DO YOU FEEL A DRAFT?
Kerley, Gillam
DRAFT ? Selective Service is ready even iff you are not 'This is your order to report for induction. Congress has authorized a return to the draft. Selective Service has held a lottery and, based...
...There are no plans for a draft at this time," assures the Selective Service System in one of its brochures...
...Operation Proud Saber, conducted in October 1982, was one of several Government exercises designed to test the machinery of conscription...
...An invasion, however, would require the United States to commit 100,000 to 150,000 troops for a sustained period, according to Colonel Edward King, a former Pentagon analyst...
...instead, it anticipates an all-out mobilization— 100,000 men in basic training within thirty days of a declared emergency...
...Groups opposed to U.S...
...Few today believe that force size could be substantially increased through reliance on volunteers alone," reports the Atlantic Council, one of four major think tanks to suggest since 1982 that a return to the draft may be necessary...
...Once Reagan had been granted the authority to enlarge the military through conscription, he would have the "flexibility" to intervene around the globe with or without domestic support...
...Selective Service also purchases lists of licensed drivers from most states and compares these lists to the registration rolls...
...Aides to governors usually glance at—or rubber stamp—the list of appointees submitted by Selective Service...
...on account of sex," the vast majority of boards have one woman and four men...
...Indeed, only seventeen nonregistrants, all of them vocal opponents of conscription, have been indicted...
...For instance, an individual who neglects to file the correct Selective Service form within ten days of being called up will lose all rights to reclassification...
...Draftees are not told who is eligible for such a release or what documents they should bring to their physicals at the Military Entrance Processing Stations...
...The corresponding reduction in U.S...
...Acting on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, Tuchinsky persuaded Michigan's governor to add a second step to the review process...
...In September 1982, he was indicted for refusing to register for the draft...
...Behind the scenes, however, Federal officials have wasted no time gearing up for the real thing...
...What's more, for the first time in American history, both men and women would be subject to the health-care workers' draft...
...The pieces don't make a lot of sense," notes Cizewski...
...Still, it would be naive to conclude that Selective Service is on the run...
...Though military recruiters are meeting or exceeding their quotas, thanks largely to high levels of youth unemployment, the All-Volunteer Force will be strained if the Commander-in-Chief chooses to go all out in implementing his interventionist agenda...
...The Government hoped to intimidate the anonymous resisters by cracking down on the openly defiant...
...the Government plans to distribute them through post offices in the event of mobilization...
...But that strategy backfired as antidraft activists took advantage of the publicity surrounding these cases...
...G.K...
...But if the President were to ask for induction authority tomorrow—and such legislation has been introduced before—the Congress might agree, not because the nation faces a legitimate threat to its security, but because opposition to conscription is not as visible as it should be...
...Many draftees will, at their peril, rely on materials provided by the Selective Service System...
...Though he is well past the age when most men can stop worrying about the draft, Cizewski, a registered nurse and peace activist in Wisconsin, has cause for concern...
...In San Diego County, California, the conviction of Benjamin Sasway, the first man to be indicted under the Carter order, energized resistance...
...Medical doctors were subject to the draft in past wars, but the proposed Health Personnel Mobilization Act "will have a decent chance at a range of deferments and exemptions...
...There is a contradiction between what they are saying to the public about their minimal role and the preparation work they are doing," notes Kathy Gilberd, who heads the National Lawyers Guild's Military Law Task Force...
...The very speed of the planned mobilization threatens to bring confusion as well as arbitrary and discriminatory inductions...
...Marines and Army Rangers slogged ashore in Grenada, the smallest nation in the Western hemisphere...
...Applicants for Federal student loans and grants, and persons seeking Job Training Partnership Act benefits, are required to certify that they have either registered or were not required to do so...
...I saw no effort whatsoever being made to look at the attitudes of the people [who were nominated] to ensure that all of them are open-minded, basically unprejudiced people," says Joe Tuchinsky, a Michigan draft board member and author of the Vietnam-era Guide to the Draft...
...Good information will be in high demand and short supply in the days following a mobilization...
...Some are beginning to do this, developing contingency plans, emergency response networks, and educational materials for draftees...
...troop strength in NATO countries and the Middle East would become so intolerable, King predicts, that Washington would resume conscription within three to four months of launching the attack...
...But the new "local claims boards," as they are euphemistically called, do not promise to be particularly judicious bodies...
...Kerley, handling his own legal defense, entered a plea of "not guilty by reason of sanity" in U.S...
...Only heightened public awareness and resistance will derail Selective Service's plans for conscription...
...Yet no other state has established a formal oversight mechanism...
...Nor will conscription solve the inequity of the present "volunteer" system, which actually depends on economic conscripts—minorities and poor whites who cannot find work in the civilian sector...
...the Department of Defense was implementing the Civilian Military Contingency Hospital System, asking hospital administrators to set aside space for military casualties, it was also proposing to conscript personnel out of civilian institutions...
...While thirteen resisters wercindicted in the second half of 1982, only three were charged in 1983, and one was prosecuted last year...
...That authorization could come as the Administration's foreign policy objectives push against the limitations of the U.S...
