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Show MILFORD PARENTS SLAP DRAFT BOARD Last Friday evening Col. Clay, Selective Service Director Di-rector for the State of Utah, met with a rather large group of Milford residents and members of the Beaver County Selective Service Board to discuss operations of the "draft board" in Beaver County. The meeting was called after some Milford parents, dissatisfied with the reported ratio of three Milford youths being drafted to each one from Beaver, had asked Col. Clay for an investigation. County Commissioner Gene Mayer conducted the meeting. Col. Clay took some time explaining the overall operation op-eration of Selective Service Boards, their duties and their obligations, and he dwelled briefly on the "missionary" deferments, stating that a recent ruling limited each ward of the LDS Church to one missionery for each six months; however, probably if one ward under the same board did not have a missionary, another ward could send one to fill the quota. Several questions were asked relating to National Guard enlistments, which presumably replaced "draftees" from the county. Col. Clay referred all questioners to Gen. Watts, adjutant general of Utah. Kent Mellor stated that he had applied for enlistment in the National Guard, Service Battery at Beaver, and was turned down, "they wouldn't even take my name," he said. Subsequently, Mr. Mellor contended, at least IS youths from the Beaver area had been accepted for enlistment en-listment in Service Battery (Beaver) of the National Guard. Col. Clay indicated that he had a "legitimate complaint," but suggested that Mr. Mellor take the matter mat-ter up with Gen. Watts. Considerable time was spent airing complaints over deferment or non-deferment of college students ; drafting of immediately returned missionaries (from the Milford area) ahead of missionaries who had been home for some time, and the alleged policy of drafting Milford youths ahead of Beaver youths. School records presented showed that Milford High School graduated an average of 25 less students since 1960 than the Beaver High School, yet the draft calls for that period, it was claimed, had been predominantly from Milford. Col. Clay admonished the clerk of the Selective Service Serv-ice Board for "advising" youths that they mihgt enroll in college, or might not "safely" enroll n college. He also promised an investigation of several Milford cases which had been brought to his attention. Back in the 1950's we served on the Selective Service Board of Beaver County for a brief period. At that time the members of the board adhered to a policy that each youth's file was to be in "birth date" order and when a youth's turn came to be inducted he WAS inducted. The only deferments, except college students, were on the grounds of dependency, if the youth met the qualifications for military serivce. Possibly the Beaver County Selective Service Board now has other standards. The Beaver County News feels that with the dissatisfaction dissatis-faction expressed by Milford residents, and the admonishments admonish-ments of Col. Clay and his promise of an investigation of certain cases, an investigation of the operation of the Beaver County Selective Service Board is definitely needed, and that such an investigation should be made by disinterested officials. We feel that the Beaver County Selective Service Board should be revised, with a new member being ap-pointd ap-pointd to represent Minersville (a community of our county which has been without representation) and that possibly newer, younger members be named to represent Milford and Beaver. mmr "Draft Boards' are under fire in the nation and the United States Senate is holding discussions on the Selective Selec-tive Service system. So the Beaver County Board has lots of company. They are under fire in Milford. If they have been absolutely fair to all communities of the county, to all youths eligible for induction, they should welcome such an investigation. |