When Was the Last US Military Draft?

For most of its history, the United States used a draft—a process of involuntary military conscription—to fill out the ranks of the U.S. armed forces during times of war. The first peacetime draft was enacted on September 16, 1940, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register. After World War II, the U.S. government reinstated the peacetime draft, which lasted from 1948 to 1973, a period of heightened Cold War tensions that included the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

The draft came under fire in the late 1960s when hundreds of thousands of young people each year were conscripted to fight the war in Vietnam. Richard Nixon, campaigning for the 1968 presidential election, promised that he would end the draft if elected. In 1971, President Nixon signed legislation authorizing the end of the draft but later extended it for two more years. The very last draftees reported for duty on June 30, 1973.

For the first few years of the Vietnam War, the Selective Service System worked by drafting recruits from oldest to youngest—starting with 26-year-olds and moving down to 18-year-olds. That changed in 1969, when Nixon urged Congress to bring back the draft “lottery” system last used during World War II.

The first Vietnam draft lottery was broadcast on live TV on December 1, 1969. The lottery randomly assigned draft priority numbers to the birthdates of young men turning 20 that calendar year. For birthdates assigned a low number, there was a high probability of being drafted. The first 195 numbers called in the 1969 lottery were conscripted in 1970. Additional draft lotteries were held in 1970, 1971 and 1972.

During the Vietnam War, local draft boards determined if young men were qualified and available to serve. Recruits with medical conditions, for example, could receive a 4-F deferment, meaning they were deemed “unfit for service.” Medical deferments were controversial because well-connected draftees could convince friendly doctors to exaggerate or even invent a disqualifying medical condition.

For much of the Vietnam War, draftees could also get deferments for being full-time students, farmers and fathers. Again, the student deferment gave an unfair advantage to draftees who could afford to attend college, leading to a disproportionate number of poor and working-class men sent to the front lines in Vietnam.

In 1971, the student deferment, the fatherhood deferment and most occupational deferments were phased out.

A 24-year-old plumber’s assistant named Dwight Elliott Stone is widely credited as being the very last person drafted by the U.S. military. Stone received his first draft notice in 1969 but admitted that he tried just about everything to avoid conscription, including hiding from the draft board. Threatened with arrest, Stone finally reported for duty in Sacramento, California, on June 30, 1973, the very last day of the Vietnam draft.

Starting in 1973, the U.S. military became an all-volunteer force. When American males turn 18, they are still required to register with Selective Service, but no one has been drafted involuntarily in more than 50 years. Instead, service members are recruited with incentives like career training, bonus pay and appeals to patriotism. In the event of a national emergency, however, the draft could be reinstated.