James Hosey Hutson was born in June of 1942, making him 22 in 1964, around the time the Vietnam Conflict started. Hosey faced a dilemma that many young men faced during this time. All young men between the ages of 18 and 25 were required to register for the draft. Unlike past American conflicts such as World War I, World War II, and Korea, the war in Vietnam was the first war to be televised nationally, and many American families were able to see live action in Vietnam from their television sets at home. Many young men did not want to serve in the war because of the horrific nature of the conflict, but many also believed that the United States had no business being involved in a Southeast Asian conflict.
“It was really a war for the politicians and not for the guys that had to go.” -Hosey Hutson
Hutson married in 1962: By law, those married before 1964 could self-initiate an exemption from the draft and be placed in inactive reserves
Options for Exemption
Several options were available to young men who wanted to avoid the draft. If someone was married or in college, they could defer from the draft. This was the case with Hutson. He was in college at the University of Montevallo majoring in Biology. Hutson also married Susan Little in June of 1962. As a married college student, he was exempt from the draft although he was unaware of this fact. The military did not make it easy to find ways to be exempt from the draft. Hutson graduated from college in January of 1965, and within a month of graduating from college, he received his draft letter instructing him to report to Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.
Graduation from University of Montevallo, January 1965
At this point, Hutson tried every way to get a medical exemption, but nothing worked. He visited the Air Force recruiting office and signed up for flight training school. This option was more appealing than being drafted into the Army where you had a higher chance of being killed. Hutson was tested extensively and was accepted to Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas.
Lackland AFB San Antonio, Texas: Has been described as one of the most intense, challenging training facilities in the military
Officer Training School
Hutson describes day-to-day life in Officer Training School as grueling. It involved waking up at 4am for physical training followed by classroom work and chores. It was very hot and miserable in Texas in July. Candidates were concerned about receiving disciplinary “gigs” because if you received more than 10, you flunked out. This would result in automatically being drafted to the front lines in Vietnam.
Hutson (far left) with fellow officer training candidates. Lackland Air Force Base
While Hutson was willing to serve, like many young men at the time, he wanted to avoid frontline military service if possible. Vietnam was a particularly brutal war that many people serving did not believe in. He finally became aware of the law that was passed allowing an exemption for married men. According to Hutson, “If you were married before 1964 … you could SIE, which stands for self-initiated elimination, and they would put you in the inactive reserves for five years and send you home. And that’s what I did.”
Not all of his friends were so lucky. When asked if he had any close friends that served, he answered:
“A couple of examples– an old boy named Sammy Doss. He went to Vietnam, got killed. Woody Walter was a roommate of mine in college. I went to college with him. Four of us went to college to Montevallo. Woody flunked out his freshman year. They drafted him. He went too; he served a tour in Vietnam and came back.”
ERIKSON, ROBERT S., and LAURA STOKER. “Caught in the Draft: The Effects of Vietnam Draft Lottery Status on Political Attitudes.” The American Political Science Review 105, no. 2 (2011): 221–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41495063.
