Letters of Support

Registering with Selective Service

What Do I Believe About War?

How the Draft Will Work

CCW's Comprehensive Guide on Registration and the Draft

CCW Explains...

How the Draft Will Work

Should the draft begin, the first people drafted would be those turning 20 during the current calendar year. (The age 20 selection group in the year 2005 consists of all those born in 1985, so in January almost all the members of that group would be 19 years old.) Selective Service would hold a lottery to randomly assign a number to every date in the year. Potential draftees would get whatever number is assigned to their birthday. Selective Service would first draft all those who have the number one, then all the twos and so on in that age 20 selection group. Each subsequent year, SS will hold a new lottery for those who are turning 20 during that upcoming year. In order for someone in the age 21 selection group to get drafted, every eligible person in the age 20 selection group must first be drafted and then Selective Service would go to those with the #1 in the age 21 selection group.

More than half the draftees are expected to fail the physical or mental standards, and still others will obtain postponements, deferments, exemptions, or conscientious objector classification. Therefore, more than twice as many as are needed will have to be ordered to appear for examination and induction.

If Selective Service uses the two week emergency scenario, the lottery will be held the day after Congress and the President authorize the mobilization draft. The next day, Selective Service will send induction orders to those who `lose' the lottery. The induction order would actually be a mailgram from Selective Service instructing them to report to a MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station). The regulations say that if someone wants to file a claim for exemption, deferment, or conscientious objection, he cannot file the claim until after SS issues him an order to report for induction, and he must file his claim by the day before he is scheduled to report for induction. There is a paragraph in the mailgram that briefly explains this. These mailgrams should get to most people within a day or two of being issued, so that leaves about a week for filing claims. Failure to file a claim during that narrow window of time means that you waive your right to whatever classification you may otherwise qualify for. The Selective Service System can grant exceptions to these time limits for good cause, but it's their decision and it's not appealable. If you report to MEPS and pass the examination, you will be on a bus to boot camp that day.

If Selective Service uses the six month scenario, things are only a little better. Presumably, there would be a large amount of publicity about the decision to resume a draft and the SS gearing up to draft folks, so there will be some advance warning. According to this scenario, draftees would be ordered to report to the MEPS for a pre-induction physical. If they flunk the physical, they will be classified 4-F. Those who pass the physical will be classified 1-A, available for unrestricted military service. They will be informed of their right to apply for reclassification, given information on how to do that, and at least 10 days to file such a claim. They could be ordered to report for induction very quickly if they don't file a claim.

Whichever system the Selective Service uses, once someone properly files a claim, which means submitting the paperwork during the small window of time that Selective Service provides, he cannot be drafted until there has been a final determination of his claim. That means until he has exhausted all of his appeals, or fails to appeal within the proper time. If his claim is approved, he will be reclassified and not drafted as long as he remains qualified for that classification. But keep in mind that if someone gets a deferment or exemption, then later loses it, he goes to the top of the order for being drafted. He would be drafted before the next person in the "age 20 selection group."

Your options are briefly explained in a booklet, Information for Registrants, which in the event of a draft, should be available at post offices and at your Selective Service Area Office. In a mobilization draft, you must
take the initiative to obtain form 9 (SSS claims form) from the post office or Selective Service Area Office to
file your claim. In the six month scenario, the procedures suggest that Selective Service will make Form 8 available to you. Filing a claim at the proper time will result in Selective Service sending you the appropriate
documentation form for the claims you have made.

Claims for postponements of induction (Form 27) will be processed by the Area Office staff. These claims will be decided on the basis of documents submitted with Form 27. Full-time high school students, satisfactorily pursuing their studies, can receive a postponement to graduate or until they are twenty; if twenty and in their 3 final ye ar of high school, they will be allowed to complete it. College students are postponed to the end of the semester (or the year, if in the last year). Students will use Form 109 to document their claims. Other reasons for postponement include a death in your immediate family, temporary illness or injury, emergency beyond your control, a state or national examination to be licensed or certified for a profession or occupation, acceptance in a military academy or ROTC, your observance of your faith's religious holiday, or unspecified "other reasons." If your claim is rejected, only the student postponement can be reviewed by the local board
and changed.

Claims for administrative reclassification (Form 21) will be processed by the staff at the Area Office. Form 21 lists all the classes for which you may qualify that can be decided on the basis of documents submitted: Active or Reserve Military or Uniformed Service (I-C), Student taking military trainging (I-D-E and 1-D-D), Prior Military or Uniformed Service (4-A, 4-A-A, I-0-S, 3-A-S), Official Deferred by Law (4-B), Alien or Dual National (4-C) (Form 26), Surviving Son or Brother (4-G), Confinement, Physical or Mental Disability (4-F), Treaty Alien (4-T) (Form 130).

If the Area Office staff denies your claim, it can be reviewed by the Local Claims Board at your request. The local claims board can change the classification that was given. If the board’s decision was not unanimous, the classification action can be appealed to the District Appeal Board.

Claims for judgmental reclassification arethe only ones decided initially by the local board: Hardship for dependents (3-A) (Form 24), Divinity Student (2-D) (Form 23) or Minister (4-D) (Form 25) for ordained or regular ministers of religion. Conscientious Objectors to participation in war based on sincerely held ethical, moral, or religious beliefs (Form 22) come in two categories: those opposed to combatant training and service in the Armed Forces (I-A-0) or those opposed also to noncombatant service in the military (I -0).

Any time your claim is being heard by the local board, you have the right to a personal appearance before the board, and you should request it. COs are required to appear before the local board. At a personal appearance, you will haveat least twenty minutes, and may present up to three witnesses. You may be accompanied by an advisor, and may request that the meeting be open to the public. The board must give reasons if they reject your claim. You cannot record the hearing, but you can submit your own summary within five days after the hearing. All the reclassifications for judgmental classes by the Local Claims Board can be appealed to the District Appeal Board. Decisions by the Appeal Board that are not unanimous may be appealed to the National Appeal Board.

If the claim is denied after all appeals have been exhausted, the person would then be ordered to report for induction. Even if Selective Service uses the six month scenario, there will be very little time for submitting
claims, documenting them, and filing appeals. Selective Service anticipates that it will be a matter of weeks, not
months, between the time a draftee is initially alerted that his number has come up until his claim is finally adjudicated and he is either reclassified or in the military.

Conscientious Objectors classified I-0 will be assigned to civilian work in “the national health, safety, or interest.” You may present your own choice of qualifying jobs for approval. Otherwise, you will be assigned by the Alternative Service Office Manager to a job selected by a computer match of employer needs and alternative service worker skills. You can appeal a job assignment which conflicts with your conscience to an Appeal Board.