I am curious what all of you think about a draft. If the U.S. were ever put in the position where a draft seemed plausable would you be for it?

I personally would be against it. In my opinion the majority(not all) of those drafted wouldn't want to be in the military. Therefore affecting all those in it with a negative attitude, and b/c they didn't volunteer they would not hold each services respective values to their proper place of prestige. This in turn would get people killed. I am sure this topic has been brought up in different forums, but I know on college campuses, and in some military organizations it is often discussed.

Joe, I read your post and I have to say the off chance would I be for the Draft, about 30 years ago if you had asked that question then I would have said YES, let me explain if I can why. In 1969 I was drafted infact about 40% of the platoon I was assigned to in Vietnam were drafted. I know that they served with pride and we did watch each others backs in combat, you know that if you didn't some one was not gonna make it out. I knew over the 21 years I was active duty that there were alot of the ones drafted that stayed in till retirement. So in that time there were not alot of negative attitudes, but if you ask me that question now then I would have to yell NOOOOO.

I agree. I am not for a draft should there need to be one. One of the reasons is because of what Joe brought up. All of the probable negativity that it would cause would just not be good. Plus, if our country doesn't have enough volunteers to fight, then we don't deserve to win. I hope and pray that the draft will never come into affect. That's why I am joining ASAP to do my part for my country!!

sgreen I commend you on what you are about to do, I know that you will do very well in the service I wish you all the best and GOD's speed, welcome to the brotherhood of warriors. When I see young people that want to serve their country I am proud of them.

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Originally posted by coachman:
sgreen I commend you on what you are about to do, I know that you will do very well in the service I wish you all the best and GOD's speed, welcome to the brotherhood of warriors. When I see young people that want to serve their country I am proud of them.

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Well THANK YOU sir for the kind words and "encouragement." It really does mean alot to me. I will now take the time to thank you, as well as everyone else that has served or is currently serving. It is greatly appreciated and we wouldn't be here without all of you!

I hope there are enough young and old alike, who feel what I feel for this country and the passion to want to keep her safe!! If there is "we won't need no stinkin draft!"

Thanks Coach for the reply, and Green it's nice to see that you are planning on serving.

In response to my own post; I think my wording was a little off. I made it sound like any person getting drafted would degrade the service' I didn't mean that. Due to the current situations, and the absolute pride of volunteers I firmly believe that most volunteer soldiers would be upset about a draft. And I feel that a consequence of a draft COULD be the gerneralizations I made in my first post.

Joe, I forgot to add this. During my time I have heard that the troops on active duty that were against drafting anyone into the service, now as I said during my time that was 13 years ago lol. I truly believe that there is no need to re-instate the draft we have enough soldiers, we just need to manage the resources better. I think that with the current troop levels that a tour in a combat area should be 1 year as we did in Nam, I know that there are those that will disagree with me but we can agree to disagree on this.

What is the tour length for the Army now?? It was one year wasn't it? Has it went up now?

My personal thoughts on this is, there are too many people out there that would volunteer if the Military would relax the educational requirements. Who needs to be a freakin rocket scientist to shoot a damn gun anyway? There would be no need for a draft if they would do that. In a war time situation like we will be in for probably decades...who gives a schit if somebody graduated High School. If they're physically able and are willing to volunteer...let em' in! There are a great many people out there whose intelligence isn't the reason they didn't do so well in school. My nephew is one. He was too smart for the curriculum, and got bored. He quit High School as a senior. He would take the damned tests and ace them, but failed a grade because he didn't do his home work.

There is absolutely NO need for a draft!

green I think it is but with the units being held over I am not to damn sure what the tour length is right now. But I will try to find out and let you know.

From what I get for the most part, the Army does still have 12 month deployments, but here shorty, some of them will have to extend that for 2 more months, making it a total of 14 for them.


Full story here.

grae .. agree that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to shoot a weapon . any idiot can take a round ..
BUT .. you need someone with an education to handle battle field situations .. read and write .. do math in their head .. and then where do we get the NCO corps from if everybody's a high school drop out .....also education works towards high discipline .. if one stays in school, they have the gumption to learn and be part of a team ..

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Holton F. Brown,

latest on tours .. I've heard out of my pentagon contact is that active troops are looking at 14 month tours .. and called up reserve/guard units, about 18-months total (activation/re-training/deployment/debriefing)

You might want to remember that we entered another global war with a small professional military.

Gen. Black Jack Pershing, among others, warned that the active and reserve force was too small.

This was WWII. Without the Citizen-Soldier draftee, the outcome would have been altered.

Instead of the draft I would favore Universal Federal Service where every able bodied male and female would perform two years of mandatory service upon reaching the age of 18, the military being but one option.

Say what you will but if you use a machine, no matter how functional and effective, without proper lube and maintenance, it will break.

The AVM is running out of parts. Volunteers are not stepping up to the plate in sufficient numbers and realignment is not a long term solution.

IMO the draft should have been started on 9/12.

I agree with your post 100% Thud. I think there should be a two year minimum of some kind of service, whether military or civil, before even voting priviliges are allowed, with some few necessary exceptions, of course. I also think the same should be before one can hold office.