MILITARY UPDATE
States encouraging Selective Service registration
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 49, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
About 2 million American young men will celebrate their 18th birthday this year. If recent patterns hold, 30 percent of them will fail to register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their birthdays and, therefore, will be in technical violation of federal law.
The good news is the Department of Justice hasn't prosecuted a young man for late registration in recent memory. The bad news is failure to register still carries consequences.
Nonregistrants are barred from executive branch employment and from receiving federal student loans or other aid for post-secondary education. Male immigrants who fail to register cannot become citizens.
The trend on draft registration has been downward, and troubling, during the decade since the Persian Gulf War. But that direction is changing thanks to new cooperation from the states, said Lewis C. Brodsky, deputy director of Selective Service, which is headquartered in northern Virginia.
Over the past two years, 25 states have passed laws linking Selective Service registration with applications for driver licenses. Male applicants are going to be able to check a block, or sign a form, giving permission for their state to pass on to Selective Service enough data to register them for the draft. As these laws take effect, the proportion of young men registered should climb steadily.
Registration already is easy, taking just minutes at the Selective Service Web site.
It was a more profound experience for earlier generations. Today, the requirement carries so little significance it surprises many youths. The last man conscripted reported to boot camp in the summer of 1973, when the military began changing to an all-volunteer force. Selective Service moved into stand-by mode. A few years later, President Gerald Ford ended registration altogether. Local draft boards were disbanded and most records destroyed.
In 1980, in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and Defense Department exercises that found problems in mobilizing the nation for a future major war, President Jimmy Carter resumed draft registration.
Since then, every man 18 through 25 who is a citizen or resides in the U.S. must register with Selective Service. By law, it must occur within 30 days of turning 18 but there is no penalty for late registration.
Compliance reached a peak in 1991 when 97 percent of age-eligible males registered. The percentage fell about a point a year through 2000, hitting 87 percent before the campaign for greater state cooperation.
Registrations dropped, Brodsky said, "because we were further and further away from a crisis and from the last draft." Also the Selective Service budget had been "flat-lined" for years, which meant fewer promotional dollars to remind men about the registration requirement.
Typically, 65 to 70 percent of men now register the year they turn 18. By age 25, about 99 percent have signed up. Those who apply for federal jobs or financial aid for education typically discover they are not registered and "can fix the problem within three minutes," Brodsky said.
Trouble only occurs after a man turns 26 and thus becomes too old to register. After that if he applies for student aid or a federal job, or seeks citizenship, he not only won't qualify but he no longer can register.
Exceptions are possible to lift the ban on federal employment or educational assistance if nonregistrants can show "by a preponderance of the evidence" that "failure to register was not willful or knowing on your part."
But it's a hassle, Brodsky said, involving a lot of paperwork, including the gathering of affidavits, all to prove no conscious attempt by the man to shirk his registration obligation.
Every man is required to register, including those physically or mentally handicapped, if not institutionalized. If a draft were to occur, draft boards then would determine eligibility to serve. Historically, 50 percent of registrants qualify for induction after screening.
The nation last reviewed the need for draft registration in 1994. Then-President Clinton cited three reasons to continue the program, Brodsky said.
One, registration is a kind of insurance policy in case military manpower planners are wrong that active duty and reserve volunteers alone can supply enough personnel to fight future wars.
Two, registration is a symbol to potential adversaries of U.S. resolve.
Three, registration sends a message of citizenship. "It's five minutes in every young man's life when he has to think about his obligation to defend society in a crisis," Brodsky said. "It's a rite of passage, so to speak."
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