Voting Your Draft Status
Today the draft exists on paper only. Males between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to register if the draft is reinstated and to be eligible to receive student loans or other government benefits like job training.
The idea of universal public service meaning everybody between the ages of 18-26 doesn't exist.
The country took a turn when the draft ended. The current military is certainly as professional and polished as it has ever been but going all volunteer has been an early driver of many the political divisions in this country. Military service used to be something more folks experienced, not necessarily as a job or career but as part of being a citizen.
President Obama and his wife have tried to be respectful and supportive of today's veterans and their families. The Commander in Chief should do no less.
Service and sacrifice are related and they should be recognized but to be used as means to divide is a problem.
By 1973 the United States Army had stopped depending on the draft to fill its ranks and went to an all volunteer army. There was a cease fire agreement signed and the last Americans died in Viet Nam in a helicopter crash in 1975 according to my research. The returning of prisoners of war and the remains of those killed in action took a lot longer.
By 1974 President Ford offered a conditional amnesty to those that had evaded the draft or who had deserted the service during the Viet Nam War. The draft had covered males between the ages of 18-26. If not otherwise deferred those drafted were required to serve.
On his first day in office in 1977 President Carter issued an unconditional pardon to thousands of draft evaders, deserters were not included in the pardon. According to the New York Times approximately 1.8 million were drafted between 1964 and 1973. Approximately 210,000 were charged with evading the draft. many thousands of others were never charged with evading the draft.
Today the draft exists on paper only. Males between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to register if the draft is reinstated and to be eligible to receive student loans or other government benefits like job training.
This is prologue to a couple of folks asking me if I wanted to join the local American Legion. I politely responded that I never served in the military and was not eligible.
My history during the Viet Nam included holding on to a student deferment until my draft number was not likely to be one included in the folks drafted. A next door neighbor was MIA after his plane crashed in Viet Nam. It was a very sad time for the family for a very, very long time. I did however register for the draft, whether I would have ever passed the physical had I been drafted is an unknown. My history with the draft was similar to many others of my generation.
As a center director for a local job training office I explained the requirements to register for the draft to literally thousands of high school students and other young adults wanting and needing job training or retraining. I also helped many young men who never registered for the draft write letters to allow them to get services from the Department of Labor if hey were over the age of 26 but never registered for the draft. Waivers were usually granted for those that never registered for the draft. It really slowed down the application process but they were usually approved eventually.
There have been some muted calls for some sort of public service. I would be in favor of some sort of program because... The devil is always in the details and for the same reason I would be in favor of a program, I might be against what I once favored. And so it goes.
The idea of universal public service meaning everybody between the ages of 18-26 doesn't exist.
The country took a turn when the draft ended. The current military is certainly as professional and polished as it has ever been but going all volunteer has been an early driver of many the political divisions in this country. Military service used to be something more folks experienced, not necessarily as a job or career but as part of being a citizen.
President Obama and his wife have tried to be respectful and supportive of today's veterans and their families. The Commander in Chief should do no less.
Service and sacrifice are related and they should be recognized but to be used as means to divide is a problem.
By 1973 the United States Army had stopped depending on the draft to fill its ranks and went to an all volunteer army. There was a cease fire agreement signed and the last Americans died in Viet Nam in a helicopter crash in 1975 according to my research. The returning of prisoners of war and the remains of those killed in action took a lot longer.
By 1974 President Ford offered a conditional amnesty to those that had evaded the draft or who had deserted the service during the Viet Nam War. The draft had covered males between the ages of 18-26. If not otherwise deferred those drafted were required to serve.
On his first day in office in 1977 President Carter issued an unconditional pardon to thousands of draft evaders, deserters were not included in the pardon. According to the New York Times approximately 1.8 million were drafted between 1964 and 1973. Approximately 210,000 were charged with evading the draft. many thousands of others were never charged with evading the draft.
Today the draft exists on paper only. Males between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to register if the draft is reinstated and to be eligible to receive student loans or other government benefits like job training.
This is prologue to a couple of folks asking me if I wanted to join the local American Legion. I politely responded that I never served in the military and was not eligible.
My history during the Viet Nam included holding on to a student deferment until my draft number was not likely to be one included in the folks drafted. A next door neighbor was MIA after his plane crashed in Viet Nam. It was a very sad time for the family for a very, very long time. I did however register for the draft, whether I would have ever passed the physical had I been drafted is an unknown. My history with the draft was similar to many others of my generation.
As a center director for a local job training office I explained the requirements to register for the draft to literally thousands of high school students and other young adults wanting and needing job training or retraining. I also helped many young men who never registered for the draft write letters to allow them to get services from the Department of Labor if hey were over the age of 26 but never registered for the draft. Waivers were usually granted for those that never registered for the draft. It really slowed down the application process but they were usually approved eventually.
There have been some muted calls for some sort of public service. I would be in favor of some sort of program because... The devil is always in the details and for the same reason I would be in favor of a program, I might be against what I once favored. And so it goes.
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