When I was back home in South Dakota over the Holiday season, I read a notice in the local daily (Madison Daily Leader, not much of a web presence to my knowledge) that was worded pretty much identically to this story. Now, I don’t read physcial newspapers a lot (don’t really like the AJC, and getting the NY Times delivered is just too expensive to jusitfy to my wife), so I don’t know if this is the type of announcement that goes out regularly, around the first of the year, regardless of what we (the US) are doing militarily at the time.
I did a quick search for threads on this, saw nothing, and decided to ask: Is this standard practice, to just periodically put out announcements to get Selective Service Board candidates, even though the boards are currently on ‘standby’ mode? Or is this new?
As I recall, SDMB member Mr. Moto was recently appointed to his local Selective Service Board. Hopefully, he’ll be along with some factual information, but in the meantime, here’s a MPSIMS thread about his appointment that contains some links and answers.
The last major Selective Service recruiting drive was in 1983. The maximum amount of time one can serve on a draft board is 20 years, so in 2003 a new recruiting drive started up.
Selective Service local boards are provided for in legislation signed in 1948, and are considered an essential part of national defense. However, in times when there is no draft, there has been a tendency to let vacancies go unfilled.
There is recruitment to fill these holes. This gained significant momentum after 9/11. However, there has been no call for a draft from any of the services. In any case, a draft must be approved by Congress and signed into law by the President.
I haven’t received initial training yet. I’ll start a thread after this happens, since the draft is a subject of interest for a great many people here.