This is coolbert: A lot of talk has been going around in various circles lately about plans to reinstate the military draft. If this was to become the case, it would the first time that American youth will been drafted for the military in over thirty years. For the last thirty years plus, an all-volunteer military had sufficed, numbers available being adequate for the task. Now, we are told these numbers may no longer be adequate. A draft, say some, is what is needed!

It seems that two groups, having disparate viewpoints on the draft, have advocated a renewal of conscription.

One group says the military is just too lean. Does not have an adequate force for all the missions the military has been tasked with. Not enough "boots on the ground" is the common refrain. The only way to solve this problem, is to reinstate the draft and create new units to carry out the various military missions with an adequate force.

The second group that wants to reinstate the draft sees conscription in a different light. This group sees the draft as a way of preventing the U.S. government from engaging in what they see are reckless, poorly thought out, and just plain bad military misadventures throughout the world. The concept this group espouses is that by having a draft, and by having the possibility of having drafted American youth sent to fight and die in misadventures all throughout the world, will cause the parents of these youths to place such political pressure on the government that the powers in charge will hesitate and NOT deploy the military overseas.

There may be a way by which a draft could be instituted where the stress on the society would be minimized, a minimum number of young civilians drafted, and yet have fighting combat divisions formed, trained, and ready for deployment in a relatively short period of time.

This way would involve the U.S. Army reserve training divisions. Rather than build new units up from scratch, or reconstitute retired or deactivated units, use these units to gather an influx of specially selected draftees and form combat units that could be deployed oveseas in say a year.

These reserve training divisions currently consist of about fifteen hundred troops on active reserve status. The manpower of training divisions in reserve status is cadre level. Leadership positions filled by command, staff, and a NCO cadre of all MOS's found in an Army infantry division. Leaders without troops! Leaders that are fully trained and experienced. Leaders that have received special training as trainers. A training division as part of it's TOE also has a complement of drill instructors. As reservists, this training division cadre trains as a unit one weekend a month and then one two week period of summer camp per year, as would any other normal reserve unit.

During a time of war or national emergency, such as exists now, the reserve training division can be called upon to add combat strength to the existing active duty force.

This is the scenario for the activation of a reserve training division:

The training division is brought to active status and reports en masse to a fort or camp somewhere in the U.S. At this point the division would number all fifteen hundred cadre level personnel of the unit.

The division would then be sent an influx of about ten thousand raw recruits, just drafted. This would flesh out the division strengths. Keep in mind this is ten thousand raw, untrained, brand new draftees. A lot of work needs to be done!

The division TOE complement of drill instructors would then administer conventional basic training to the recruits. I am not sure how war-time basic training administered by a training division would differ from conventional peace time basic training. It may be that the basic training of a training division would differ in some way [accelerated, abbreviated, tougher, more intense??], but I am not sure if this is so. Is just speculation on my part.

Once basic training is complete for the new recruits, Advanced Individual Training [AIT] is then administered for all the different MOS's found in the division. This training is conducted by those cadre level NCO's who have been specially trained as trainers. Once again, training each and every troop in their specialty MOS may or not be abbreviated or accelerated in some fashion, I am just not sure.

Once both basic training and AIT are complete, unit training can then commence, at increasing levels of unit complexity. From squad to platoon to company to battalion to brigade and finally at division level. Those NCO trainers now become the leaders of fleshed out, trained units of troops [the previous newly drafted levees]. Unit commanding officers and staff that have been patiently waiting and drawing up unit training plans can now go to work, training the division as a division.

At some point the training division can then be evaluated and determination made as to the division's deployability. How long will this process take? Perhaps one year if things are rushed and everything is thought through and goes well. Longer if a more leisurely approach is taken.

Now, some comments about this whole process.

It may be feasible to resurrect a program the U.S. Army had during the Vietnam era. A program that produced a whole bunch of highly competent infantry squad leaders from newly inducted draftees. The U.S. Army during the Vietnam war had a voluntary program for draftees that would make infantry squad leaders out of them within a year, giving them the rank of Staff Sergeant E-6. This was unheard of. Strictly a volunteer program, soldiers who had just graduated from infantry AIT would be put into a six month intensive program that would qualify the soldier as an infantry squad leader. And this program worked! I talked on occasion to a infantry lieutenant who served in Vietnam and he said that this program positively worked. Not an easy thing or for everyone, but one that produces competent leaders quickly. Something that will be needed in this case.

I am currently familiar with two training divisions that could be brought to active duty in quick order. These are the 88th and 85th Training Divisions. In World War Two, these unit were "sister" units that fought side-by-side in the Italian theatre. The 88th Division in particular acquitted itself with distinction. Captured German documents rated this unit, the 88th, as a "shock" unit, to be greatly feared. The Germans quickly realized that wherever the 88th Division was located, was a point where a danger existed for the Germans. This is how good the 88th Division was in the eyes of the Germans. It may be that the U.S. Army has kept this in mind all these years, and kept the fighting reputation of the 88th Division in mind when they designated it and it's "sister" division as training divisions, worthy of call up if future crisis arose.

And a personal comment regarding the draftees themselves, if and when a draft commences. It would not be necessary to draft willy-nilly a large number of personnel. You could be very selective with regard as to who was picked. Test mentally and physically a large number of potential draftees and then select only the best specimens for your needs. In the case of two training divisions, this would amount to about twenty thousand draftees. Massive numbers would not be required. Just having superior manpower to work with from the start would create a big advantage.

coolbert.