The End of the Draft, and More

THE U.S. armed services are falling short of their recruiting goals, despite the highest pay scales ever, plus the most generous post-service benefits ever. A booming economy plays a part in this. Today, nearly all teenagers and people in their early twenties can find better jobs in civilian society than in the military, jobs with a brighter future and the opportunity to live where one wants and to work shorter, more dependable hours. As a result, many of today’s recruits come from the poorer end of our society. They stay in the services longer. This tends toward a situation that Americans have long feared: a standing army that consists of enlisted men (and women) who have little stake in the society.

Not that there is any danger in the services’ taking control of the society. No one in the officer corps has designs on the president or the congressional leadership. Most enlistees are grateful to the society for the chance to move up and learn something. The quality of the enlistee has risen steadily, and today we have the best military in our history. There are problems, of course, but the units we have in Bosnia, Kosovo, Korea, Germany, and elsewhere are the finest in the world. And they are all volunteers.

SA

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Stephen E. Ambrose

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THE U.S. armed services are falling short of their recruiting goals, despite the highest pay scales ever, plus the most generous post-service benefits ever. A booming economy plays a part in this. Today, nearly all teenagers and people in their early twenties can find better jobs in civilian society than in the military, jobs with a brighter future and the opportunity to live where one wants and to work shorter, more dependable hours. As a result, many of today’s recruits come from the poorer end of our society. They stay in the services longer. This tends toward a situation that Americans have long feared: a standing army that consists of enlisted men (and women) who have little stake in the society.

Not that there is any danger in the services’ taking control of the society. No one in the officer corps has designs on the president or the congressional leadership. Most enlistees are grateful to the society for the chance to move up and learn something. The quality of the enlistee has risen steadily, and today we have the best military in our history. There are problems, of course, but the units we have in Bosnia, Kosovo, Korea, Germany, and elsewhere are the finest in the world. And they are all volunteers.