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Show Length of Service Obligation Explained By Selective Service (This is the eighth in the series ser-ies of Seectlve Service Articles). At age 17, the young man (with his parents' consent) may choose among a wide variety of ways to begin the discharge of his total active duty and reserve ob-ligration ob-ligration of at least six years. He may enlist In the regular forces for three to six years. He may enter a number of reserve or National Na-tional Guard programs. He may even volunteer, with parental consent, for induction for two years. Even after he registers for the draft at age 18, he has ahead of him about five years in which to choose his own time and method of "discharging the military mili-tary obligation. As he gains more education, these opportunities widen to include various .military .mili-tary programs leading toward a commission. But if he does not make his own choice, at around age 22 he may expect induction if he is acceptable and not deferred or exempt. And even though he may be unacceptable, or deferred defer-red or exempt when his normal turn to serve comes, he may still be put in Class 1-A if at any time up to his 35th birthday he loses the deferment or exemption, exemp-tion, or the cause of his disqualification disqual-ification is removed. If he should be reclassified into in-to Class 1-A before age 26, and is not a father, he would probably probab-ly be the oldest man available and acceptable In his local board and therefore, the first to be called. call-ed. Because of the need for manpower man-power in the armed forces, seven out of ten men under present conditions have entered service voluntarily or by Induction before be-fore age 26. The other three out of ten are almost all disqualified men. Of the qualified men, more tnan nine out of ten have entered en-tered service before age 26. The few remaining are those who went over age 26 in a deferred or exempt status. By 1963, government manpower manpow-er experts estimate that all men, 5.5 out of ten, and 8 out of 10 qualified men, will have entered enter-ed service by age 26. Higher standards now in effect disqualifying disquali-fying more men. Virtually no non-fathers, qualified qual-ified and available, are now "escaping" "es-caping" service or will do so through 1963. |