Unfortunately there are some errors in the initial report.

Youn men have continued to be required to register with their local draft/SSS boards, even though there were no call-ups of these folks in the past. They have had to register since some time in the mid 30's.

The military services are heartily against reinstituting involuntary military servitude - pun intended, as it opens us up to all of the abuses we saw in the last few "wars" in which our country engaged. Kids from less affluent homes ended up serving in disproportionately larger numbers than those from more wealthy families. The input we get from the draft is generally the poorer, less educated, and often more acquainted with out courts system than the militaryh would prefer. Poor isn't a problem, but dumb and criminally inclined pose great problems to any military system, and the military is really not interested; thank you very much!

Clinton dodged the bullet entirely, Kerry enisted*, JFK enlisted*, Johnson enlisted*, Gore enlisted, as did many others of note.

*as an officer

The AF was forced to initially take 1000 people who did not meet their entrance requirements, and later were forced to take an additional 9,000 of these previously unenlistable. We had tons of problems with these folks, until we boarded the real troublemakers out of the service.   The Navy, and Marines have minimum requirements, and even the Army will not take a person who had neither completed High School or passeed a GED test. To force these services to take anyone off the street would really put them in a trick, these days.

In the past there was always a job for the terminally stupid draftees. They could clean floors, ruin food, curry horses, or clean tanks and artillery pieces. The 26th Cav ate their mounts in the PI during the early 40's, before Bataan fell, and even these other menial jobs frequently require more smarts and a better attitude than the average street rat posses. The days of teh choice of 6 months in the slammer, or enlist in the service of your choice for 3-4 years are long gone too, as few of the services will accept a person with a criminal record, without a thorough review of the circumstances, and sevferal waivers.

In short, the Draft just isn't worth the cost of running it, or the decrease in quality of the street sweepings so inducted.

Dave
Retired Senior NCO