Why did you miss conscription if you were born in 1940?

Answer 1

The Selective Service Program is and was an imperfect system and it was subject to abuse. There were numerous possibilities to avoid the military draft in the US, here are a few:

• You had a physical or mental limitation,
• You were Conscientious Objector,
• You got a lucky draft selection number,
• You had a student deferment,
• You had a wife and numerous children.
• You were an ordained minister,
• You held Dual Citizenship, particularly if that was with a belligerent.
• You might be a convicted felon serving time.
• You might have been exempted because a parent or sibling had died in combat.
• There was also a clause or condition called something like the needs of the Government. That might mean anything: you might be a CIA agent, a nuclear physicist, a gifted artist, a member of an astronaut program, the FBI, NSA, Secret Service, or you might just have political connections.