There was only one Seclective Service Card in US history found with the "19" missing from the date stamp.
Barack Hussein Obama's.
Posted on 06/23/2017 5:45:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Federal officials say nearly one out of six young men in Washington state are committing a felony, and they might not even know it.
Their crime? Not registering for a nonexistent military draft.
Despite the United States not having pressed anyone into military service since 1973, virtually all men ages 18 to 25 still are required to register with the Selective Service System. The agency keeps men’s information on file in case the country needs to mobilize a military force during a time of crisis.
Not registering can cause men big problems down the road, officials say. For one, it is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison — though no one has been prosecuted for that offense in more than 30 years.
More practically, men who don’t register for the draft become ineligible for many federal jobs, as well as federal grants and loans for college. Immigrants who don’t register can also lose their opportunity to become U.S. citizens later on.
Washington state’s compliance rate with Selective Service requirements is especially low, federal officials say. Fewer than 84 percent of 18- to 25-year old men in Washington registered in 2016, according to numbers from the Selective Service. Across all U.S. states and territories, the national compliance rate is almost 92 percent.
That puts Washington in the bottom quartile of states when it comes to compliance.
Those numbers are a big concern for the Selective Service’s new director, Don Benton, who is from Washington state. Benton, a former Republican state senator from Vancouver, was appointed to lead the agency in April. He previously served several weeks as President Donald Trump’s adviser to the Environmental Protection Agency, after chairing Trump’s presidential campaign in Washington state last year.
Benton, who was visiting his home state on an outreach trip this week, wants to see to the registration rate in Washington climb as close to 100 percent as possible. He said he’s working to ensure members of under-served communities — such as immigrants and those living in poverty — understand they are required to register and the consequences of not doing so.
“What we’ve found is in states that have either a lot of rural poverty, or high-population density centers where there are pockets of poverty … those tend to not do as well,” Benton said in an interview Tuesday.
Areas with large populations of immigrants also have lower rates of compliance, he said.
Benton said registering is important because it helps “demonstrate that the entire nation stands behind our all-volunteer military in a state of readiness, in case there’s some national emergency.”
“I think the likelihood of a draft is very slim,” Benton said. “But as I always tell my Boy Scouts — I’m a Boy Scout leader, as you know, as I have been for many years — I tell them it’s always good to be prepared. That’s the Boy Scout motto.”
Some Washington state officials also worry about the state’s low compliance rate, but they’re not sure what to do about it, said state Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland.
Haler, who said he sits on a local draft board in Eastern Washington, sponsored legislation in 2011 to allow teenagers to register for the draft when they get their driver’s licenses. This week, he said he wants to revisit the issue to see if there’s a way to improve upon that law.
While many states automatically submit young men’s information to the Selective Service when they apply for a driver’s license, men in Washington state are merely asked by the Department of Licensing if they want to register. That means those men can more easily decline.
“The message hasn’t gotten out to a lot of the young men, or they haven’t taken it seriously,” Haler said Monday.
“I think a lot of the young people think that because it’s an all-volunteer Army right now that the draft will never come back again,” he said. “But there could be that possibility.”
Others may consciously choose not to register, according to a 2016 report from the Congressional Research Service, which provides nonpartisan analysis to Congress.
Groups such as The Center on Conscience and War want to eliminate draft-registration requirements, saying the mandates target “conscientious objectors who believe that registering with Selective Service is a form of participating in war.”
Some members of Congress have similarly proposed abolishing the Selective Service, or at least getting rid of the penalties for failing to sign up. Proponents of doing so “argue that ineligibility for federal benefits is most harmful to those with fewer financial resources, who also might be least aware of their obligation to register,” the report from the Congressional Research Service states.
Asked whether men should continue being punished for failing to register for a draft that doesn’t exist, Benton said, “That’s a great question for Congress.”
“I don’t make the laws or the penalties,” he said. “As the director of the agency, I implement the rules and regulations that I am instructed to implement by the president or the United States Congress.
He added: “I would speculate that members of Congress and members of the community at large believe it is an important civic duty to register.”
Wow, lot of anger there. Next time you make an asinine statement and someone calls you on it try to keep it civil.
You caught me. What can I say, you are a master detective.
I signed up years before the 9/11 attacks but someone of your limited intelligence would need that to be pointed out to them.
I never registered either, as I was 17 when I first went into the Army. Later in my career when i was doing paperwork to get a TS security clearance, I had to list my selective service number. I went to their website, and I was already registered and had a number assigned to me.
Exactly
the Selective Service system should be shut down. Another waste of taxpayer money.
You have Mail
Yikes! Way over the top there.
Abuse reported
You don’t have to support a bad law, either. And if someone wants to defy a bad law, good for them! This country could use more of that.
So your are telling me that illegal aliens that sneak in and get free educations and welfare benefits and who cannot be drafted for a war are not getting a better deal than American citizens? Are you telling me that being an American citizen was beneficial for Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was abandoned by Obama and beaten until he was brain dead? Are you going to tell me that the men that were left to die in Bhengazi were looked after by our government?
You are the one who got on his high horse and threw around expletives first then you feel justified to “report abuse” like a little Antifa snowflake? You sicken me.
My late Dad used to love to tell the story about how he was summoned to the local Draft board to explain why he hadn't registered. He was a Major at the time and showed up in uniform. He had joined the Army in 1937, when he was 17, or so he had told them then. He'd lied about his age, he was only 16, and two wars later he finally had to 'fess up.
I believe the article was talking about since the draft was ended, pal. And I registered for the draft in 1971 and went on to be a career Army Officer, pal. And I don’t live in Washington, but I’ve been there and its a beautiful state.
There was only one Seclective Service Card in US history found with the "19" missing from the date stamp.
Barack Hussein Obama's.
“Would a return to press gangs be preferable?”
Do other countries like Israel have press gangs ?
There is a space between voluntary service and impressment.
You both actually point out a couple of areas where the law clearly needs to be reconsidered. I enlisted at the maximum earliest under DEP (presently 365 days but I could have sworn it was more back then). I didnt register for the draft right away, I didnt think I had to as you cant draft someone who is aleady in. Afterwards I didnt bother to tell them any of the places where I was sent, I figured DoD had some idea where to find me. I committed multiple felonies? Thats just stupid and needs to change if thats the truth.
As did I, after my service in the Navy. I enlisted at 17, before I was required to register.
Their crime? Not registering for a nonexistent military draft.
Should we hazard a guess at the political leanings of the violators?
60-70 years ago, maybe. Back then most kids were still being raised to LIKE America. Now most are not.
Along with draft registration, we should renew the old practice of militia musters on the village green.
Drills, target practice, lectures on law and procedures. Oh yeah! Bring back some American history and community involvement!
I don’t have a crystal ball, do you? Reagan kept the peace by maintaining a capable military. For those individuals who have volunteered and serve(d) in the military (you neglected mentioning your own service), making sure we are capable of expanding our military quickly is a good policy. Not so important for families who sit on the sidelines.
Can you look into the future? A strong military capable of expanding rapidly is a good deterrent and an insurance policy against aggression. Not too important to individuals who come from families whose policy it is not to serve in uniform; critical to those who do.
You might think it’s an insurance policy but you’ve served in uniform; lot’s of guys on this forum were quite happy to watch as young women their age volunteered for service. The Romney, Sununu and Burr families set the standard in that regard.
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