Tuesday. June 21. 1966 Summer Session Kansan
Page 7
Here's data on draft
WASHINGTON-(UPI)—Next to his girl's telephone number, the most important figures for a young man to memorize are:
Four out of 10
Eight to one
The first figure—four out of 10-tells him his chances of serving in the armed forces.
The ratio eight to one expresses the odds against his being sent to Viet Nam if he goes into the Army. The odds against assignment to Viet Nam are even longer if he goes into the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard.
PUTTING THESE facts together leads to the conclusion that the chances are comparatively slim—no more than one out of 25—that any particular youth will see combat duty even if the Vietnamese war should drag on for many years.
That is the brass-tacks answer to one of the questions young American males are asking about the military service obligation which hangs over their heads from the time they register for the draft, at age 18, until they reach the comparative safety of their 26th birthday.
- Is Congress likely to make any drastic changes in the Selective Service law?
OTHER QUESTIONS that are haunting draft-age youths include:
Should I enlist or wait to be drafted?
- What's the outlook on deferments?
- What options are available if I decide to enlist?
- ● How much will I be paid if I put on a uniform?
- Are military training programs any good as preparation for civilian careers?
- What educational and other benefits may I earn by serving in the armed forces?
BEFORE GOING into these other questions, perhaps we'd better explain the statistical basis for the previous statement that a youth has a four out of 10 chance of military service.
There is a widespread impression—carefully nurtured by some Selective Service officials—that virtually every young man who is physically and mentally qualified will see military service of some sort before he's 26.
THIS MAY HAVE been substantially true during the 1950's, when the annual crop of 18-year-old males reflecting the comparatively low birth rates of World War II years was around one million. Now, however, the nation is feeling the effects of the postwar baby boom. Young men are turning 18 at a rate of nearly two million a year.
The military buildup for the Viet Nam war, now in progress, will bring the strength of the armed forces to just over three million men. To maintain a military establishment of that size—and its reserve components—the services must take in about 800,-000 men a year. Thus they need approximately 40 per cent of the available manpower supply.
WHAT HAPPENS to the other 60 per cent?
About 45 per cent are found unqualified for military service on mental, physical or moral grounds. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are idiots, cripples or crooks.
The mental test is so stiff that some high school graduates flunk it. The physical standards are sufficiently rigorous to exclude a number of highly-paid professional athletes. Even a minor criminal record is considered grounds for moral disqualification.
This leaves 15 per cent who are fit for service, but who manage to avoid it by obtaining repeated deferments.
ALTHOUGH MOST people are familiar with the way the draft operates, it won't hurt to review the basic facts:
- A young man must register in person with his home-town draft board within five days of his 16th birthday. Failure to register on time is punishable by a $10,-000 fine or up to five years in prison.
- The local board "classifies" each registrant. There are 18 clasifications, ranging from I-A (available for military service) through V-A (the classification given to a man when he becomes too old for service).
- A REGISTRANT may appeal his classification to regional and national review boards.
- High school students are automatically placed in a special deferred classification (1-S) until they graduate or reach their 20th birthday.
- College students may be deferred on a year-to-year basis if they are making satisfactory academic progress in full-time studies, and if their local boards can meet their quotas without calling on them. At the present time, no draft boards are finding it necessary to call college students.
- Fathers, clergymen, seminary students, and certain public officials (including members of Congress), are draft-proof.
- Deferments may be granted, at the local board's discretion, to teachers, Peace Corpsmen, persons holding critical jobs in defense industries, and those whose induction would cause "extreme hardship" to dependent families.
- MARRIAGE WITHOUT fatherhood does not affect a man's draft classification.
- In filling their monthly quotas, local boards call up the oldest men available in their 1-A pool. Each registrant has an "order number" determined by his date of birth, and is inducted only when his number comes up. At present, the average age at induction is 20 years and seven months. But this national average leaves room for variation between one board and another.
Q. Is Congress likely to make any drastic changes in the Selective Service Law?
A. No. There'll be lengthy congressional committee hearings this month and next month on proposed changes in the draft machinery, including the perennial demand for a lottery system to determine who's called up. As for abolishing the draft, or allowing the law to expire next year, the prospects are close to zero.
