A great primary source for seeing how young people viewed the draft can be found in Arlo Guthrie's film, Alice's Restaurant, Arthur Penn, director (1969): see especially the induction center scene where one was "inspected, deee-tected, and neee-glected."

To be drafted meant one was thrown into the Army for two years, typically a little less than 12 months training, most then spending 12 months "in country" in Vietnam (although some lucked out and were sent elsewhere), and a month or two out processing and separating. To avoid the dreaded life of an Army grunt, one could enlist, with the hope of joining a branch of the military to avoid combat, but enlistment often required a longer commitment - I had friends who spent 6 years in the Coast guard, and that, as it turned out, could land one on river patrol in the Mekong Delta. And of course joining the Marines practically guaranteed deployment.