duty, they were not subject to the draft any more. Under the law today, if they don't serve 24 months within these dates that are fixed in the statute, he is subject to call for duty. Now, it has been brought to my attention by Members of Congress and I have had some cases myself-of men who served 22 months and the draft board takes them up again. I wrote to General Hershey about it. And I have sent him some letters from Congressmen, since we convened in December, complaining about that. I thought it was worth while for the committee to explore it and see why we couldn't say that anyone who served for a period of 6 months, that he wasn't subject to the draft any more. Now, what is your reaction to that? Secretary BURGESS. My reaction to that, sir, if I might, is to give you a general comment that the Department of Defense wants to make certain that all equitable and reasonable provisions are made, so that we do not treat certain people unreasonably. The CHAIRMAN. That is right. Secretary BURGESS. The point that you raise is a specific one, and I haven't given that particular thing consideration. But you can count on us to support any reasonable or equitable adjustment. The CHAIRMAN. That is right. I am satisfied. And I want the committee to explore these two provisions. And then there will be another amendment that will be offered tomorrow in regard to students. who are studying to be scientists. We will go into that when that matter is presented. But these are two amendments that I want to bring up to the committee's attention, that I think are in order and it would be fair and proper for the committee to give most careful consideration. And we are going to ask General Hershey about it. Now, Mr. Kilday. Mr. KILDAY. I wanted to make clear if your amendment proposes the boy who has done as much as 6 months, he is the one that goes into the service, stays as long as they want to keep him, not as long as he wants to stay, and is then sent home-whether he should be again uprooted, not the man who would be discharged on his own application. Mr. BLANDFORD. If I may, Mr. Chairman. We have three groups. And actually, you have an unfortunate group of young men, you might say, who were betwixt and between certain dates. They didn't have 90 days during the shooting war. They didn't have 12 months of service between September 16, 1940, and June 24, 1948. And when they were discharged from the service after June 24, 1948, they did not have 3 years of service. Now, that is an unusual situation, but we had quite a number of those people. Now, in addition to that, the young man today who finishes his draft period and we have had quite a few people who have written us about it-writes and says, "Am I a veteran for the purposes of the draft law? I completed 24 months of service." Well, actually, under the law he is not a veteran because the law. only says that any person discharged after June 24, 1948 with 3 or more years of service is a veteran. Now, obviously, you can't legally draft a man who has completed the obligated period of service of 24 months. But if a youngster is discharged after 3 months of service, he has not completed the obligated period of service and theoretically he could be reinducted. Now, the proof of that is that the President, because of the large number of people who were being discharged for hardship reasons and other reasons, issued a directive requiring the reclassification of individuals discharged with less than 6 months' service, and some of those people have been inducted twice. So you can legally induct a man twice under the same law. Now, the President tomorrow could make that 12 months, 18 months, 20 months, 22 months, 23 months and 29 days. All this would do would be to say that from here on out a man who has served 6 months in the armed services and is discharged need no longer fear induction unless we go to war or unless the Congress declares an emergency. So at least he knows where he stands. It removes a very cloudy situation that exists, and these boys will then know where they stand. Today they don't. The CHAIRMAN. Now, we received a great many letters. Of course that is where these ideas come from, the letters we get from individuals all over the United States, and when the mail began to get heavy along such lines, we thought it was of such importance to bring it to the attention of the committee. That is what we are doing. Now, any questions from any members of the committee to the Secretary? Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Chairman, I have one. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Rivers. Mr. RIVERS. Mr. Secretary, I want to congratulate you on a fine statement. Secretary BURGESS. Yes, sir. Mr. RIVERS. And tell you the people of South Carolina are proud of the fine contribution you are making. sir. Secretary BURGESS. I am proud to be a citizen of South Carolina, Mr. KILDAY. Not Virginia? Secretary BURGESS. I was born there, sir. Mr. RIVERS. But you had sense enough to go where the grass was greener? The CHAIRMAN. Any other questions of the Secretary? Mr. BRAY. