Wearing Your Medals With Your Kilt

[Don Patrick]

This thread has taken an interesting turn.

The current question seems to be heading towards: Would you encourage a young man to join the Armed Forces?

Wow - is that a hard question. I feel every young person would benifit from two, three or more years in the service to his country. It teaches many things: self-reliance, dependablilty, accountability, independence and dependence at the same time. It forces a person to be true to his word. It exposes him to work with others he may not like. It shows him that sweat and hard work will not kill him, but that inattention may. It makes him realize that his well being is dependent on the actions of others and himself. It teaches him to be at work on time. These are all attributes that every adult should have, and sadly few do.

Would I encourage every young person to join? No. The service is not for everyone! If a young person is not ready to take the responsibility for his own actions, the service will only make his life worse.

Would I encourage a young person to join, who seems to have a yearning to learn and a strong curiosity? Yes.

I won't go into which branch of the service I would recommend, because my answers would be different for each person. Not every young man can be a Marine. But the same is true for the Army, Navy or Coast Guard. The jury is still out on the Air Force.

Other political questions also need to be asked. Should the US bring back the draft? Yes! Should there be any draft deferments? NO! \

What say you?

First let me apologize for so many posts in a row. It was not by design.

I must say I believe everyone should have the opportunity to serve their country. I think notion of the draft should be revisited by the US. Speaking as a member who was part of the transition from the draft to the All Volunteer Army, I am sorry to have to say we have so few members of the US Congress who have served in the military. I will also say some of the best soldiers I served with were during the draft.

[James MacMillan]

I must say I believe everyone should have the opportunity to serve their country. I think notion of the draft should be revisited by the US. Speaking as a member who was part of the transition from the draft to the All Volunteer Army, I am sorry to have to say we have so few members of the US Congress who have served in the military. I will also say some of the best soldiers I served with were during the draft.

Well said!