By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 11:35:58 +0000

I have thought a bit about the draft from 1940 to 1973, though I didn’t know a book with that title had been written. My father and all my uncles did military service. My father and his brother were in the navy in the Pacific for World War II. My mother’s youngest brother was drafted during Vietnam and served stateside. A couple uncles were in the army reserves during that between Korea and Vietnam period when there were still some being drafted like Elvis Presley. Another uncle had a 20-year air force career.

In contrast, I have a couple dozen male cousins, and only two of us ever enlisted. It’s now been four decades since our third of a century of conscription ended, and it’s becoming easier to see the conscription era as the anomaly.

Comments on: One way to encourage marriage

By: John Mansfield