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Bray. Mr. BRAY. There is one matter there, Mr. Secretary, that you mentioned. On the principle of equity, this matter should be continued, drafting up to the age of 35? Secretary BURGESS. Yes, sir. Mr. BRAY. I well realize that that is correct. But you are being confronted with a situation and it will become more and more apparent, and that is that with 2 years on the present strength of the armed services you will not possibly be able to use the men that are coming 181⁄2 years of age. That is a matter that we have kind of skipped over and hated to mention. I took occasion some time ago to go to three draft boards scattered over my district to find out the rate that they were sending men to the service, and also the amount of men that they had in their pool and the amount that presumably would be physically capable, and it was apparent to me and I have also gone over the figures nationwide on the same thing-that you are only going to be able to use a relatively small percent of the people that are coming 181⁄2 years of age. Right now we are getting pretty high up into 23-, 24-, and 25-year brackets. So in a sense either we are going to have to make some drastic change or admit that we are going to have a selective draft and not a universal draft. Now, am I correct? Secretary BURGESS. Well, Mr. Bray, I don't know whether I can confirm your latter statement. I think the position of the Department of Defense is this, sir, that we would prefer not to see any substantive change in the draft law. I think the points which your chairman raised are ones of making things reasonable and equitable, and of course we would like to develop those with the Selective Service System. But I think that any change in this age range, while we are in these particular times and with the prospects that some people would pass the age of 26 through constant deferment, I think that would be a wrongful change in the act, sir. Mr. BRAY. I am not saying, Mr. Secretary, that you should make a change in that. But I want to ask you two questions bringing out plainly what I want. How many people do you have today, roughly within the draft range, that haven't had service and would be physically qualified? Just roughly, I mean just in even millions, let's say. Secretary BURGESS. Well, the average induction age, sir, is running around 20.9. That is the age, the average age right now. Mr. BRAY. How many people-what I am saying-do you have that could be drafted today? Is it a million? Mr. BLANDFORD. I have the figures there. Secretary BURGESS. Would you give them, please? Mr. BLANDFORD. Actually, we have figures to show that 240,909 men have been examined and have been found acceptable. That is, they are 1-A. They have been examined and are acceptable. Now, in addition, there are 1,317,000 men who have not been examined. You are running, I believe, a rejection rate of approximately 30, in the neighborhood of around 30 percent, or maybe a little higher, for physical fitness. And I would therefore say that as of this moment you probably have in the neighborhood of about 1 million people right now who are physically qualified to enter active duty tomorrow. Mr. BRAY. All right, then, Mr. Blandford, you are drafting you signify 14,000 a month. That is 168,000 a year. Secretary BURGESS. Yes, sir. Mr. BRAY. So with your million, if not 1 person came of age for 5 years, you still would have sufficient manpower. Now, I am not saying that there should be any drastic change at this time, but I think we are whistling going through a graveyard, so to speak—to not give that some thought. Secretary BURGESS. Well, we have given it thought, sir, and as I pointed out to the chairman, of course we are not here today to talk about the national Reserve plan. But I think maybe your calculations may overlook the requirements which we have in the Reserve as well as the heavy enlistment rates. I know you didn't overlook the enlistment rates. Mr. BRAY. No; I didn't. Secretary BURGESS. But in the Reserve we do have a pronounced requirement for manpower, and in this new plan that we hope to present to you some time later on, we will quite adequately display that requirement to you, sir, and I think well. Mr. BRAY. I do know that many of the local boards are becoming worried over the situation, because in the old days when a guy became 18%, right away you began to get him ready to go to the service. Now they are trying to catch him at the top before they get out. I don't know whether it has come to your attention, but every draft board I talked to is worried about that situation. Secretary BURGESS. Yes. Mr. BLANDFORD. Mr. Chairman, may I just comment on one point that Mr. Bray has raised? One of the great difficulties that has always confronted selective service and the Congress and the Nation is the fact that when you start lowering your draft age, I mean your draft calls, you start drafting then the older people first, so that they don't pass into the nondraftable state. Now, that is always an unfortunate situation, because then you