# What does the Selective Service System do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 31, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756 "2004-07-31T19:27:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756/21 "2004-08-02T02:31:07Z")
**Mr Moto** , **Picker** , what do you say to an “Ask the Selective Service Guys” thread in a little while, when you’ve started work for the board? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756/22 "2004-08-02T02:32:23Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I’m pretty conservative, myself. > > Doesn’t matter, as the criteria for letting people out of a service obligation for hardship or consciencious objection are spelled out pretty clearly. > > **Picker** , we’re gonna be really popular around these parts. The draft is a constant source of anxiety on this board. At the very least, we should be a good GQ resource. I didn’t think you would have much leeway, **Mr. Moto**. And, as has been said before, I pray neither you, nor **Picker** ever get called upon to actually discharge these duties. (Or I, for that matter, as I just applied, myself.) On the other hand, if a draft does get enacted, those standards have to be fairly applied to **everyone** , and honestly - I have more faith in Dopers than I do in the general populace. \ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756/23 "2004-08-02T02:49:39Z")
In the late '70s, we had a Brazilian exchange student spent a summer with us. While he was here, he obtained an “international driver’s license,” so he could drive here. I guess that put his name in some kind of database . . . After he left, we got a letter from the Selective Service notifying him of his obligation to register for the draft – the U.S. draft. Apparently the SS, like the IRS, casts its net as wide as it possibly can. In 1989, while I was working at a newspaper in DeLand, Florida, there was a story in the paper: “Disabled, decorated vet gets draft notice.” Apparently, Selective Service sent a simlar registration-demand letter to a WWII vet who had been in a wheelchair ever since the Battle of the Bulge. It got a big laugh down at the VFW hall: “So, John, when are you going to enlist?” ---
**Author:** ![picker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/picker/32/13969_2.png) [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756/24 "2004-08-02T02:54:01Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > Picker, we’re gonna be really popular around these parts. The draft is a constant source of anxiety on this board. At the very least, we should be a good GQ resource > [@lambchops](#): > > Mr Moto, Picker, what do you say to an “Ask the Selective Service Guys” thread in a little while, when you’ve started work for the board? Sure, I’m in. Although if the SS Board moves as slow as the Army bureaucracy I remember, it’ll probably be a while before I actually do anything… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756/25 "2004-08-02T02:57:26Z")
I’m up for it, after training in the fall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-the-selective-service-system-do/257756.md?page=1)