I think that many (maybe most) who have not served in the armed forces get their impressions of the military from movies and TV.

The officers (managers, as I said above somewhere) run into the same problems and need and develop the same skill sets as managers in any level of business. With pun only slightly intended, running a company is like running a company. There is paperwork, there are budgets, personnel (HR) issues, the necessity of internal and external communications, planning, reports, meetings, and many other of the same things involved. Then, of course, there is the necessity of leadership. The bigger the military organization, the more experience and the bigger the company or corporation you may have the opportunity to run.

Have you ever noticed that politicians (there are exceptions, obviously), from dog catcher to President list their military service at the top of their political resumes?

Where is this true? Have you been smoking the wacky tobaccy?

Absolutely not.

Being in the military currently, I see and live the value of a 100% all-volunteer force. You get better men and women, they are smarter, they train better, they work better, they function better.

What do we do if not enough of them volunteer though? What if we get into a situation where we need 200,000 more soldiers?

As far as Greek Life taking a hit, in my scenario, everybody would do something else before starting college, so everybody would be starting at age 20. Colleges, Universities and Greek Life would all take a hit for two years while it was being implemented, until the whole freshman class was at least 20. I think we'd be ok if we knew it was short term!

I do think the logistics of it would be so very complicated to implement and I don't really see it ever happening. But, I still think it's a good concept.

Someone earlier said that the people supporting it were all old enough to not have to do it. Some of us though, have kids who would have to do it. I'd be ok with my child living a little real life between college and high school. I would rather have them do that, figure out who they are, what they want out of life than to have them rattle around at a college for 5 or 6 years because they couldn't decide on a major. Being in college was like being in some alternate world reality with very little responsibility compared to what comes later. I just think getting a glimpse of the real world is a good idea, before you decide what you want to do in it.

That has long been the argument for an all volunteer military. The question is whether the size force we need can be recruited -- particularly in times of war.

If not enough people volunteer, it's time to reevaluate how the troops we do have are being used. I'd hope that would happen long before we need 200,000 more. If it looks like we're going to be short, try to "budget" what we do have.

While this sounds good, I don't think it's possible. It's an unfriendly world out there, and people who don't like us aren't likely to go along with our plans of how to budget and schedule our military assets.

Yes. However, you apparently didn't read mine...I said that even if these men had been in the "establishment" army, they came back to a vastly different America in general and campus in particular. Whether you were drafted or enlisted.

LOLLERSKATES!

?

I'm sorry you got that experience, but for some of us, college included working to pay tuition (including some nights and weekends), and living in the "real world." I think we need to be a little careful in our generalizations.

I don't see a draft being reinstated, but if it were, I would certainly go if drafted (even after hearing my dad's sometimes graphic stories from his experience in Vietnam). By that point I'll hopefully be an attorney, so they'd probably have some sort of position in mind for me.

Yeah, infantry. The way I always understood the draft, is that most people get the boots on the ground, rifle in hand jobs.

Good point, I've heard that quite a bit.

I'm not terribly worried about this country starting to worry about what others think of its military plans.

I have always been living in the "real world". I've been a working and contributing member of society since I was 13. I don't know what world the rest of you grew up in, but mine was pretty damn real. No one in my family has had a sheltered life. We've all worked extremely hard to get to where we are. I really hate the generalization that people who go from HS straight into uni aren't living life, or are sheltered, or aren't part of the "real world". Real world includes study, it includes the university experience, which is often combined with a healthy dose of work and sacrifice on the individual's part. Not every kid at university is a trust fund baby.