Michael Maloney |
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The Draft
Q: How did you end up in the armed forces? Were you drafted or did you enlist, and why?
I graduated from college at Colgate University in 1970, in June. And that year in January, they initiated the draft lottery system. It was felt that a lottery would be more fair because kids from privileged backgrounds were getting out of going to Vietnam, and the lottery system was designed to try to resolve that problem, so that the burden of the war would be spread across all economic groups. My number in January of 1970 was 187, and no one had a clue what that meant, certainly not me. Because no one had ever done the lottery before. As it turned out, in June when I graduated, a friend of mine whose number was 176, he got a draft notice. And so, I knew that the same board, where I was in, in New Haven, Connecticut. The draft board, they would be getting to my number before the end of the year; so I ran down and enlisted in the naval reserve. And I did it because I did not want to be drafted, because if you were drafted, it meant you were likely going to be an enlisted man in an infantry unit in Vietnam. Everyone wanted Navy and Coast Guard at that time, because that’s how you would likely avoid going to Vietnam.
Q: At any point did you think about trying to avoid the draft another way?
No, they were not an option for me. I wasn’t gonna desert my country.
Q: What were your parents’ responses to your enlistment?
My dad and my grandfather, who had both been in the military. My grandfather been a doughboy in World War I, and had been machine-gunned and mustard-gassed on the Hindenburg Line, in Belgium. My dad had been a P-47 and P-51 pilot in the Italian Campaign of World War II, with the 8th Air Force. And he was shot down and a prisoner of war in a stalag in Germany, before he was liberated by Patton. So, both of them were very proud that their son and grandson was now an officer in the Navy. My mother, she was somewhat pleased, because she figured, like everybody else did, that as officers in the Navy, you’re going to sleep on clean sheets, and you wouldn’t have to go and be a ground pounder, in an infantry unit in Vietnam.
Q: Did you ever think before you were threaten by the draft that you would join the military?
Never gave it a thought. It was difficult to make the transition from civilian life to military life, because everything had to be precise.
Object Description
| Profile of | Michael Maloney |
| Title | Experiences of a United States Naval Officer in Viet Nam |
| Profile bio | Michael Maloney was born in Long Island, New York in July 1948. After graduating from Colgate University, he enlisted and served as an officer in the United States Navy for three tours in Vietnam on multiple vessels. He specialized in deep sea diving which tasked him with recovering sunken ships and removing breach charges from the exterior of USN ships. Following his time of service in Viet Nam and in the reserves, he attended Pepperdine Law School and became a lawyer. He now has a wife and five daughters and practices law in Houston, Texas. |
| Profiler bio | Meagan Maloney is the daughter of interview subject Michael Maloney and is from Houston, Texas. She is currently a sophomore at USC with a double major in Human Biology and Cinematic Arts. Parker Ledoux is a junior at USC from the Bay Area, California. He is a double major in business and computer science. Kevin Liu is a USC senior from Shanghai, China studying chemical engineering. Jan Santiago is from Manila, Philippines. He is currently a sophomore at USC studying economics. |
| Subject |
draft university lottery Two by Six program Ready Reserve OCS construction barge |
| Profiled by | Ledoux, Parker; Maloney, Meagan; Liu, Kevin; Santiago, Jan |
| Profile date | 2016-02-07 |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Houston; New Haven; Newport; Lowestoft; San Francisco; Washington; Da Nang; Huế; Hue |
| Geographic subject (county) | Harris; Fort Bend; Montgomery; Newport; San Francisco |
| Geographic subject (state) | Texas; New York; Connecticut; Rhode Island; Hawaii; District of Columbia; California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Vietnam; Belgium; England |
| Coverage date | 1970 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/michael-maloney/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:14:48); 4 transcripts |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
| Filename | maloneymichael |
Description
| Profile of | Michael Maloney |
| Title | The Draft |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | maloneymichael-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | The Draft Q: How did you end up in the armed forces? Were you drafted or did you enlist, and why? I graduated from college at Colgate University in 1970, in June. And that year in January, they initiated the draft lottery system. It was felt that a lottery would be more fair because kids from privileged backgrounds were getting out of going to Vietnam, and the lottery system was designed to try to resolve that problem, so that the burden of the war would be spread across all economic groups. My number in January of 1970 was 187, and no one had a clue what that meant, certainly not me. Because no one had ever done the lottery before. As it turned out, in June when I graduated, a friend of mine whose number was 176, he got a draft notice. And so, I knew that the same board, where I was in, in New Haven, Connecticut. The draft board, they would be getting to my number before the end of the year; so I ran down and enlisted in the naval reserve. And I did it because I did not want to be drafted, because if you were drafted, it meant you were likely going to be an enlisted man in an infantry unit in Vietnam. Everyone wanted Navy and Coast Guard at that time, because that’s how you would likely avoid going to Vietnam. Q: At any point did you think about trying to avoid the draft another way? No, they were not an option for me. I wasn’t gonna desert my country. Q: What were your parents’ responses to your enlistment? My dad and my grandfather, who had both been in the military. My grandfather been a doughboy in World War I, and had been machine-gunned and mustard-gassed on the Hindenburg Line, in Belgium. My dad had been a P-47 and P-51 pilot in the Italian Campaign of World War II, with the 8th Air Force. And he was shot down and a prisoner of war in a stalag in Germany, before he was liberated by Patton. So, both of them were very proud that their son and grandson was now an officer in the Navy. My mother, she was somewhat pleased, because she figured, like everybody else did, that as officers in the Navy, you’re going to sleep on clean sheets, and you wouldn’t have to go and be a ground pounder, in an infantry unit in Vietnam. Q: Did you ever think before you were threaten by the draft that you would join the military? Never gave it a thought. It was difficult to make the transition from civilian life to military life, because everything had to be precise. |
| Archival file | Volume3/maloneymichael-vid1_tr1.pdf |