are calling the 24-, 25-, and 26-year-olds. And if you don't call them, they move right out of that and therefore have no Reserve obligation imposed upon them. Now, the answer to your specific question is found, I believe, in the fact that young man today, upon attaining the age of 181⁄2, can volunteer for induction. In other words, if a young man wants to take the chance on beating the draft-and that is the only way to put it he can just stand fast and do nothing. But if he is drafted at the age of 25%, he has only himself to blame, because he could have volunteered for induction or he could have enlisted. He can enlist in the Regular Army for 2 years under our law, or he can go down to a local board and volunteer for induction. So when you start feeling that these people who are 25 are being drafted, while the 19year-olds are not, it must also be borne in mind that he has always had an opportunity to get his military obligation out of the way. Mr. BRAY. Mr. Blandford, I am not trying to defend or worrying about those fellows. But it is a fact that we are coming soon to a selective draft, and there is no other way we can look at it. Mr. BLANDFORD. It is bound to come, Mr. Bray, whenever you maintain a small armed force. You have to have that. Mr. BRAY. That is right. And so far we are kidding ourselves that we are not approaching a selective draft. I don't think it Mr. BLANDFORD. This is still a Selective Service System. Secretary BURGESS. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Any further questions? Mr. SHORT. Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Short. Mr. SHORT. Mr. Blandford, I would like to address 1 or 2 questions Mr. SHORT. Under the present selective-service law, I think our mental and physical requirements or standards have been reduced to the irreducible minimum. It is lower than it has ever been. Mr. BLANDFORD. The lowest in the 20th century. Mr. SHORT. It is the lowest it has ever been. Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes, sir. 5506655-No. 2- 2 Mr. SHORT. Notwithstanding the low level of mental or physical requirements and standards Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes. Mr. SHORT. We still reject approximately a third. Mr. BLANDFORD. It may be higher. Mr. SHORT. At least a third. Mr. BLANDFORD. At least a third. Mr. BLANDFORD. Yes, sir. Mr. SHORT. There is a rather sad commentary on the health and education of this Nation, and makes me a little more interested, if not enthusiastic, about the President's message delivered yesterday. Mr. DURHAM. Mr. Chairman The CHAIRMAN. No, Mr. Doyle asked me. Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Secretary, on page 2 of your splendid statement, the second paragraph, you call our attention to the fact that when the draft was not in effect in 1948, only 65 percent of the quotas required were obtainable. Then in the third paragraph you again call our attention to the fact that in 1950, when no draft was in effect, the volunteer quota or those obtainable by volunteer means again dropped. Now, I want to ask you this question: Why is it, in your judgment, what are the factors in your judgment that make it more and more clear that the American boys are less and less willing to volunteer for military service? Is it because the draft is sort of a compulsion held over their heads, or why is it that less and less, percentagewise, of the American youth is unwilling to volunteer for military service? Secretary BURGESS. I think, sir, that it is a combination of many factors. And I think that with the times that we have on us and the experience that we have had in the past, we have an increased job, all of us have an increased job, to try to educate young people, early in in life, of the honorable discharge of obligation, either voluntary or inductionwise, to serve this country. Now, I made my mind up in 1935 to get into this type of thing, and I have never regretted it. I happen to live in a town that was near a military institute, and I used to see the people come and parade at Thanksgiving time. And I would like to see us get on this business of educating the people so that we can get as far away from enforcement as we possibly can. Somebody asked me the other day what a mother should tell her 12-year-old son. I said, "Tell him about his obligation and tell him about the honorability of discharging that obligation and doing it at the right time in his life." That is the thing I think we have to do as much as anything, is to start early in this game. Mr. DOYLE. Well, Mr. Secretary, I don't mean to be impertinent, of course, but I don't feel you have answered my question, frankly. Secretary BURGESS. I am sorry, sir. Mr. DOYLE. I won't belabor it longer with you. Secretary BURGESS. I think that is the main reason. That is the one we feel, sir; that was the answer I was trying to give you, sir. Mr. DOYLE. In other words, the lack of the adults explaining to their youth the need Secretary BURGESS. I think it is in our school, sir, I think it is with the parents, and I think it is with the degree of knowing that |