Federal government websites often end in. The site is secure. This event determined the order of call for induction during calendar year ; that is, for registrants born between January 1, , and December 31, There were blue plastic capsules containing birth dates placed in a large glass container and drawn by hand to assign order-of-call numbers to all men within the age range specified in Selective Service law.
With radio, film, and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from the container, opened, and the dates inside posted in order. The first capsule — drawn by Congressman Alexander Pirnie R-NY of the House Armed Services Committee — contained the date September 14, so all men born on September 14 in any year between and were assigned lottery number 1.
The Selective Service System has changed a lot since the s. A series of reforms during the latter part of the Vietnam conflict changed the way the draft operated to make it more fair and equitable.
Learn more about our fair and equitable system. Most Americans born before remember the "draft card" which Selective Service issued to each man at the time he registered. For many years there were in fact two cards: the Registration Certificate and the Notice of Classification.
Learn more about the history of the draft card and our modern practices. Learn about the numbers of men who entered military service through the Selective Service System during major 20th century conflicts in which the U.
Thus, Selective Service can no longer access any of these records. Box St. Hershey described channeling as a new major task for the Selective Service. In , Hershey was promoted to lieutenant general as a result of Congressional pressure and against the wishes of the Army. Although he was officially an Army officer, he had not been responsive to Army control for years. Nor did he defer very much to officials of the various Presidential Administrations.
Congressional support gave him an independence similar to that enjoyed by longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover or Navy Adm. Hyman G. Richard Nixon proposed ending the draft during the Presidential campaign. Upon taking office, he immediately moved to eliminate the draft entirely. The worst single problem with the draft was that it was inherently unfair. No matter what, only a fraction of the eligibles were drafted.
Furthermore, there was great variation among local draft boards in how they applied the deferment and exemption rules. There was nothing equitable about the system for the minority of the manpower pool who did not escape the draft. Washington in the mids made several attempts to establish a draft lottery to spread the risk of induction equally among those eligible for selection. Johnson by then President and Congress agreed, and the lottery initiatives failed.
Also rejected was the idea of setting national standards for local draft boards to follow. The draft was far from ideal as a source of military manpower. Because draftees served only for two years, it was not worthwhile putting them through long training programs. The technical specialties had to be filled with volunteers.
Cat IVs had difficulty absorbing instruction or performing complex tasks, but the draft brought many of them into service. His aim was to open military service to , men a year who were otherwise unqualified. By , Cat IVs accounted for 23 percent of inductions. The draft also brought in a larger number of high school dropouts who, compared to graduates, were only half as likely to complete enlistments.
In , dropouts accounted for 27 percent of the enlisted force, ranging from a high of 42 percent in the Marine Corps and a low of eight percent in the Air Force. More than anything else, it was the Vietnam War that ended the draft.
Inductions had fallen to 82, in , but then soared to , in As draft calls increased, so did the probability that draftees would be sent to combat. Anti-draft sentiment grew, both among military age men and in the public at large. In time, the burning of draft cards as a form of protest became so widespread that Congress made it a felony. Some draft evaders went to Canada, but the more common way to avoid service was through deferments, exemptions, and disqualifications. Minorities and the poor were the least successful at beating the system this way.
During the Presidential campaign, Richard M. Nixon proposed ending the draft, and, within days of taking office in January , he took action to reduce the inequities. Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird told Nixon that the current requirement was to draft only about a quarter of the eligible men in the manpower pool, and that it would drop to one in seven when the services reverted to pre-Vietnam strength levels.
Laird proposed a lottery. Hershey was opposed but Nixon agreed with Laird and obtained the concurrence of Congress. The draft lottery was implemented in At the same time, Nixon appointed the Commission on an All-Volunteer Armed Force with a charter to develop a plan to eliminate conscription.
He chose as head of the panel former Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Hershey, who was opposed to the all-volunteer force AVF as well as the other reforms, was clearly part of the problem. Nixon did not hesitate to move against him.
He promoted Hershey to four-star general, made him a Presidential advisor, and replaced him as head of the Selective Service. Nixon paid no attention to the advice he then got from Hershey, who eventually was retired involuntarily in at age 79 and after 62 years of military service.
The Gates Commission made its report in February and offered three main recommendations as the nation moved toward a volunteer force:. It was clear to everyone that using the AVF would not be cheap, but the commission said that taxpayers at large had gotten a free ride with the draft force.
In , pay for new recruits and draftees was about 60 percent of comparable civilian pay. The services had differing experiences. The Army, though, would have more difficulty with an AVF than the other services. The services put more recruiters in the field and hired advertising agencies to support their efforts. To the disgust of many old-timers, a new way of thinking took hold. Elmo R.
Zumwalt Jr. An early one eliminated restrictions on the wear of civilian clothes on base when off duty. But women serve honorably and effectively in every military role and branch of service. The rationale used by the Supreme Court in to exclude them became moot as soon as all available positions, including combat positions, opened to women in If registration continues, and if there ever again is a draft in the U.
One common belief is that maintaining draft registration bolsters the link between civilians and soldiers , which has weakened significantly since the U. Some experts suggest that such a weak civilian-military connection contributes to a number of problems, including a lack of familiarity with the military, a military that is not representative of society and an unfair distribution of the human costs of war.
But the Selective Service System is not designed to address those issues. Evidence shows that registration shapes society only when it is accompanied by a draft — though not always in ways that national leaders might hope. During the Cold War draft , men factored military service into their life choices by marrying, having children, going to college or choosing professions that offered them legal deferments from the draft.
That, in turn, introduced inequities into the draft, undermining the legitimacy of the process. Men with means, especially white men, were significantly more likely to obtain a deferment than working-class men, particularly men of color. The government seems to have learned from that experience. If the draft ever were renewed, these types of deferments would likely not be allowed. But many more Americans reach draft-eligible age each year than the military could possibly use.
Any new draft would still raise new questions about the fairness of who serves and who does not.
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