Military service in the United States involves many more people than is realized. Besides all the civilians pressed into federal service in support of the military, there exist veterans and retirees from service as well as those separated from their service.

I would estimate that a large portion of our population consists of active and reserve personnel plus retirees plus veterans separated from service. Both positive and negative experiences abound from this group.

Still an even smaller portion of those still alive began their service as draftees. Draftees were always taken at a young age from a time when they were still deciding where to go in life, and some even had their own plans for how to proceed without the military. Still other draftees refused to serve and hid or left our country. Notable here is the lack of choice for draftees, who were chosen already for one thing.

The United States military prides itself on voluntary enlistments as a way to recognize those men and women who choose to serve willingly. Recruitment of enlistees considers the use of voluntary service as one inducement to show recruits would be demonstrating selfless service and even leadership and initiative for answering such a call to serve. For those young men and women who are looking for more socialization and a plan for living to grow and develop in, military service, for all its rigors and dangers, can appear to be very appealing in this regard.

However, just as the draft left very few choices for our young men long ago, the young men and women of today may still not have a lot of choices to consider even with increased salaries and expanded career opportunities with modern military voluntary service. For example, senator John Kerry experienced a backlash when he alluded to so many non-college oriented enlistees in today's service. People have noticed that most college-educated persons do not choose to serve in the military. This removes the element of choice from non-college enlistees who must take up the slack. Add to that the trend of the poor entering military service in contrast to the wealthier classes serving less, and then you can understand a little more about what senator Kerry was driving at. He had noted a skewed pattern of service which might be considered abusive to our nation's poor and lesser educated citizens. He was also expressing the dangers of being in the elite group of those who were wealthy enough to refuse to consider military service.

It is important to each individual to choose for himself or herself about personal roles in military service, and for each of us to be prepared to advice or support our offspring who may be faced with the same decisions. Ideally, we all should be allowed to choose for ourselves, but economic circumstances and the need for education that we may not be able to personally afford, or other benefits such as frequent access to health care, may be enough to entice some into military service. However, the poor should feel just as unpressed to volunteer for service as did the college educated persons who felt it more important to pursue some other personal goal outside of military service.

Learn more about this author, Raleigh Stout.
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