"I was about three years into doing the trade course when conscription was announced, that it would be by a ballot system, a marble out of the box. We were - at that stage you really didn't, you know, it was just something that may or may not happen. It's like winning the lottery. Your marble may have come out, it may not have come out. Dad said not to worry about it, we'll worry about it when the time comes. From memory, and it's getting a bit old now, but I think the first ballot was on the TV. It wasn't. And I don't think they announced the dates. You just saw them draw the marbles out. I think we were notified then by mail that our marble had come out."

CORPORAL PHIL BAXTER