A. If you are willing and able to remain a full-time college student until you're 26, you have—as indicated above—a good chance of avoiding military service entirely. You're also home free if you should get married and beget a child before the local board sends greetings.
Q. IS IT SMARTER to enlist or wait to be drafted?
Q. What are the advantages in sitting tight and waiting for word from the draft board?
A. You will be able to choose—within broad limits — when, where, how long and in what kind of military job you'll serve. Draftees get no such choice.
A. There are pros and cons to both alternatives. Each individual must weigh them for himself and make his own decision.
Q. What are the advantages of enlisting?
Q. IS THERE ANY guarantee that I'll get the assignment I want?
A. If you sign up for at least three years, the Army offers a written guarantee that you'll be sent to the particular technical
school you have chosen. The need for specialists in the modern Army is so acute that highly trained technicians nearly always are used in their own fields. The other services do not offer any guarantees, but do try to assign enlistees to the type of training they wish.
Q. Can I choose the area of the world in which I will serve?
A. The Army will enter into a firm pre-enlistment agreement whereby your first assignment after basic training will be in Europe, Korea, the Far East or Alaska, whichever you choose. But if you select your area, you usually cannot also choose your military occupation. This option is open only to persons signing up for four or more years.
Q. CAN I DISCHARGE my military obligation in the reserves or National Guard?
A. Yes, if you can find an opening in a specific reserve or guard unit. Quotas are limited and you may encounter long waiting lists. You must sign up for six years, of which you will spend from four months (Army, Air Force, and Marines) to two years (Navy) on what is called "active duty for training." The remainder of your six-year hitch will be spent in "ready reserve" status, which means attending a drill period usually about two hours once a week, and spending two weeks each summer in field training.
Q. What are the chances for becoming an officer?
A. Good for college graduates.
There are two routes: College ROTC programs and officer candidate schools.
Q. HOW MUCH WILL I be paid in the service?
A. Recruits get $87.90 a month.
Unless you're a real goof-off, you should make private first class, seaman, or airman second class within a few months. The basic pay rate for that grade is $117.00.
Enlisted pay ranges up through numerous gradations, according to rank and length of service, to a peak base pay of $636.90 a month for a sergeant major specialist or master chief petty officer with more than 26 years service. In addition, there are extra allowances for various jobs.
career while I'm in the service.
A. Yes, definitely. Many of the military technical schools offer training that can be utilized in civilian occupations. Through the Armed Forces Institute any serviceman can take excellent correspondence courses (up to 200 to choose from) at no cost whatever beyond an initial registration fee of $5.
Q. WHAT EDUCATIONAL benefits do I receive after I get out?
Q. Can I prepare for a civilian career while I'm in the service?
A. You are entitled to one month of government-subsidized schooling (college, high school or trade school) for every month you spend in the service, up to a maximum of 36 months. This applies, however, only to men who put in more than six months on active duty—in other words, not to the short-term reservists.
Dobson appears at school party
Chuck Dobson, former KU student present city pitching for the Kansas City A's, made a brief appearance at a Maur Hill School alumni party held in Kansas City after the Farmers' Night ball game.
Dobson plans to return to KU to continue his studies for a degree, according to a statement from his mother.
He appeared with his parents at the party.
Cyprus remains hot little island
By Phil Newsom
UPI Foreign News Analyst
Generally it is a dull life for the men of the United Nations force stationed on the island of Cyprus. Their job is to prevent Greek and Turkish Cypriots from going at each others' throat.
An explosion rocks the night just outside the closely guarded Turkish quarter in Nicosia, the
65 honored in fine arts
Sixty-five students earned places on the dean's honor roll of the KU School of Fine Arts in the spring semester.
