If you skimmed the morning traffic yesterday with the semi-lethargy that accompanies most Mondays, you may have confused one of the agendas of change with another. It is a regular occurrence these days. Everyone on The Patio wishes success to the newly nominated Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Franchetti. There is some controversy about her appointment as the 33rd Chief, but that is to be expected. She is only the second female Navy four-star, and the first to rise to the senior uniformed position in the service.

We have all been through some changes in the way the American military is run. The last big one was when the Draft was ended, and the All-Volunteer force came to be. The crowd on the deck was enjoying some moderate day-drinking in honor of a lovely summer afternoon and the notion of “change.” The people on the flat-screen claim the heat will arrive later in the week with the first three-digit temperatures of the season. Or better said, the first in several seasons. It has been seven years since we experienced temperatures over 100 degrees, and they swear the humidity may do the same excursion.

Naturally, we are looking forward to the experience, which is what led to a discussion about the military force many of us served. The discussion about the new Navy Chief brought up the current challenges confronting the military. Many of the Porch-sitters had their lives shaped by the last one.

It is ancient history now, so the memories are not universal. Registration for The Draft was something that occurred by law with the occasion of each young man’s 18th birthday. There were exceptions, of course, and most of us had taken advantage of what they called the “2-S” Student Deferment. That was the provision allowing for exemption from mandatory service for the duration of a four-year college curriculum.

We forget exactly how it worked, since the first Draft lottery was held . There was a lottery held by the Selective Service each year to fix “service obligation” by random calendar date. The first one was held on December 1st, 1969. Our “Lottery Number” was picked for us as number “76” out of “366” available. There was a lot of emotion about the conflict in Vietnam on that day, not to mention filling the garrisons in Europe that numbered something more than 100,000 troops.

The idea that national need would require us to actually serve was one of those pivotal and arbitrary external factors with real consequences. There were a variety of strategies to deal with the legal obligation. To avoid direct conscription into the Army, we took the student deferment as many did. Signing up for the Reserve Officer Training Program enabled a commission to be awarded coincident with college graduation. Some young men without a desire to go to college just accepted the obligation and reported for duty.

The needs of the nation at that moment in a war cross the Pacific determined that the somewhere out of town. The young men with the lowest numbers in the lottery were called first. At the time, the Government was calling up those with numbers at 116 and below. That was just part of life and war that shaped the end of the 1960s. We got a chance to vote in our first Presidential election in 1972. Richard M. Nixon easily won re-election against Democrat George McGovern, and the divisive struggle in Vietnam appeared to be coming to an end.

‘21’ was still the age to vote and drink back then, the latter of the two being more critical to our thinking at the time. By the time we graduated in 1973, the idea that we would be called to uniform had become irrelevant. In fact, by 1973, the Vietnam War was drawing to a close. The Selective Service announced that there would be no further draft calls since ‘needs’ no longer exceeded ‘enlistments.’

President Nixon felt that an end to the Draft was as important as ending the war itself would be an effective political weapon. Like the student debt crisis of today, he believed middle-class young men would lose interest in protesting the war once they were no longer vulnerable to be called to fight.

That was about as cynical an approach to conflict resolution as it was possible to devise, and there were others. Nixon took no immediate action toward ending the draft in the early years of his presidency. He appointed a 15- member commission to examine the issue in depth that reported out in February 1970. It found adequate military strength could be maintained without conscription.

The draft law was due to expire at the end of June, 1971. Nixon was a prudent man, and decided it needed to continue. He asked Congress to approve a two-year extension. The uncertainty added a certain spice to Junior and Senior years at school but the extension of the draft competed as an issue with the continuation of the war. Neither were.

The All-Volunteer Force became a reality with no major conflicts in progress except the Cold War against the Soviets, and there was a sufficient number of volunteers to fill the ranks without the Draft. The military machine we served adapted well, had good morale, and served its purpose for a generation. Other social issues rose without direct impact over a generation. The inability to meet worldwide requirements with available volunteers did not become an issue until recently.

The Patio crowd is a little more agitated than they have been in years. There was the possibility that some could be recalled from retirement to meet existing needs. That caused another episode of day-drinking before the discussion began about the selection of a new Chief of Naval Operations. There was talk about some sort of a new conscription program to fill the empty ranks in recruiting. A year or two of national service does not strike the Salts as anything particularly onerous, since most of us had at least a brush with it before. It could be controversial, though.

But there are new questions to be asked along with new challenges. Like, shouldn’t all young citizens be subject to conscription? Are we ready for that discussion now? Considering the partnership now being demonstrated between the Chinese and the Russian navies around Taiwan, we may not have as much time as we think necessary for a robust discussion. Senior military officials have publicly pontificated that war is coming there, probably timed to impact the American electoral contest.

How did our last major land war in Asia work out? And how is an All-Volunteer force without enough volunteers going to work out? The conflict in Ukraine has already drawn down strategic reserves of artillery shells. The only strategic resource we seem to have in adequate supply at the moment is “pronouns.”

The consensus is that those may prove inadequate to requirements. Of course, not being subject to the Draft we are fairly relaxed about the issue. Particularly the part about who exactly might have to start figuring out strategies for completing college- and paying off loans- before picking up our rifles, you know?

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
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