October 13, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Guest Opinion: Could 'national service' be an alternative if (when) draft returns?

by Pete McCloskey

Republican Senator Chuck Hegel of Nebraska said in a recent article that some sort of military draft may be required -- regardless of what the presidential candidates are saying.

Senator Hegel, a decorated Vietnam veteran highly respected by his Senate colleagues, may actually be understating the situation.

The ongoing occupation of Iraq has literally destroyed the Army Reserve and National Guard. Few Reservists and Guardsmen who have served courageously and honorably in Iraq enlisted with any clue they would have more than 60 days combat duty -- or would have their tours extended for occupation duty far more hazardous than the invasion in March 2003.

Enlistments and re-enlistments have plunged and at present rates will not nearly meet requirements in the months ahead. While the Navy, Marines and Air Force remain in good condition, the Army, Army Reserve and National Guard are in deep trouble.

Worse, the top generals have been completely silenced from reporting what has happened to enlistment.

I have personally seen this happen before, after the Korean War. In July 1950, after North Korea attacked across the 38th Parallel, all 137 U.S. Marine reserve units -- including one at Moffett Field and one in San Jose -- were suddenly called to active duty. Those reservists enabled General Douglas MacArthur to land at Inchon and retake Seoul by September. But by December casualties had reached 50 percent for many units.

This was well-remembered in the Bay Area after the war ended in 1953. For almost a decade, the Marine Reserve rifle company at San Bruno was fearfully short of privates, the bulk of any infantry unit. We tried hard but were never able to recruit enough 18 and 19 year olds to come even close to the 900-man strength of a Marine battalion.

Until 1971, when President Nixon abolished the draft, many young men chose the National Guard -- primarily because it was not called to duty during Korea or thereafter.

No longer. Close to half the troops in Iraq today are Guard or Reservists. But if Guard and Reserve enlistments continue to decline, a draft could become an unarguable necessity.

But what kind of draft?

Only a few hundred thousand 18 or 19 year olds would be necessary, even in wartime, out of the 4 million young men who turn 18 each year nationally.

Congress would be remiss, however, not to devise the necessary means to meet the worldwide troop commitments the Bush Administration has made and threatens to make in the future. The draft that saved us in 1942 was passed by Congress in 1940 by only one vote -- a terrible reminder of the reluctance of politicians to take unpopular steps to protect the national security in peacetime.

If some type of mandatory military service is to be considered to keep the Army up to strength, an old concept of the 1970s may justify reconsideration.

Twenty-five years ago a near majority of the House of Representatives, from both parties, joined in sponsoring "The National Service Act of 1979."

The bill's primary purpose was to stimulate service in local communities, but secondarily to have an escape valve in the event of military necessity. The bill's principles were simple. An enlistment in the armed services for two years would entitle one to four years of college education. An enlistment in the reserve or National Guard for one year, accompanied by a five-year readiness commitment entitled one to two years of college.

A third alternative was to volunteer for public service in a local community, assisting in health, education, conservation or other activities, such service to be confirmed and certified by the local draft board. If one declined to volunteer for any one of these three types of service, then and then only he or she went into a pool of individuals available for draft into military service if the need arose.

The bill recognized several principles: First, military service is the most arduous and dangerous of services to our country. Our freedom depends on a force of combat-ready and well-trained Marines, soldiers, sailors and aviators. Second, to be combat-ready requires rigorous training that equals the challenge of combat itself. Third, the necessary hardships of military service and combat training are not easily sold to 18 and 19 year olds who have all the conveniences of modern life ready at hand.

The parameters of 1979 may well have changed in the past 25 years. The Armed Services' ability to operate competently may require three or four year enlistments and Reserve commitments may be significantly different. The needed men and women must be people of relatively high IQs in order to handle the sophisticated weaponry and communications of today's fighting units.

But the need for community services by young people is even greater today than it was in 1979.

There are more people needing help -- elderly, poor, homeless and disadvantaged young people who need the assistance of young volunteers.

Today's young people have shown no lack of idealism or willingness to volunteer for public service. In the incredibly wealthy area surrounding Stanford, hundreds of young volunteers are involved in helping new immigrants, the elderly, reading to the blind, protecting wildlife and public lands and doing other public services at a fraction of the cost of counterpart governmental agencies.

In 1991 I was honored to be appointed by President H. W. Bush to chair the National Service Commission. He recognized that most local charities were more effective than federal agencies. He charged us with finding out which programs worked best across the country. We looked at programs of every kind, and found that the most effective were generally started by a single local person who saw a need, raised a little money, put a few dedicated volunteers to work and accomplished results no Washington-based agency could hope to match.

No area in the country reflected more success than the area around Stanford. The Stanford Area Youth Plan, legal aid assistance to the poor in East Palo Alto, the Mid-Peninsula Fair Play Council (started by two elderly Jewish women to assist the return of Japanese internees after World War II), the Frank and Josephine Duveneck Youth Hostel in Los Altos Hills, Gertrude Wilks' Mothers for Equal Education in East Palo Alto, the Family Assistance Program in Mountain view to help Hispanic mothers teach their children English, local efforts to save wildlife caught in coastal or Bay oil spills -- nearly all of these programs started from one person's idea and were staffed by volunteers, including many high school and college students.

Apart from a few national organizations such as the Peace Corps, Boys and Girl Clubs and Sierra Club, the commission found that most successful volunteer organizations were local. What one person could do in his or her own community could not generally be replicated in others. The local leader's characteristics were generally unique to his or her own community and its particular needs.

Thus the first President Bush's "Points of Light" concept -- now facing the enormous budget deficits created by his son -- brings home the validity of community service by young people.

It is certainly time for the Congress to re-enact a strong G.I. bill similar to that of 1945, one that fully compensates young men and women for the inordinate burden they have borne on the nation's behalf this past three years in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It is also time, I believe, to reconsider the National Service Act concept, as voluntary enlistments in the Army, its Reserve and the National Guard continue to decline.

A year of national service with a non-profit organization would exempt a person from the draft, if a draft becomes necessary, and would be a great idea even without the draft. No patriot can properly object to required military service if he or she has chosen not to volunteer for community service.

Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey served in Congress representing most of the Peninsula between 1967 and 1983.He proposed the National Service Act of 1979 (not enacted) and commanded Able Company of the 7th Infantry Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps Ready Reserve between 1954 and 1960. He can be e-mailed at PNMcCLaw@aol.com.

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