About the Military Draft
- United States military drafts go back to almost before the country was formed. The original 13 Colonies occasionally needed defending from unruly Native Americans. If there weren't enough volunteers or paid members, the governors would draft people as needed. But drafts were largely run by the state. There was no attempt for a national draft until President James Madison tried to create one for the War of 1812 between Americans and the Brits along the Canadian border.
The first national draft took place during the Civil War, despite the amazing number of volunteer soldiers. An estimated 2 percent of over 2 million soldiers were drafted for the war.
Drafting was very unpopular because many soldiers died during the first years of the Civil War. By 1863 Congress passed laws to draft soldiers for 3 years. New Yorkers did not like this and rioted for 3 days, resulting in deaths of over 120 civilians, 2,000 injured and about $1 million in property damage. - After the Civil War, drafting didn't happen just to young, able-bodied men. Different systems developed throughout the different wars. Between World War I and World War II, President Theodore Roosevelt created the Selective Training and Service Act. This was the first peacetime draft system. The Selective Service System basically identified all males between 18 and 45 years old and kept records on them so that should the country come into war, soldiers would already be identified. If drafted, men would have to serve at least 1 year.
That version was modified during World War II. Local boards held a lottery to select men for the draft. From 1940 to 1947, 10 million men were inducted into the military. More modifications took place throughout the different wars. The Cold War extended the draft service to 24 months. The Korean War implemented National Guard and reserve statuses for draftees or volunteers.
Radical changes were made right before the Vietnam War. Members who volunteered could actually choose their service (Air Force, Army, Navy or Marines) and sometimes choose where they would fight. Exemptions and deferments were also instituted in the draft. People could be exempt if they were attending college, were medically unable to participate or were the lone surviving son of a family.
Drafting was officially ended in 1972 by President Richard Nixon. But the Selective Service system was reinstated in 1980 by Ronald Regan, requiring men between 18 and 25 years old to register via the post office by their eighteenth birthdays. Failure to register could result in a $250,000 fine or 5-year imprisonment. - Draftees came in all shapes and sizes. Although blacks were not treated as equals during the Civil War, they were not exempt from being drafted. During World War II, blacks were drafted and put into segregated units.
Educated people were also drafted. A system developed in 1989 was designed to draft health care professionals should the need arise. The Health Care Personal Delivery System plan filled 57 categories with men and women between the ages of 20 and 54 to fill roles such as doctors and nurses. - Many legal considerations have swirled around the military draft. One court case in 1918 tried to say the draft was the government's exercise of overpowerment as compared to England's drafting of people during Colonial times. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise.
The Vietnam War resulted in many legal cases since it was such a controversial war. One man was arrested for walking into a courthouse with a shirt that said "F#$* the Draft"; the court ruled in his favor based on the First Amendment. A group in 1981 protested that men as well as women should be required to register with the Selective Service, claiming it to be sexist. However, the courts ruled against their views, stating that women were not excluded because they were seen as inferior but because men and women aren't situated to be drafted in the same way. For example, a single, pregnant woman couldn't be drafted. - Some speculate that the draft could make a return. The 1990s and early 2000s saw America fighting on multiple war fronts and constantly preparing for future conflicts. Many of the all-volunteer service would deploy for months at a time to different places like the Balkan states or the Middle East--all within the same year and for different conflicts.
Others consider "stop loss" as a back-door draft. Stop-loss is a military administrative action that prevents military members from ending their service should wartime conditions require their specialty, regardless of when that enlistment is supposed to end. In other words, if your enlistment would end in 6 months and a conflict arose within 3 months of that term, you could be held in the military and prevented from release. It is basically an involuntary extension.