Hi all,

I am currently working on a screenplay in which a 26 year old man, born in rural Texas to parents that never filed a birth certificate, enlists in the military, hoping to serve in the Vietnam War. It is integral to several plot points that he was born without documentation; the few records he accumulated are misc. school records (although that requires a BC now too; it’s a sort of small-town one room schoolhouse/“sure, drive a car wherever, kid” kinda place)

I have been researching the requirements for enlisting in the military—several forms of govt ID are needed in our present-day, including a BC, but I cannot figure out what you needed then.

The process for filing for a Delayed Birth Certificate, which you'd do if your parents never filed upon your birth (far less common now), is also very different, by state and (I assume) year. All of the documentation you need today—ex. parent’s birth certificates—this guy would not have.

TL;DR: Guy in bumfuck rural Texas in 1965 was born with no birth certificate and now wants to join the military. What would he have to do, legal paperwork-wise?