I think there should be a mandatory service of say 2 years....

I feel military member have a higher set of morals and values than the average civilian, also, military service gives you a larger view of the world and its real problems. I think this could help to straighten out some of the youth in our country.

 

I think we can have Both . The military can establish a variable set of standards that can be phased in and out depending upon the manpower requirements of peace time vs war. Two years of mandatory service is the very minimum that should be required of our youth. I also favor a mandatory 2 year term of service for ALL youth who donot signup for the service. They could be a tremendous resource for our country as well a period for our society to mould them for the their own "good". I think we could probably change some lives and redirect their passions away from drugs to the value of life in a sober state of mind, s.kuteman

 

With the ever increasing disipline problems in our schools, I've always thought a year or two of mandatory military service would be good for some students with behavior problems. The judging process would probably be to complex with our current legal system, but if it could be done I think it would be a benefit for all concerned. It would be a good threat to get bad kids to straighten up, and the ones that didn't would get a dose of disipline that schools just can't give.

Some kids with unhappy childhoods and behavior problems make really good soldiers! (and military leaders)

marcrr

 

I think i'll go with the voluntary enlistment as long as there are sufficent personel to achive our missions.why draft them if they dont want to go .with the voluntary enlistment i think they they might be more likely to make it a career and from what feedback i have seen from upper ranked military officers it seems to be working well at this time.also with the national guard and army reserves we seem to have a good backup force available for rotation of troops.I agree it would benefit todays youth but i think you would have a hard time convincing them.

 

I am glad we have heard from the one saying voluntary, TY Fordfaggiole

 

I'll readily admit that the military is NOT for everyone. Some people just don't belong here. BUT there are ways of putting out people. Not necessarily because they're bad, but because they just don't fit in.

I think everyone should have to do at least a short stint in the military, male and female.

1. Help straighten out some bad kids.
- For the person

2. Handle manpower issues
- For the military/country

3. Get the kids that graduate High School and then sit around at home without be very productive members of society (ie: my step-brother) to do something useful.
- For society

One could say, if you're going to force them to be in the military then why not force them to work at XX organization. The way I see it, that would take care of #'s 2 and 3, but not necessarily 1. And #2 would only help that organizations manpower. The military is for the public. A mandatory enlistment would take care of all 3.

The military has its bad points, but those that think it strips ones identity and ability to make their own choices are way off base. In general (war and field exercises aside), work is done at the end of the day by 5 like the rest of the work force. After that, you get to do whatever it is that you want (within legal/moral limits). The only limiting factor to most is the crappy pay for lower enlisted soldiers.

Sounds pretty much win, win, win all the way around to me.

A compulsary enlistment of every person would put on obvious strain on the military's current, overcrowded infrastructure (barracks, parking, etc.), but I'm sure it could be done.

Well, there's my cent and a half.

<a href="http://hurricane_niner7.clubfte.com">Anthony</a>

 

Can this country afford to draft all young people for a two year rotation? I'd like to see some numbers on how many individuals this would affect on an annual basis??? It's very possible that we would wind up with more troops than we can afford or need. Just a thought.

 

A draft is SLAVERY, no matter how you sugar-coat it. It is not just wrong, it is EVIL.

 

As an NCO (USAF MSgt, 22 years in so far) I react to mandatory service proposals with frothing, exasperated (chokes self in order to adhere to posting guidelines) AAAAGH!
Seriously, the military does not need to become part of the Mommy State because little Jane and Johnny are maladjusted.
Having lived through the resurrection of the military after its post-draft hangover, I surely do NOT want a continuously rotating population of annoyed conscripts dragging our professional volunteer force down. The loss of effectiveness will kill more of our troops on the battlefield. It will chase a variety of losers into my Air Force, (the AF never drafted nor needed to) but their attempt to avoid grunt duty will do what it did before, which is saddle us with a bunch of undisciplinable problem children.
I don't want those folks working on weapon systems that fly over my house.
We need CAREER sailors/soldiers/airmen. Retraining said rotating pool instead of concentrating on retention burns time and resources that are wasted every time the first-termers leave, and damages unit cohesiveness by taking away skilled personnel.
It would cost billions better spent expanding the manning (meaning all ranks, not just new troops) of overtasked military specialties and on retention (bonuses and most importantly base pay).
The problems of retention are fixable by bringing back a Cold War-sized force and keeping it on active duty. The Reserves were a nice way to save cadres during the lull after the Eastern Bloc imploded, but they are not suitable to the current situation. What kept the Reserves and Guard full was the Active force, which since shrunk.
While I praise the folks who serve in the Guard and Reserves, I also know that many of them joined because it was a good economic deal that allowed them to get the best of both worlds so long as they didn't deploy for long.
I have ZERO problem with that, but many troops were not prepared for doing a full remote tour or longer. An ongoing operation requiring Reserve/Guard forces will deter enlistment, since folks who want to go active will just enlist with the active duty forces instead. A draft will inject unwilling people into the services. and thus reduce the future pool of (quality prior service as opposed to fugitives from active duty) Guard and Reserve enlistees even further.
Lastly, a draft will not somehow ensure "shared sacrifice" by making unwilling upper class youth serve. All they have to do is get kicked out (drug use but not posession, drunkenness, etc would do fine) and get sent home.
Your volunteer military is very good at what it does, and took decades of dedication to get and stay that way. Ending the Volunteer Force would be blitheringly stupid, cost lives, degrade our warfighting effectiveness, and not achieve the professed social objectives of its proponents.

