A Return to the Military Draft

While many people, including Powell, ridicule the U.S. all-volunteer force for not being economical, I, for one, argue that it is efficient and cost-saving in the long run. If one looks only on the periphery it would be easy to deduce that reinstating the draft would greatly lower the outlays required for the military pay scale. Yet to be logical one needs to look to the long-run manpower goals of the U.S. military.

Training recruits to operate and repair the military hardware of today is a costly venture indeed. Many thousands of dollars are invested in the training of recruits in fields they have an interest in, and, hopefully, a desire to remain in over a number of enlistments.

While an all-volunteer force has the option of allowing recruits to gain entry in a field of choice, conscription would force the military to train uninterested personnel in fields they have no desire to be in, let alone any who would want to remain in. The millions that would be wasted on training these persons in a field they have no interest in, and would soon be leaving, would be vast indeed.

The system of recruiting men and women qualified and interested in their work, whether combat arms or a related field, has allowed the all-volunteer force to retain qualified personnel at vast savings, compared to training others on an entry level in the field. As technology increases daily, so does the cost of training in all fields.

As for the inequity in the recruiting of minorities, this is not an evil of the volunteer army, rather this is a logical outcome of the unjust economic system of the United States, itself. I myself am proud that the U.S. military has given many individuals a chance for self-esteem, and a viable career.

Powell thinks that our pay scale is overly high, yet every member of the U.S. armed forces may be asked any day to give up their lives. Hopefully, all will agree that a person willing to give up his or her life, deserves a decent standard of living if they choose a career in the military.

There was a time when a man and his rifle were the heart of the military that conscription would have been ideal. However today’s military needs to look at the training and retaining of qualified personnel at somewhat of a percentage of what the marketplace pays for civilian labor of a similar type.

STANLEY DALE BLYTH

Camp Pendleton

Blyth is a Marine corporal in a tank battalion.