Military Conscription

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Nobody in my USAF unit was drafted. But many of us were there presicely because there was a draft in place. This was an ICBM unit, but nobody went to war. That’s because we did a good job of deterrence.
 
If conscription was done fairly, and rich people’s kids weren’t allowed to get out of it, then politicians with military-age children might not be so quick to start wars. I was a conscript myself, by the way.
 
So you would just casually assault someone because they didn’t see something your way. That’s very… Christian? No that doesn’t fit.
 
you pledge to the republic and that includes members of government elected by the people. therefore you’re bound to the laws
 
You do pledge to the Republic, defined as a representative democracy. You are bound to laws. You are Not bound to the elected. They can be voted out. They are not a king or a dictator. They can be replaced. The elected are sworn to uphold the Constitution. Big difference from what you’re implying.
 
There was a draft instituted in 1940. Your generalizations are more reflective of issues with how the Vietnam war was fought than it was with the draft as a whole. People were then and are now willing to put their life on the line, if they feel that it is for a worthy cause.

That does not make it a walk in the park, as Bill Maudlin so well detailed of WW2

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…and there is more than one way to serve in the military…there have been several movies made about this…sergeant York, Hacksaw Ridge, or even in Private Ryan, the medic guy…
 
The people we elect to the Senate, the House of Representatives and approved by the President. They also abide by laws. Once they’re out of office they are average citizens just like everyone else. Why would you ever think in this country you would pledge allegiance to a government? I would never pledge allegiance to Trump or Obama or Bush. We follow laws put in place by a body of people elected by citizens in accordance with our Constitution. I’m done with this part of the discussion.
 
whatistrue said:
This was the problem with the Vietnam era draft. The draft that caught Elvis Presley was not run the same way as the one where anyone could get out of it by going to college, or a rich Daddy could use influence on a Congresscritter to get Sonny out.
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I am going to take it from your statement that you did not serve in Vietnam.

I did.

In my company in Vietnam, the great majority - officers and enlisted, were all college graduates. In my stateside unit after Vietnam, almost all were college graduates and one had his masters. I have acquaintances who were drafted after college, and almost all of those who graduated my year or before me for several years served in the military.

I apologize to absolutely no one for having a college deferment. I also volunteered, as did almost everyone in those two units. And a lot of the officers came from colleges through the ROTC program, and if they were Army or Marines, a whole lot of them ended up in combat arms.

The snide comments about college deferments has nothing to do with the reality “on the ground” in Vietnam and are an insult to those who served, those who served and bled, and those who served, bled and died.
JoeShlabotnik said:
But the history of the USA, is that the rich and well to do find a way for their sons to avoid the draft, especially at times of war.
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See above. Any student deferment was granted to an individual according to Federal Law. Considering the number of people who served in the military, for example, during the Vietnam war, exceedingly few people succeeded in “dodging” service due to a parent with money or “connections”. Your comments are insulting as well as having precious little to do with the reality of our service.
 
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I’m not sure if the Church has ever made an official pronouncement or teaching on the draft but if it has, I will defer to that regardless of whether or not the opinion I state here contradicts it. If my opinion that I state here contradicts it then I want to know about it so I can change my opinion.

That said, my opinion is that the draft is acceptable during times of war but I don’t think it would be acceptable during other times. In other words, the draft should only be used out of necessity.
 
Necessity is in the eyes of the beholder.

Many nations use compulsory military service. A good argument can be made that keeping armies well-staffed in peacetime is precisely what keeps the peace. The US army was something like 140,000 people as of 1940. It was something like 6 million in 1945, via conscription. That’s the army alone, not including other branches. I wonder whether we’d have been attacked in 1941 (or for that matter, had war declared upon us by Germany) had the US military been significantly larger.
 
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Yes, you are right. I would hope that peace would not be kept because of a fear of war though. Peace ought to be based on friendly relations between nations or at least tolerance of other nations.
 
If everyone were rational and caring of others. But war occurs from having a country led by an irrational person or persons intent on increasing power and influence.
 
Well, given the fact that there has not been a legal war in my lifetime, I would say that avoiding the draft during the Vietnam era, for example, was more patriotic than being conscripted.
 
If you served in any branch of armed forces for our country in May and June, 1964, and participated in Operation Desert Strike, a mock war game in anticipation of escalation of our participation in Vietnam, do you know anything about an L-19 that crashed on takeoff? If yes, please send me a Private Message.

A related question: if I can no longer find a record of the crash in the state in which it occurred, or in a federal listing, to whom should I turn for assistance in restoring the record? VA in two states was unconcerned. Please PM me if you have suggestions.
 
Ummm… I think you forgot Grenada. Granted, it was a very small and easy war that is easy to overlook, but it was a victory nonetheless.
 
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