House loses nerve on draft registration
They had their chance to cut the annual $24 million out of the budget and they blew it.
Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., who sponsored the amendment to eliminate the $24 million annual draft registration budget, said nobody seriously thinks conscription will return.
“The Pentagon doesn’t want to go back to a draft,” he said. “The Pentagon has said time and time and time again they believe in an all-volunteer military.”
The all-volunteer force “is superior to forced enlistment,” DeFazio said. “We are a higher quality. We are using significant incentives to get people to enlist in the military, and we have the best military in the world as a result.”
The majority of House members, though, think draft registration is worth keeping, at least for now.
Yeah, we might need it someday, but, hell, no one registers anymore because no one enforces registration. Yeah, on his eighteenth birthday, I took my son to register for the draft and then to register to vote…but who does that now?
Category: Military issues
Yep, I remember when I had to do it in 98′ at the post office. Think my mother took me.
One cannot get a federal job if he is not registered with the SSS. One has a hard time applying for a US citizenship is he is not registered with the SSS. He must provide a serious affidavit explaining why he did not registered between 18 and 26. Most colleges do not inform their male students about their responsibility to register because our institutes of higher learning abhor things military and believe that the education they provide to their male student body will keep said male student body from applying to those federal jobs. That puts their foreign born male students body at a great risk later on.
While I was in basic training my Drill Sergeant gleefully delivered not one, but, three separate letters to me from Selective Service advising me that I must register.
That S O B really thought it was funny.
I updated my registration while I was in Germany and in Desert Storm. I found particularly ironic to get the updated card while I sat in the middle of the Desert!
IN other news, I think it was Jonn that was concerned that hovercraft had not yet been invented. I’m fairly certain it was someone on TAH. Little did we know then, that hovercraft have been around for some time. Evidently, when Uncle Jimbo was 18, serving with the Ottoman Turk Jannissians in the 19th Century, he had a hovercraft experience. Thought you’d like to see his confessions here: http://www.blackfive.net/main/2011/02/story-time-w-uncle-j-midnight-express.html
I didn’t register until after I got out of the Navy. I had no idea that I needed to except that the school wouldn’t let me attend until I had done so. This obviously wasn’t Berkeley.
FWIW: Another hovercraft here:
Part of the background process to become an officer with our department is to provide proof of your selective service registration.
30 years after leaving high school, they asked me THIS YEAR (during my re-look for my clearance) if I had registered for SSS. yeah, they check. There is a confirmation number you get when you look it up, and I had to provide it.
If you want a grant or aide for schooling from the gubmint, you have to provide proof you registered….
I registered when I turned 18. When I ETSd, the Army made sure I updated my registration… which seemed kind of stupid to me at the time, because by the time my IRR commitment was over, I’d no longer be eligible for the draft.
Oh, and pet peeve… the post title should read “loses”, not “looses”.
Sorry I just had to chuckle to myself for a few minutes envisioning all the crying and gnashing of teeth of our country’s youth just looking at the draft notice sitting on the kitchen table.
It’s the little things.
Damn, forgot to sign in.
To take Don Carl’s post a step further, my Dad was in the Pacific serving in the Army Air Corps during WW2 when he got his draft notice in the mail. He had to go to his commander to get it all straightened out.
I remember getting a notice on my mid tour leave that I was supposed to register for the draft. Right now its a joke no one takes seriously. I think it should be mandatory for all Americans (regardless of sex) and proof thereof to get ANY job. That or get rid of the damn thing all together.
Was automatic for me, IIRC. Turned 18 in boot camp. Never filled one out, but I have a number, or had, anyway.