...Religious groups, civil rights activists, student organizations, and anti-interventionists need to understand the likelihood of a draft and recognize their stake in the issue...
...Nominees were given a series of hypothetical cases and asked how they would evaluate each one...
...And that is the greatest danger of the draft: It tempts the Government to call on the soldier rather than the diplomat in resolving international conflict...
...Like the Classification Information Booklet, the questionnaire to be filled out by potential COs is incomplete...
...I really don't want to go through another round of having to deal with conscription...
...A wise draft board could, perhaps, make a determination of CO status despite the Government's inadequate form...
...This provision, among others, places a premium on advance preparation and the advice of a draft counselor or lawyer—services less accessible to the poor...
...Failing to register is the only Federal crime punishable by the denial of Government aid...
...The representation of women is less commendable...
...Many activists believe opposition to registration has helped thwart a return to the draft...
...The results, Tuchinsky says, showed "Selective Service had nominated people who were simply insensitive, who would take a couple of facts and jump to a conclusion...
...Thus national leaders are wary of reawakening campus activism that has been relatively dormant since the last Gillam Kerley, a founder of the Madison Draft Resistance Coalition, is editor-in-chief of The Daily Cardinal, student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin-Madison...
...Opposition to the registration program continues to plague the agency...
...He could pursue war by administrative fiat...
...The booklet is written for a well-educated, middle-class readership, and it provides no information about medical exemptions...
...Men who can speak to a lawyer or counselor, she adds, Health Workers May Be the First to Go Iwent through this during Vietnam," protests Leonard Cizewski...
...For most young men, Selective Service's Classification Information Booklet will be the primary source of information about exemptions and deferments...
...Casualties would be high in the "village-to-village, hill-to-hill" fighting...
...Over the objections of Selective Service, a questionnaire was sent to every person recommended for placement on a draft board...
...The only purpose of registration is to gather a list of names of people who might be called to help during a national emergency...
...Selective Service is now fine-tuning its plans—plans described in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and in public records...
...Some of the deferments that existed during the Vietnam era have been abolished or curtailed...
...intervention in Central America have paid little attention to the connection between a draft and a war...
...To overcome resistance, the Government is employing some rather extraordinary enforcement devices...
...chorus of 'Hell no, we won't go!' " Even draft enthusiasts use cautious rhetoric, calling for its "consideration" or for the forging of a "national consensus" on military service...
...poor men will continue to volunteer (or re-enlist) so long as opportunities outside the arm'ed forces remain limited...
...Meanwhile, registered men have tended to drift away from political action, believing that they have betrayed the antidraft movement's call for noncooperation...
...Many progressives, lulled into thinking that conscription is a remote threat, have moved on to other issues...
...The form itself doesn't ask anybody to state their beliefs, which is required by law," says CO adviser Charley Maresca...
...Selective Service has held a lottery and, based on your birth date, you have been given RSN (lottery number) 029...
...In Wisconsin, the state's Selective Service director, David Chase, wrote to the governor's staff that two applicants for a board in Brown County were equally qualified, but the appointment of the woman would mean "two females on the board, which might weight it too heavy...
...The male applicant got the position...
...By official estimates, almost 400,000 men have not registered...
...But reviving the draft, under this or any other scenario, entails a serious risk: It threatens to renew antiwar politics at home...
...In 1971, Congress scrapped the student deferment, which had allowed the sons of middle- and upper-class parents to remain safely in college...
...Recognizing the futility of "high-profile" enforcement, the Government backed away from further prosecutions...
...Draft counselors will be swamped with inquiries from tens of thousands of men...
...One month later, U.S...
...It was hardly a fight, but it symbolized the kind of bullying—in reaction to perceived or manufactured threats to American interests in the Third World—that could trigger Congressional approval of the draft...
...In a dramatic break from the Vietnam days, when all-white boards were commonplace even in areas with large minority populations, the racial composition of most boards now approximates that of the surrounding area...
...Opposition from the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association has forced the Pentagon to put its plan on the back burner...
...He argued that the Government had singled out vocal opponents of the draft for prosecution, and that records of the White House Military Manpower Task Force and the Department of Justice would show this...
...Today, the task of "revitalizing" Selective Service is complete...
...Eight hundred thousand copies of this ten-page brochure are waiting in a warehouse at Fort Sheridan in Highland Park, Illinois...
...There is another irony: In 1983, while peace church—will have a difficult time qualifying for this exemption...
...Activists already working against registration and the Government's harassment of resisters must look ahead to the draft itself...
...A qualified applicant could answer each question and still fall short of making a valid claim...
...Under new regulations, college students can delay their induction only until the end of their current semester or, in the case of seniors, until the end of the academic year...
...They're as close to ready as I think they would like to be...
...District Court...
...The level of noncompliance may, in fact, no longer be high enough to keep Congress from authorizing conscription...
...It is not just laying the groundwork for limited conscription that would supplement the All-Volunteer Force...
...Though the Military Selective Service Act stipulates that "no person shall be denied membership on any local board...
