believing that perhaps he was suffering from severe amnesia, I quickly reminded him of our previous discussion, to which he replied, “I would never advise a student as such.” Yeah, right!<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, here I was, resigned to military draft into the Army out of high school, but meantime I had found my niche, my passion, and had spent much money on flight training, so I wanted to complete college before fulfilling my military obligation!<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, I found myself in my underwear amongst many other such under-dressed men, following a yellow line at the Army induction center in St. Louis for my pre-draft physical examination. I imagined myself fighting alongside these other guys in the thickets of a Southeast Asian jungle, instead of, perhaps, flying above it. I passed the physical with flying colors and was advised, even as my heart sank with the news, that I would be receiving orders to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri for Army basic training within a few weeks.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Army’s draft lottery based upon birth date<\/p><\/div>\n

It was during this general time frame that the Army had announced its plan for the first draft lottery drawing, a process that involved drawing birthdates out of a basket, the first “winning birth date” assuring induction, and the 365th birth date drawn providing freedom from military service. This will be my lucky break<\/em>, I thought. But, in the interim, not trusting in random fate to pass me over as the hunter, I scrambled to find aviation alternatives to the military draft, including even contacting Army aviation, as the U.S. Army Warrant Office program did not require a four-year degree, as did the other branches of service, but only attached a two-year military obligation versus the six-year service required for the others.<\/p>\n

Putting this option in my back pocket as my last choice, I anxiously awaited the draft lottery drawing dates. Having met the challenge of “acing” College Algebra, I decided to enroll in a Trigonometry course that semester, I vividly recall sitting at the kitchen table with a pad of paper while studying, and the radio tuned to the lottery drawing dates being drawn from an urn and publicly announced. I had recorded the birth dates of my friends and listened to see how well they fared with this luck of the draw. When April 24th, my birthday, was announced as the second date drawn, I threw my pen up in the air over my head while uttering an unprintable obscenity. I lost my focus on homework that evening. “Southeast Asia, here I come<\/em>,” became the single thought throbbing incessantly in my mind.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing how life works. Upon graduation from high school, I had resigned myself to being drafted and fulfilling my military obligation of two years to enable me to benefit from the GI Bill to pay for my flight training. Now, after having spent much money on this training, I finally “won” something big in my life – a low draft lottery number.<\/p>\n

Yet, somehow, fate would, once again, steer my course toward my left seat airline destination.<\/p>\n

A few days after the lottery drawing, I was within earshot of a fellow student pilot, Gary Reinholt, who was having a conversation with another pilot in operations at Downtown Air Park. I overheard the pilot describing the Navy’s Aviation Reserve Officer Candidate (AVROC) program. Gary was in the same predicament that I was, with the Selective Service system breathing down his neck due to his own loss of “1-D” deferment status. His mom had sent him a brochure on the Navy’s flight training program, and he had already passed the aviation qualification tests administered by the Navy recruiting office in Saint Louis – and this had put his army induction on hold<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Upon hearing this much, I had to speak with Gary and he was happy to supply all the details. The AVROC program required an eight-week attendance at Aviation Schools Command at the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida, between your junior and senior years of college at a four-year institution while working towards a bachelor degree. Upon graduation from college and another eight weeks of officer training, you would be commissioned as an Ensign and begin Naval flight training. This program would defer my military draft obligation, while allowing me to finish civilian flight school to achieve my commercial, multi-engine, and instrument ratings, to be followed by my enrollment at a four-year college.<\/p>\n

Within minutes of speaking with Gary and reading the AVROC brochure, I was on the phone with the St. Louis Navy recruiting officer to arrange an appointment for the required aviation examinations. I distinctly recall the recruiter telling me to report at 7 AM the next morning, as I was only weeks from climbing aboard a bus to undergo Fort Leonard Wood Army basic training.<\/p>\n

Weighing heavily on my mind was the decision to enter military service with a required six-year commitment as a Naval aviator, versus only two years in the U.S. Army. I chose to take the examinations. If I was going to be forced into the military due to the war in Viet Nam, then I was going to do it on my own terms, flying above the jungles of Viet Nam as a Naval Aviator.<\/p>\n

Early the next morning, I passed the rather simple aviation examinations with flying colors and was subsequently scheduled for exhaustive physical and mental examinations at the Naval Air Station in Memphis, which I also successfully passed. Within a month or so, the U.S. Navy proclaimed that I had been accepted into the Navy AVROC program. This wonderful gift permitted me to complete the third year at the junior college flight training program. Yet, because the challenge of meeting the requirements for a bachelor degree lay ahead of me in my flight path, this decision ultimately meant that my commercial aviation career plans would be postponed another eight or nine years, until after completion of college and my lengthier Naval military obligation.<\/p>\n

During my third year of junior college flight training, two pilots, one a recently licensed private pilot and the other on his early solo flight, collided in midair on final approach, at around 800 feet to the single runway at Downtown Air Park. One of the pilots was killed, and the other critically injured. Once again, numerous student pilots “departed the pattern” of an aviation career for another choice. I chose to remain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the spring of 1973, with an Associate Degree in Aviation Technology in hand, I was accepted at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville (SIUE), and, having received an “A” in Trigonometry, decided that I would challenge myself by majoring in Applied Mathematics.<\/p>\n

It would only be later in life that I learned of the psychological term “self-efficacy,” which is one’s complete concept of his ability to perform various tasks, formed, in part, by his past accomplishment of goals. As my confidence in my abilities as a pilot and mathematician grew, I realized that I truly could accomplish anything within my God-given powers of intelligence and skills to realize my goals. It would take massive effort on my part, but I already had nurtured a strong work ethic at an early age, and the rest would be up to a belief in myself and optimal employment of the gifts and talents provided by my Creator.<\/p>\n

As the children’s book read to me in my toddler years had noted:<\/p>\n“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.”<\/strong><\/em>
\n-The Little Engine That Could\n

The commute from my parents’ home in Belleville to SIEU in morning rush hour traffic was a forty-five-minute drive. During the next two years, while working full-time at a meat distributorship, loading and unloading forty-foot trailers of quartered beef after class from 4PM until the last truck departed in the wee hours of the morning, I was taking a full load of math and science courses to fulfill my degree requirements. I spent many hard-working days nearly sleepless and did my homework between classes, on dinner breaks at work in the late evening, and on weekends. There was very little time and money spent on flying during those two years, but, ultimately, I would succeed in passing almost every undergraduate math course offered on the Dean’s list and in graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Loading & unloading beef from 40-foot trailers after class<\/p><\/div>\n

I was proud of what I had achieved, of course. Yet, dead ahead lay the toughest tests of my life.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

3. Uncle Sam Wants Me? Call on God, but row away from the rocks. -Robert M. Young It was after my sophomore year in college that my civilian flying career plans were drastically altered, changing the course I had plotted toward the left seat of a commercial jet airliner. To retain a student deferment from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/du5.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}