 

As a current Senior Non Commissioned Officer I oppose a draft and required military service! It the WORST thing you could do to our Armed Sevices point blank!!!!!

 

Lets see, mandatory 'service' in a huge inefficient government run, taxpay funded pork barrel bureaucracy, to program and instill proper thinking and 'morals' in the youth of our 'free' society. So much for the neo-con small unintrusive government theory. How many 'better citizens' like Timmy McVeigh does the military need to turn out, or how many veterens of this new draft will end up onthe streets, all ready populated by many homeless vets, fallout from the last draft?

 

While I see the point of our older SNCOs (no offense) and know that almost all SNCOs and Field Grade Officers are of this mind, have you looked at the current enlistment numbers for new enlistees? No? They are dropping severely as the later part of my generation gets to the enlisting age. Very few of us feel the 'calling'. And I know that all of us in the military feel we have a higher set of morals and values than the general population. True? Lets put ourselves another generation ahead? Do you see us having enough enlistees to keep the military at even a minimum manning level? Not enougg for what we will need, and that will be the time that I am in your shoes, as a SNCO. (so everyone knows that is a Senior Non-Commisioned Officer) On top of this we are seeing the morals of our country drop, and our beliefs and faith in our country falter and fail, which leads to circumstances causing our country to fail.

A country cannot succeed without the support of its citizens. - Me

Unless someone can think of antoehr way to fix this troubling and ongoing trend I am going to have to vote yes for a short term mandatory enlistment / commision

As for some of the points you brought up.

People coming into our beloved Air Force to avoid combat. First term for voluntary enlistment, make it 6 years, and no draft for the Air Force. Thus people are stuck with a 2 year draft in the other 3 services, or a 6 year enlistment in our service. An extra 4 years, I doubt many of them would come to us. they would do 2 years and hope to get out without seeing combat.

People doing drugs, or other illegal activities to get kicked out. Simple, punishment Leavenworth! And try and get a good job with that Dishonorable Discharge from the military, it is not easy.

Just a few points to ponder

Jimmy Dean
SrA USAF

 

At work I get the evil eye, but no disagreement, when I observe that pay and benefits are inversely proportional to retention and always have been.
My fellow airmen seem uncomfortable with the fact that we are only paid the minimum necessary to keep a calculated percentage of us in.
Recruitment/retention is nothing that cannot be solved by more money, and a draft is counterproductive precisely because it costs more without proportional return on investment.
It's not a generation gap issue, for most people it is economic, and even when I came in you could tell which states had no jobs by how many folks from them signed up. In the 1980s the Rust Belt states were well represented.
The .mil world isn't for everyone. The dual pressures of enlistment and retention always force a response, and are the way previous retention problems were always fixed. Nothing here is new.
Reinstatement of a draft would provoke deep resentment, opposition not just to the draft but to the foreign policies requiring it (which is why Chuck Rangel wants it back), and we'd go from properly docile college students who mind their own business back to the draft card burners of the 1960s. A volunteer force has allowed great latitude in foreign policy we would not have with conscription.

I urge those who don't want a draft, and hate the idea of serving, to act in everyones best interests and make it politically impossible.
Your Volunteer Force will thank you.

 

Nicely put, I guess that is why you are my boss eh?
And no, I do not feel that we get paid enough?

For ex. Why am I getting paid, as a specialist, Electrical and Enviromental systems Journeyman, getting paid as the person who serves me my food at the cafe or the person who checks me into the hotel on base?

Oh, but wait, the officers are not like this no, officer carreers get plenty of pay for their specified carrers, have you seen what a O-3 Dentist with 6 years in gets paid? Almost 100g after all benefits. Ok, so he went to college for a LONG time? Ok, thats cool. My civilian counterparts, taht I work with, get paid anywehre from 50-75k oer year, and get almsot all the same benefits. I, with BAH, BAS, make a greand total of- 24 a year.

But this is off subject and a differant arguement.

 

Spark chaser on heavies, eh?
I relate, having been Comm/Nav (F-4 and OV-10s) and Engines on F-16s until Rivet Workforce made me a Crew Chief. All of it has been good, though I recommend cross-training within aircraft maintenance to learn a variety of systems and to keep things interesting. Absolutely stay in the Specialist world though. Cooler atmosphere and you know what I mean.

As an aside, one reason we are not paid full civilian wages is that we do have a very good retirement program. Now we can even retire from active duty at 20 years or more and then join the Reserves while collecting regular retirement at the same time. (The In-Service Recruiter at MPF has info.)
There are some cool options invented to address retention problems.