 | | The New York Times archives | |
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| Dear reader, |
| Seventy-three years ago, The Times reported that the United States Army demobilized its seven millionth soldier after the end of World War II. When I unearthed this clip several months ago, I thought I was misreading the number. It's hard to imagine a single service ballooning to more than eight million people (the Army's peak strength by V-E Day in 1945) and then releasing 6.5 million soldiers in just over a year. The draft certainly made it easier to fill the ranks, but nearly 40 percent of World War II-era service members across all branches volunteered for duty. By comparison, in today's all-volunteer force approximately 475,000 troops make up the active-duty Army — a fraction of the overall adult population in the United States. |
| Last year, the Army struggled to meet its end-strength goal of 483,500, even after spending an extra $200 million on bonuses and lowering standards to let in more recruits. Reporting for The Times in September 2018, Dave Philipps wrote: "On top of having to compete with a robust economy, with an unemployment rate below 4 percent, the Army must pick from what it says is a shrinking pool of eligible recruits. More than two-thirds of young adults do not qualify for military service because of poor physical fitness or other issues such as drug use, according to the Army." |
| As the military tests new approaches to pulling in more recruits, a controversial proposal has come out of early discussions with one of the Democratic presidential candidates: one year of mandatory national service for every American. Pete Buttigieg, a Navy veteran and the mayor of South Bend, Ind., mentioned the idea in April during an interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow as a program to improve social cohesion in the United States. "One thing we could do that would change that would be to make it, if not legally obligatory but certainly a social norm, that anybody after they're 18 spends a year in national service," Buttigieg said. (He did not indicate whether this would be military service or expand to programs like AmeriCorps.) |
| It's not the first time a form of required national service has been suggested as a way to unite the country. Gen. Stanley McChrystal proposed the idea in 2014 "to create a new rite of passage into adulthood and forge a renewed sense of citizenship." The plan didn't go anywhere, but the introduction of such a concept has prompted debates about whether mandatory national service is undemocratic or whether it's the path toward a stronger sense of solidarity among Americans. I'll be curious to see if Buttigieg's remark becomes a campaign talking point going into the 2020 election. |
| What are your thoughts on one year of mandatory national service? |
| Email atwar@nytimes.com and let us know what you think. |
| -Lauren |
| Lauren Katzenberg is the editor of The Times's At War channel. |
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