Military Service Should be Mandatory Essay -- Papers

tears Service Should be Mandatory Americans, especially baby boomers, should be dishonored of themselves. How can the worlds richest population let its military go begging for recruits? distri nonwithstandingively year, the military services -- Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy -- establish recruiting goals to maintain capable numbers of personnel. The numbers change annually depending on, among other factors, service needs, enlisting figures the year before and retention of current troops. Most informed ethnic music are familiar with the sorry statistics, but let me repeat them for the remember The Air Force has a goal of 33,800 for this year it comports to fall curt by 1,700. The Army needs 74,500 but will miss the pronounce by 6,300. Currently short of its goal of 53,200, the Navy expects to have tolerable recruits by weeks end. Because of its unique tradition, the Marine Corps is the only branch that consistently fills its quota. In all, according to the Associated Pres s, the services need 197,115 recruits to maintain a force of 1.4-million. Why are the services having such a hard sequence recruiting? One obvious reason, according to the New York propagation, is that the number of people between ages 18 and 22, the prime age for recruits, has dropped to approximately 21-million, 5-million fewer than in 1980. a nonher(prenominal) major reason, of course, is that the economy has opened job opportunities to those who otherwise might send off the military as an option. These two are real reasons for the shrinking recruiting pool, but I see another reason, one that is perhaps at the nerve of the problem As a group, those between 18 and 22 are not patriotic. And perhaps even worse, too many baby-boomer parents and other influencers -- teachers and coaches -- bad-mouth the milita... ...y if we expect to recruit effectively. Where I am from, we call such thinking inscrutable ackward. No, we need to scrap the all-volunteer army concept and draft ever yone -- including the children of the rich and the fibrous in gated enclaves -- who does not volunteer. I leave the logistics to the experts. Unfortunately, money drives everything these days. When parents advise their children on career choices, fewer of them ever mention the military. It is not an option. The New York Times quotes a 17-year-old senior in the class of 2000 about the attitudes of his peers toward the military. His response? Its not even in their vocabularies. As a nation, we should be ashamed. President Clinton is not to blame for this one, folks. All of us -- especially parents, teachers and coaches -- are blameworthy. Everyone who enjoys the freedom of nutriment in America should serve.