What medical records exist for draft deferments during the Vietnam era and how are they accessed?
Executive summary
Most government medical documentation specifically tied to Vietnam-era draft deferments—physical exams, lab results, medical letters and similar files—was not preserved: the Selective Service destroyed many individual draftee medical files under a 1978 retention schedule, leaving only summary classification and registration records in federal holdings [1] [2]. What remains and how to get it is therefore a patchwork: Selective Service registration and classification records are available from the National Archives (with a request process), while evidence of medical deferments often survives only indirectly (public Selective Service cards, local board rulings, private physician files) and may be incomplete or dispersed [1] [3] [4].
1. What government records actually exist today — and which medical papers are gone
Federal holdings for the Vietnam era contain registration and classification entries (e.g., 1‑A, II‑S student deferment, III‑A hardship) but most files that would have included exam results, laboratory work and medical correspondence were destroyed in 1978 in accordance with agency retention schedules, meaning the detailed medical paperwork that once supported many deferments “no longer exist” in the National Archives’ Selective Service files [1] [2]. Scholarly overviews and reporting corroborate that classification data and lottery outcomes survive, while granular medical documentation from draft boards is largely missing from federal repositories [3] [1].
2. Where surviving Selective Service records live and how to request them
Surviving Selective Service records for the Vietnam era are held by the National Archives’ St. Louis facility and can be requested through the Archives’ Selective Service request process; researchers and individuals can obtain Selective Service registration and classification copies by completing the appropriate request form identified by the Archives [1]. Public reporting and archival guides make clear that the accessible records typically show registration details and final board classifications rather than the medical paperwork that might have justified a 4‑F or temporary deferment [1] [2].
3. Medical deferments in practice — why private or local records matter
Contemporary accounts and secondary analyses document that medical deferments were often documented locally and that access to private doctors or existing medical records advantaged wealthier registrants seeking exemptions, which implies supporting medical documentation frequently existed outside central Selective Service holdings [4] [3]. That reality helps explain why individual stories—such as later public scrutiny of prominent figures’ bone‑spur diagnoses—can be supported by some Selective Service classification records but lack accompanying federal medical files: the centralized medical evidence was not retained [2] [1].
4. Appeals, local boards and how records were produced then versus now
During the Vietnam era, local draft boards made many deferment decisions and could act based on paperwork without guaranteed appeal rights to registrants; reforms after 1971 changed procedures and increased rights to appear before local boards [5] [6]. The consequence for researchers is that much of the contemporaneous documentary trail—local board minutes, physician letters, and appeal paperwork—was not systematically funneled into permanent federal medical files and therefore may only survive in local government archives, court records or private physician charts [5] [6].
5. Practical steps to locate draft‑era medical evidence today
The documented, actionable path is to request Selective Service registration and classification records from the National Archives’ St. Louis holdings via the Archives’ request form [1]; next steps—when federal medical files are absent—are to search local draft board archives, municipal courthouses, military induction centers and any surviving private medical records, though the survival and accessibility of those sources vary and are not exhaustively catalogued in available reporting [1] [4]. Investigative and public interest cases show that classification records can sometimes be combined with contemporaneous private documentation or reporting to reconstruct the basis for a deferment, but the patchwork nature of what survives means many medical details will remain opaque [2] [3].
6. Caveats, competing narratives and political uses of sparse records
Because federal medical files are largely gone, Selective Service classification records have become the focal point for scrutiny of high‑profile deferments—and that scarcity fuels dispute: journalists and fact‑checkers can confirm classifications and lottery numbers from Archives releases but cannot always locate the underlying medical paperwork claimed by individuals, which creates space for competing narratives and political contention [2] [1]. Reporting and scholarship warn that socioeconomic differences in access to private physicians affected who could document medical claims at the time, an implicit bias that still colors interpretation of incomplete records [4] [3].