Agree with what you and others have said. From what I've see and been told by those in a better position to know, the initial version of the volunteer army was extremely weak. However, the Army learned quickly and by the time I dealt directly with so many volunteers in the mid 80's thru the 90's, the improvement was amazing. Those are good kids, good men and women, good soldiers. It was my honor to have a company of wiredogs working for and with me for several years.

Re the draft, I have always favored its reinstatement, not so much for the sake of the military but for the sake of the individuals and American society in general. If I Were King, everyone, regardless of gender, social position, educational situation, marital status, possibly even physical status (to a degree) would be obligated to and would serve at least 2 years of government service at a site far distant from their home. As so many of us learned and accept when we look in retrospect, we profited tremendously from being removed from the comfort of our environment and placed with a cross section of people with whom we'd normally never associate into a strange situation. But I'll go along with those whose military experience is greater than mine. Don't screw up the military for yet another social experiment.