Signing up for The Draft

[possum]

I signed up for Selective Service on my 18th birthday, which was in summer of 2002... When the invasion of Iraq began months later, you can imagine that I was scared to death of being drafted. Of course, being asthmatic and overweight, I knew my chances of being called on were slim, but that couldn't stop the ill feelings in my gut.

 

[megamania]

I also feel this thread will be closed sooner rather than later.

So long as the politics of the draft don't come up I see no harm in this thread. I'm curious myself about what folks have to say.

 

[Stormborn]

Well I am pleasently suprised, but shouldn't be. Overall ENworlders are generally polite and obey the rules, I was just expecting that this kind of thread would surely attract someone who couldn't. I shouldn't have. I withdraw my expectation.

 

[Mercutio01]

Did you register with Selective Services when you turned 18?
Was it before or after the Gulf War of 1991?
Was it before or after the events of 9/11?
How did you feel about it?
Were world events at the time a factor in how you felt about it?

I turned 18 in 1997 and registered immediately at the local post office (which had all the forms). I had already applied for Annapolis and the Navy ROTC programs when I applied and was strongly considering enlisting as a nuke if I hadn't been selected for the ROTC.

Obviously that's all before 9/11. I had just been commissioned in May of that year and was at Surface Warfare School, in class, when a fellow SWOS student burst into the room and announced, "We've been attacked." We all ran out into the lobby and watched the tv, and watched live as the second plane slammed into the second tower. That merely affirmed my decision that I had done the right thing by serving.

Registering for Selective Service didn't worry me one bit. There hadn't been a draft since Vietnam and I was already thinking of entering service anyway. World events had no factor in my decision. I remember being 12 at the NYC homecoming parade from the Persian Gulf War. I remember collecting the trading cards. I remember being angry about the crap in the Balkans under Clinton, and the attacks on the WTC in 1994. After the embassy bombings and the Cole bombing while in ROTC, it became clear to me that not only was the military the right decision for me, but that it was the right decision for my future as well.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

So long as the politics of the draft don't come up I see no harm in this thread. I'm curious myself about what folks have to say.

For a draft to actually be called, at this point, it'd almost certainly be due to the need for national survival. Like aliens coming to eat us, say. The political costs and number of unwilling people you'd get would outweigh any benefit otherwise.

I registered at 18, which was in mid '93, so nothing was happening. It was generally what you had to do, and I didn't think it was a big deal. Heck, I thought about going into the Navy for a while.

Even before that, though, during the Cold War, it was pretty much thought that the Big Doom of Our Time with the Soviets would be over quickly enough to make a draft unlikely; either one side or another would fold quickly enough, or both sides would glaze each other over.

Brad

 

[Ares]

I have no idea how I passed: my eyes were so blurry I could barely make out any of the letters on the eye chart and my ears were ringing so hard that I couldn't hear any of the beeps.

My father has a joke they told when he was drafted during Vietnam: "A Doctor puts his hand on you and the other hand on the wall--whichever's warmer they take!"


"Did you register with Selective Services when you turned 18?
Was it before or after the Gulf War of 1991?
Was it before or after the events of 9/11?
How did you feel about it?
Were world events at the time a factor in how you felt about it?"


Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did.
After the Gulf War.
It was right before (class of 2001).
A crapped a brick.
Somehow I just knew that we had gone without a war for too long and that something would happen in just enough time for me to be old enough to draft. I was actually pretty astonished when there was no draft, then I found out that a lot of stuff was outsourced to Blackwater and the rest, they say, is history.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Did I register? Yes, I come from a small town in the midwest, regardless of your feelings, you basically follow national level laws.

Was it before The first Gulf War? Yes - 1988 to be precise. It ended up not mattering as I enlisted in 1989 anyway.

Was it before 9/11 - Yes, a long time before. However, I had a TS/SI clearance while I was in so I could have been re-activated (I still can actually). I was actually working as a contractor for the US Army at the time.

How did I feel? - I really didn't care. Honestly I didn't think a draft would happen and when I registered I figured Canada was a nice place to live if I had to. Yeah, I changed my mind within the year.

World events a factor? - No. The cold war was in full swing Bush the first had just entered the White House and it was pretty much understood that the US was the last Western super power so if anything went down, we were going to be the last bastion of hope, so if I was called to fight I would, but would hope I wouldn't have to be. Again, being from a small midwestern town, once you commit to something, you stay loyal to it.

 

[Umbran]

Hey, remember what we said about not going into the politics? Stick to it.

 

[Algolei]

Non-Americans:
Is there a conscription law in your country? How does it work and how do you feel about it?

In Canada, I'm pretty sure there is a conscription law 'cause people remember it from WWII, but I don't know what it is. We don't have to register when we turn 18...or if we do, nobody told me, and I never got in trouble for not doing it.

If a draft ever came about and I got the call, I'd be most concerned about what we were fighting for, and if I didn't agree, I'd try to avoid it. (Of course, that's a lot easier to say for me now that I'm 44. )

 

[Umbran]

Americans:
Did you register with Selective Services when you turned 18?
Was it before or after the Gulf War of 1991?
Was it before or after the events of 9/11?
How did you feel about it?
Were world events at the time a factor in how you felt about it?

I did register - as for others, it was required for certain forms of financial aid for college.

It was before the 1991 Gulf War, so it was also before 9/11.

It wasn't a big thing for me - just a piece of paper.

The events of the time that were a factor were important. I had a Social Studies teacher who made it very clear what it meant. Specifically, that the registration and the actual draft were not nearly the same thing. The registration was a convenience, an efficiency, in case a new draft law was enacted. Not registering did not actually make is less likely I'd be drafted if that ever came to pass.