How To Beat The Draft Board/Other Deferments Or Options

Other Deferments Or "Options"

4-B: Official Deferred by Law. Odds are, this doesn't apply to you. It applies to the people who made the policy decisions that are trying to send you to war, though.

4-G: Exempt from Service Because of Death of Parent or Sibling while Serving in the Armed Forces or Whose Parent or Sibling is in a Captured or Missing in Action Status. In short, they don't want to deprive a single family of many members.

4-F: Not Acceptable for Military Service. You've failed the military's physical, mental, or moral fitness requirements. See Richard Feynman's autobiography, or "Alice's Restaurant."

Student: Non-divinity students cannot get the nice deferments that they used to be able to. The student deferments were a source of resentment among the poor and working class during the Vietnam War, as they saw it as a way that the rich could pay their way out of going to war. Presently, students are allowed to finish up their semester or, if they are in their senior year, their academic year. After that, they are activated.

Running to Canada: While this worked in Vietnam, Canada is not guaranteed to be a safe haven unless there is government backing for such a policy. Check your countries before you leave. If they're merely "sympathetic", fleeing and keeping a low profile may be a solution. Don't expect to be able to return to the US for a long period of time, if ever. Draft dodgers from Vietnam weren't allowed back in until Carter's 1977 blanket pardon, and by then, most were so integrated with their new communities that only half ultimately returned.

Risking jailtime: Judging from Vietnam, expect a prison term of at least one year, probably three to four years - if convicted. There's a chance that you won't even be prosecuted; it all depends on how the Justice Department decides to treat cases. Just realize that, if you take this route, you're gambling with serious consequences. If you want to resist the draft directly in this manner, check out Resisters.info for advice. For this route, sooner is better than later.