...Unless the antidraft movement is prepared soon to head off plans for compulsory military service, says Kathy Gilberd, "we're going to be fighting a battle for some time to end the system once it's in effect...
...To be sure, today's draft boards are more representative of their communities than those of fifteen years ago...
...Selective Service waits only for the Congressional nod to begin calling up young men...
...Unless "Form 22" is rewritten, as several draft counseling and religious organizations have urged, persons without professional assistance and "nontradi-tional" conscientious objectors—men who are not life-long pacifists or members of a would cover nurses, physical therapists, veterinarians, and anyone else between the ages of eighteen and a half and forty-six with health-care skills involving "a course of study and licensing, registration or certification from either a state or Federal government...
...Only Montana has consistently refused to cooperate, according to agency officials...
...None of the men identified through the cross-checks has been prosecuted...
...Congress might see it as an expedient means of sending a message to somebody, like the Sandinista government...
...But should there be a mobilization, predicts Cizewski, the health-care workers' draft will be given to Congress for approval...
...armed forces...
...By direction of the President you have been classified I-A (available for unrestricted military service) and are directed to go to a Military Entrance Processing Station on the date shown below and submit to examination and induction.' —Mock induction notice used in Operation Proud Saber BY GILLAM KERLEY When Jimmy Carter reinstated draft registration in 1980, the Selective Service System was in "deep standby...
...About 15 percent of Michigan's preliminary appointees were replaced...
...The agency's high level of preparedness reflects the magnitude of its assigned task...
...Economic coercion and stern warning letters appear to be effective, politically safe enforcement mechanisms...
...As the Vietnam era illustrated, the alienation of American youth exacts a large and enduring toll on society," states Martin Binkin in the Brookings institution's study of conscription...
...The selection and training of board members, like other state-level draft tasks, has been delegated to military reservists and members of the National Guard...
...The drills have not been idle fantasy: Draft boards are trained and prepared to open...
...Most draft-age men have registered, and the percentage of nonregistrants has dropped in the past two years...
...Antidraft organizing has entered a period of relative quiescence...
...In such a climate, it seems, the Administration has three options: make do with existing clout, renounce Third World meddling (an unlikely choice), or pursue a gradual return of the draft, thereby averting full-scale political rebellion...
...The completed surveys were analyzed by committees of three—one member suggested by a veterans' organization, one by a civil liberties group, and one by a neutral, nonpartisan organization...
...The area is conservative and plays host to many military installations, but today it boasts one of the lowest rates of registration compliance in the country...
...The Government has appealed...
...Those tapped—twenty-year-olds, at first—will have only ten days from the date their draft notices are mailed to appear for physicals...
...Our young men would again pay the price for such folly...
...Under the last course, which several of the think tanks endorse, the President would ask Congress for induction authority in advance—to offset a projected shortfall in recruitment, for example, or as a tradeoff for reaching an arms control agreement...
...It has, in fact, prepared legislation that would authorize the immediate registration and eventual induction of such persons...
...Applications for deferments and exemptions must be submitted in the initial ten-day period...
...We need greater overall capacity to project our power around the world," General David Jones, retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asserted in September 1983...
...The same Administration that denounced the Equal Rights Amendment—claiming, among other things, that it would lead to the conscription of women—has considered drafting women anyway...
...A wartime draft will merely supplement the poverty draft...
...Despite its extensive preparations, Selective Service may have a tough time forcing America's young men into uniform...
...rules and regulations are up-to-date, and military reservists are ready to serve as temporary staff at induction offices across the country...
...Because many of the men who receive induction notices will be deferred, fail their physical examinations, or simply not show up, at least half a million men are targeted to receive orders to report in the first month...
...To restore induction authority, rather than actual inductions, I believe the conditions are now right," says Charley Ma-resca of the National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors...
...So far, the Justice Department has received more than 200,000 names, giving it a backlog that could take decades to reduce...
...Those claiming conscientious objector status will face a similar obstacle...
...People who are not armed with good information and who don't know enough about how the system works to fight it will be in basic training before they know what hit them," warns Gilberd...
...The two million GIs currently on active duty may not suffice if Ronald Reagan decides to do all he wants to do...
...The President has already defined the Sandinista government of Nicaragua as a threat...
...Those men, paradoxically, should be on the front lines of opposition if they are to avoid the front lines of battle...
...There seems to be an unwritten rule limiting the representation of women...
...This gesture toward fairness is more than offset by new restrictions on the hardship deferment, most often used by low-income draftees...
...If accepted, they will be put on a bus to basic training camp the same day...
...The Pentagon is eyeing the possibility of conscripting health-care workers...
...The case was eventually dismissed—two years after Kerley's first court appearance—because Federal officials declined to turn over the documents in question...
...Moreover, under the revised rules, those individuals who delay induction beyond their designated year will have a dramatically improved chance of avoiding the draft altogether...
...Furthermore, millions of registrants have moved without notifying Selective Service of their change of address...
...Suspected nonregistrants identified in this way receive a series of warning letters before their names are transmitted to the Justice Department for prosecution...
Vol. 49 • March 1985 • No. 3
