Joseph L. Galloway
http://www.jewishworldreview.com | Thirty years ago this week, as the Vietnam War was winding toward its painful conclusion, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird put an end to the military draft and America turned to an all-volunteer military force.
During the 20th century's wars the United States drafted a total of 16.3 million men into military service. Women were never drafted. The threat of the draft forced many millions more to enlist "voluntarily" in hopes of avoiding assignment to the infantry.
When the draft ended, the U.S. Army had 13 active duty divisions (800,000 soldiers), most filled with young draftees doing a two-year involuntary tour. For the preceding three and a half years they had been chosen by a national birthday lottery. Prior to that they had been chosen by their local Selective Service Board.
"Greetings," began the ominous letter. "Your friends and neighbors have chosen you …"
When the draft came to a halt, the U.S. Army had been torn apart by the Vietnam War and by the drug culture that the draft brought directly from the streets into its ranks. In Germany top sergeants carried a .45 pistol, cocked and loaded, just to walk through their own barracks at night. Racial tensions were high and sometimes erupted into violence. The corps of non-commissioned officers, the sergeants who are the backbone of any Army, had been decimated in Vietnam.
It took a decade to clean out the troublemakers and incompetents, install a zero-tolerance for drugs, and establish higher standards, including a high school diploma, for enlistment and advancement.
Today the Army has 10 divisions, a total of 480,000 soldiers, and is reckoned to be the best-trained and most lethal military force operating in the world.
The Pentagon has never looked back since the draft and all those troublesome draftees went away. The defense establishment loves the volunteer military. Those who are there, for the most part, want to be there and are motivated to do a tough, demanding job and do it well.
From almost every way you look at it, the all-volunteer Army is the most effective, most efficient way to go about defending America. Almost …
So what is missing and why should we care?
What is missing is a sense of shared sacrifice, especially when it comes to war and dying. Freedom is not free, and the price is not paid by everyone. The sons and daughters of the elite don't serve. Increasingly it is hard to scare up a senator or member of Congress who has worn the uniform. In large swaths of the country the average American doesn't even know someone who wears the uniform.
A British general once said that an army should mirror the face of the society it defends. Because of the very successful all-volunteer military, ours does not. It is better than society in general; its standards, ethics and morals are generally higher and better; the military offers the most level playing field for minorities in America; selfless service is the soldier's mantra in a society where "getting mine first" is more the norm.
Perhaps it is time, and past time, for our country to give serious consideration to instituting true national service for our youngsters, without all the loopholes and exemptions and fiddles that plagued the late unlamented draft.
We might give thought to requiring that at age 18 or upon graduation from high school every young man and woman who is physically and mentally capable would owe a term of service to the nation. They could be offered a broad choice in where and how long they would serve: In the military; in a new Civilian Conservation Corps tasked to repair and rebuild our failing National Parks; in a volunteer corps to work in our schools and hospitals; in the Peace Corps overseas.
Those who choose the more dangerous and demanding military service would, upon completion of four years of honorable service, be given a four-year scholarship to any state-supported college in America that would accept them. Those choosing one of the other opportunities for a term of two years of service would be entitled to a two-year free ride in college.
Although clearly it would be a very expensive program it should be viewed as an investment in our young people, and in a much better educated workforce. New generations would have something personal invested in their freedom and their country. Millions who might never earn a college degree would suddenly have the opportunity to do so.
This has the potential to jumpstart both the economy and our society, just as the GI Bill did after World War II when 15 million returning veterans poured into colleges with government support. It is worth thinking about.
Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." Comment by clicking here.
06/26/03: Helping disabled veterans with college life is this man's goal