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Show 10-ycar-olds must rcgicfcr for draft It wasn't really very long ago that young men were subject to the draft upon reaching 18 years old in this country. Most signed up and then crossed their fingers. fin-gers. The requirement was taken tak-en almost as routine. Some young men were called to serve In the nation's armed forces; otheres were not. The system was accepted as necessary despite the fact that, understandably, most of those affected would have preferred to go on about their civilian business rather than spending several years In military service. The Draft is no longer in effect.The nation is served by an all-volunteer military. However, beginning in January Jan-uary 1980 federal law required re-quired again that young men sign up with the Selective Service as they reached 18 years old. It was not a resumption re-sumption of the draft but was intended to make available the names of men born In 1960 and later years who can be contacted quickly if there Is a national emergency and Congress should declare an Induction. At the outset there was about a 92 percent response. But since that time the figure has fallen to about 70 percent, per-cent, despite the fact that the registration requirement is still in effect. We choose to believe the drop is a result of misunderstanding misunder-standing rather than anything else. Young men, In many cases, may not be aware that within 30 days of their eighteenth birthday th'ey are to fill out a registration form which asks only for name, address, phone number, social security number and date of birth. It can be cone in minutes at any U.S. post office. Registration and revlta-lization revlta-lization of the SelectiveSer- vice do not signal a return to a draft. They are simply emergency preparedness measures. Peacetime registration regis-tration will save the country at least four weeks time in mobillzings its manpower in event of an emergency. To date, according to government figures, nearly six million men have registered. reg-istered. And, although failure fail-ure to sign up is a felony, no penalty will be Imposed for those who have reached 18 and still not done it. Just drop into the post office and fill out the form. We suspect that few persons per-sons are anxious to be called up. Hopefully, it will never again be necessary to mobilize mob-ilize through induction. But if the need does arise, we want to be ready. |