Selective Service System

Part 1 – Introduction The fight for equality This year marks the one hundredth year of the creation of the Selective Service System. Over those years, it has evolved to what we have today, but it should evolve where it is an all gender selective service registration. This is an argument to why men shall not be the only ones to take the full burden for a country in which they have fought for equality. The definition of equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. The following words are the core of the definition of equality: equal, status, rights, and opportunities. Equal in this definition is defined as a person or thing considered to be the same as another in status or quality. Status in this definition

Roosevelt was ending his second term in office and was looking at starting a third. (htt1) President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only President to serve more than two terms which in 1947 the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution was formed. This limited the number of terms the President can serve to only two terms. The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was the first of its kind to be executed during a time of peace. The act had expanded the age requirement for registering to the ages of eighteen to sixty-four. In 1941, the service period was also extended to an additional six

This act expanded the draft ages for males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. It still allowed student deferments and ended once completion of a four-year degree or his twenty-fourth birthday. It took another two years for another change which was an amendment to the Military Selective Service Act of 1967. This amendment was singed under President Richard Nixon on November 26, 1969. The amendment established the draft lottery system which started four days later. (htt4) Two years later the act one again was amended. This amendment required all males to register within a period of thirty days before and twenty-nine days after their eighteenth birthday.

A new classification system was established as well. The final lottery drawing was held on February 2, 1972, which lead to an announcement from the Secretary of Defense, Melvin R. Laird, the following year. The announcement was the creation of an all-volunteer armed forces which voided the military draft. (htt5) Two years later, President Gerald Ford signed Proclamation (4360) on March 29, 1975. This eliminated the registration requirement for all male citizens between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. During this time, there were nearly two million males that were drafted between August 1964 and February 1973.