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45?

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Billy Wonka

In Reply to: RE: Are there any US citizens here age 18-45? posted by Mike B. on June 23, 2025 at 11:12:09

During my era, VN, I never met anyone older than 24 who had been called up, and one who enlisted at 29. It may be written with a higher limit, so there will be a way to get people to clear nuclear rubble and bury mass casualties.

The Voluntary Military came about for one reason: to stop the riots.

I think we are past the sex, drugs, rap'n'roll stage, and the draft might be accepted for real emergencies (which VN was not). The draft would save us billions except for retaining the level of technical proficiency needed to use weaponary.

About using regular military to subdue civil disobedience: My last year was at Redstone Arsenal for the year of 1971. My fourth month there we spent an entire Saturday on "riot training". I guess it was in case the hippy dippys at Alabama and Auburn got out of hand. We had no inkling of an idea that our actions could possibly be illegal.

Follow Ups:

RE: 45? - Mike B. 08:16:41 06/24/25 (0)
I agree about the age of the people I saw at the center when I got drafted. I was in college and at the end of my sophomore year when they started the deferment program. So I only had two years of deferment to get the degree. I finished on time and notified the draft I was ready to go. I moved back in with my parents and waited. Around 4 months later I got on the bus with a full load of kids my age and when to Portland. That was late 1966.
Kent State and all the graphic coverage of the war where two of the major contributors to the rioting and change in public opinion.
With a draft, more elements of "society" have some skin in the game - Steve O 17:11:28 06/23/25 (2)
A universal societal experience. Just like what taxes should be - everybody should pay something even if it's symbolic near the bottom. Training / continuation of expertise is typically thrown up as a reason to have strictly volunteer . . . And yet lots of countries manage a mandatory military service wo major issue. S Korea and Israel come immediately to mind.
- There was an initial fear that a voluntary military . . . - Billy Wonka 09:53:35 06/26/25 (1)
  might lead to more polarized services, i.e., ethnicity, political beliefs, etc., which are not the mainstream swath of American society.
  
  Today's recruitment standards are very high compared to previous eras. I'll bet half of combat arms are given academic waivers. Seems there's more to pulling a trigger than just squeezing it these days.
  - A general once pointed out to me that the army is not a democracy... - peppy m. 00:57:32 06/27/25 (0)
    I'll never be sure Why he felt the need to do that. His face lit up as he was saying it, almost as if time was standing still (for him).
    He drank a lot of vodka. His wife, who monitored his hidden stash, confided to me that the usual amount was about a quart a day (on average) and that this amount of alcohol was affecting the lining of his lower rectum region, resulting in "fissures" that bled like hemorrhoids...
    
    Edits: 06/27/25 06/27/25 06/27/25

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