How does everyone feel about mandatory military service in America?

Seeing how millennial's behave today Id say yes, but having said that I think the standards in the military need to go back to the way they were when I served and before, there should never be any discussion of a soldier being able to question a NCO on anything unless it would risk life or limb.

I agree that every American citizen should go in the military, but it should be for more than 1 year. If you think about it, the first year is mostly training. I was sent to Korea for my first assignment in 1986. That gave me a greater appreciation for our freedom and our country. The generation today needs to learn respect.

I am against it. In 2004 we took anything breathing and would volunteer. As an MP investigator I can't tell you how much my workload increased. No telling what senior NCOs had to go through for things that did not make it to criminal investigations. These were people that thought they wanted to be in the military. I can't even imagine what would happen to good order and discipline if we forced people to join. In my humble Buck SGT opinion, we are much more combat effective with 2 million professionals than with 4 million problem children.

The first question would be is it really needed? Does the military currently need to be bigger than what an all volunteer force can sustain? The procurement standards for the services fluctuates on its authorized end strength. Downsizing = higher standards, fewer waivers. Upsizing = relaxed standards, more waivers. The Army was able to meet its increased recruiting mission in the '00's at the cost of lowering standards and waiving more applicants that would not have been otherwise qualified. Despite there being obvious drawbacks to lower standards, the military was still being manned by volunteers. To make military service compulsory, the standards would have to be lowered even further or thrown completely out the window, and compounded by the fact that those SM's would not be there under their own free will. That in itself would be a detriment to good order and discipline. Perhaps it would be a necessary trade-off in a conventional WWIII scenario where the military needed tens of thousands of replacements for casualties. But currently speaking, it would not be practical let alone necessary.

At 19 I was drafted, obviously then immediately volunteered and stayed for a career. I don't think enough young males during the Vietnam War would have volunteered to meet combat and mission support efforts. So my answer is - it depends on the size and scope of the situation. Iif we wind up in an all out declared war - we will need the draft.

I still believe that every 18 year old still has to go to USPS and sign the SS form. It's a fallback plan. Doing away with it and mismanaging troops will lead to less boots on the ground for a war of this century that turns on a whim within nanoseconds.

As a practice doesn't it lower the quality of the force? It would seem that leading people who have chosen to be there is a less difficult endeavor.

Honestly, I'm down for it.

I served on active duty from 1960 to 1975. During that time we had the draft and in the Air Force we had the volunteers who did so to avoid being drafted. Most were good troops, but there was a few who were not.

No I do not agree with mandatory service unless that man power need can not be met by those who truly want to serve.

I am not a fan of this at all. It was hard enough leading volunteers but leading troops forced to be there would be even more difficult. Considering Soldiers cannot be hit anymore, this would not work very well at all.