# How Many 18 Year Old Americans Register for Selective Service? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2003, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616 "2003-02-04T00:07:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616/41 "2003-02-05T23:59:36Z")
One other thing… I still have my selective service card. It is in my wallet right now. Stragnely, it really means something to me. I never went to military service (or seriously considered it). However, that card is important to me. In a small way, it tells me that, if my country needed my help, I wasn’t afraid to tell them where to call me. It’s like always having a friend. You probably have a friend who could call you any time and ask for help and you’ll drop anything and everything to rush to aid. I turn 36 years old in 2003, so I am well past eligible for the draft. However, I will keep that card forever. My country asked to do one little thing for it without getting anything in return, and I willingly did it. That’s important. Maybe when you younguns get older, you’ll understand. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2003, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616/42 "2003-02-13T15:43:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Drum God \* > **I disagree with you guys who make a political stand with Selective Service. The point is so that authorities can know the nation’s resources.** How can a statement of the collectivist philosophy (“the **nation’s** resources”) be anything **but** political? ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616/43 "2003-02-20T23:34:27Z")
Your point is well taken **Steve MB**. I just didn’t (and don’t) think that registering is such a bad thing. If push comes to shove, so to speak, there are times to protest later. I’m certainly no advocate of spending the nation’s greatest treasure on half-baked war-mongering of the kind we’ve seen lately. However, if the nation were truly threatened, I would want to know who we can call upon for help. An aside – My current worry is that the current course of our nation is to create a threat which cannot be ignored. Iraq poses no serious threat to us now, but as we push them, they will have to lash out. Then what are we going to do? ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2003, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616/44 "2003-02-21T01:15:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Superdude \* > \*\*I registered right after my 18th birthday. The government got my age wrong, and said I was a year older than I really am (I turn 30 this coming Monday, to their records I’ll be 31). I’ve never bothered to correct them. \*\* Of course, the bright side of that is that you’re off the hook when you’re 25(since they don’t want 26 year olds). Or is it they don’t want 25 year olds? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-18-year-old-americans-register-for-selective-service/152616.md?page=2)