Selective Service System: Difference between revisions

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The [[Selective Training and Service Act of 1940]] was passed by [[76th United States Congress|Congress]] on 16 September 1940, establishing the first peacetime [[conscription]] in United States history.<ref name="draft">{{cite magazine |last = Holbrook |first = Heber A. |url = http://www.pacshiprev.com/PacificArchivesSubDirectory/page31.html |title = The Crisis Years: 1940 and 1941 |access-date = 2 September 2014 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050313020005/http://www.pacshiprev.com/PacificArchivesSubDirectory/page31.html |archive-date = 13 March 2005 |magazine = The Pacific Ship and Shore Historical Review |date = 4 July 2001 |page = 2}}</ref> It required all men between the ages of 18 and 64 to register with the Selective Service. To register, men typically completed a D.S.S. Form 1 Military Draft Registration Card from the Director of Selective Service. Over 49 million draft cards were completed, including [[The Old Man's Draft]].

It originally conscripted all men aged 21 to 35 for a service period of 12 months. In 1941, the military service period was extended to 18 months; later that year the age bracket was increased to include men aged 18 to 37. In 1940, the act had registered 16 million men between the ages of 21-36.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=632}} Following the [[Imperial Japanese Navy|Japanese]] [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] on 7 December 1941, and the subsequent declarations of war by the United States against the [[Empire of Japan]] and a few days later against [[Nazi Germany]], the service period was subsequently extended in early 1942 to last for the duration of the war, plus a six-month service in the Organized Reserves. Until late 1942, both the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps relied only on volunteers and all those drafted prior to late 1942 went only to the Army or the Army Air Corps.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=635}} Of those called up for service during the war, nearly 2 million Americans were rejected by the draft boards for "neuropsychiatic reasons".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} The most common "neuropsychiatic reason" was homosexuality, which was a considered to be a very serious mental illness in the 1940s and as such the military refused to accept homosexuals.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} Another four million American men called for national service were rejected for either medical or educational reasons, such as being near-sighted, having rotten teeth or being illiterate.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} As too many men were being rejected for health or educational reasons, the U.S. Army was forced to take remedial work.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} During the course of the war, 25, 000 Army dentists pulled 15 million rotten teeth and placed 2.5 million sets of dentures while Army optometrists fitted 2.25 million men with eyeglasses.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} Nearly a million men took educational courses to teach them how to read and write.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=710}} In November 1942, Congress passed the Tydings Amendment which exempted all agricultural workers from the draft, thereby exempting 2 million American men from serving in the war.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}}

The question of drafting black men caused much controversy as President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] had promised several Afro-American civil rights leaders in 1940 that the draft would be a color-blind one and in fact the Selective Service Act of 1940 stated "there shall be no discrimination against any person on the account of race or color".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}} However, the U.S. military practiced segregation during the war as black Americans did not serve alongside men of other races and in practice black men were only drafted to keep the all black units of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Force up to strength.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}} Furthermore, the military as a general rule preferred to use black servicemen only in menial roles and as much as possible tried to avoid sending Afro-Americans into combat out of a belief that black men were not brave enough.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}} As such, the U.S. Army in particular did not form many divisions out of the black men drafted, which limited the number of Afro-Americans subject to the draft.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}} As a result of these practices, in early 1943 Afro-Americans made up 10.6% of the American population, but only 6% of the men serving in the military.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}}

The issue of conscientious objectors was a controversial one during the war..{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=633}} In World War One, only the so-called "peace churches", namely the Mennonites, the Quakers and the Brethren had been allowed to reject national service on grounds of conscience..{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=633}} The 1940 Selective Service Act allowed the same exemption to the "peace churches", but also allowed anyone "who, by reason of religious training or belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=633}} In practice, draft boards would exempt anyone who prove they were opposed to war on grounds of some sort of religious belief, which allowed more to claim conscientious objectors status than been the case in World War One..{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=633}} About 75, 000 Americans called for national service claimed conscientious objector status, and about half of these claims 50% were accepted by the draft boards.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=633}} Married men were exempt from the draft and in late 1940 about 40% called up for the draft were able to evade it by prompting getting married.{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634}} In February 1942, General Hershey, who was in draft of the draft, complained "that most of the recent marriages...might have been for the purpose of evading the draft".{{sfn|Kennedy|1999|p=634-635}}

In his 1945 [[1945 State of the Union Address|State of the Union address]], President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] requested that the draft be expanded to include female nurses (male nurses were not allowed), to overcome a shortage that was endangering military medical care. This began a debate over the drafting of all women, which was defeated in the House of Representatives. A bill to draft nurses was passed by the House, but died without a vote in the Senate. The publicity caused more nurses to volunteer and agencies streamlined recruiting.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://www.historynet.com/drafting-women.htm |title = Drafting Women? |date = 6 August 2016 |author = Joseph Connor |publisher = World War II Magazine}}</ref>