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Muhammad Ali

What happened to the draftees who stepped forward the day Muhammad Ali stood still?

Fifty years ago Friday, a group of young men reported to a military induction center in Houston to answer their nation's call to service in Vietnam. When their names were read, all but one stepped forward - Muhammad Ali. We know what happened to Ali after that. But to find out what happened to the others, USA TODAY located and spoke with two groups of draftees: some who were at the Houston induction, and some from Ali's hometown of Louisville who registered for the draft when he did and whose Selective Service numbers were in the same sequence. Ref. Source 8n

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Ali Muhammad

We should remember those other people. They stepped forward and served their country. By the same country, what Ali did took guts. How does not going to war take guts? He came forward as a conscientious objector to the war and it cost him years of his boxing career.