Nine students earned a perfect record of all "A" grades in the semester. They are:
Karla Anderson, Minneapolis senior; Susan Ebel, Topeka senior; Nicholas Fryman, Horton senior; James McCalla, Lawrence junior; Loran Mundy, Englewood senior; Connie J. Roeder, Burlington senior; Veda Rogers, Quenemo senior; Judith Strunk, Abilene freshman; Beverly Stuart, University City junior.
OTHERS ON THE HONOR roll are Dennis Alexander, Copeland freshman; Donna Allen, St. Louis senior; Jo P. Bailey, Boone; Barbara Jean Barnes, Osage City freshman; Dorothy Bartlett, Moran senior; Kay Black, Lawrence senior; Jeanette Blevins, Spearville senior; Linda Dreher, Winfield junior.
Mary Eckhoff, Leawood junior;
Marsha Farewell, Norton sophomore;
Melinda Grable, Shawnee Mission freshman; Janice Gray, Ft. Scott senior; Heather Hageman, Hutchinson senior; David Immenschuh, Great Bend junior;
Keith Jones, Walnut sophomore;
Ineta Williams, Wichita senior;
Ji Wright, St. Louis sophomore.
David Young, Golden senior;
Evelyn Young, St. Louis senior;
Sharyn Young, Shawnee Mission freshman; Berry Klingman,
Galesburg sophomore; Charles Kraemer, Marysville senior; Jerry Krebs, Garden City senior;
Janice Kunkle, Leawood freshman.
SUSAN LAWRENCE. Bartlesville senior; Nancy Linn, Bloomfield Hills senior; Janet Loofbourrow, Shawnee Mission mission; Dennis Lyell, Des Moines sophomore; Janet Macheak, Sioux Falls senior; Geraldine Marion, Oklahoma City senior; Sarah Mercaday, Lincoln junior.
Virginia Melzarek, Shawnee Mission senior; Susan Millard, Overland Park sophomore; Lynus Miller, Salina senior; Ponchita Miller, Shawnee Mission sophomore; Larry Millsap, Pratt senior; Ardis Moore, Independence junior; David Murrrow, Topeka freshman; Mary Patrick, Mitchell senior; Glenn Patton, Cunningham junior.
Lorena Peterson, Salina senior; Thomas Quinsey, Arcata senior; G. Findlay Reed Jr., Leawood senior; Mary Beth Roeder, Burlington freshman; Mama Ross, Leavenworth senior; Sara Crites Row, Great Bend senior; Ann Russell, Maple Hill senior; Carolyn Schmitt, Scott City sophomore; Harley Scott, Kansas City senior.
Suzanne Sears, Pauline sophomore; Jane Sexton, Urbana sophomore; Thomas Shortlidge, Park Ridge senior; June Sutton, Princeton sophomore; John Tibbetts, Lansing freshman; Linda Werkley, Philadelphia sophomore; Nancy Wheeler, Lawrence senior.
capital.
A man dies in a short, sharp clash in the port city of Famagusta.
OCCASIONALLY TURK or Greek will emerge from behind the sandbag barricade and then it is an eye for an eye. Tension mounts and recedes until it is almost a rhythm, a way of life now dragging through its third year with no solution yet in sight.
And in the United Nations, Secretary General U Thant asks a six-month extension of the 4.861-man UN force as if it would go on forever.
He condemns "totally irresponsible" acts which revive old suspicions and prevent normalcy.
AND HE SAYS the island's 100,000 Turks and 465,000 Greeks are prisoners of their own leaders, whose demands each day become more uncompromising.
On the island there is no will to seek a solution, only a seeming content with stalemate with the outnumbered Turks drawn back into tiny enclaves and the Greeks content to let them stay there. More than ever it appears that if a solution is to be found, it must come from the outside.
And what peace there is on Cyprus would not be there were it not for the United Nations.
UNDER 1959 treaties of Zurich and London, Cyprus attained its independence.
Fighting broke out just before Christmas, 1963, over President Archbishop Makarios' attempt to amend the constitution to eliminate a Turkish veto.
The Zurich agreement had established that the president of Cyprus should be a Greek and the vice-president a Turk. Each had veto power over measures they believed unfavorable to their own particular group.
The London agreement established British right to bases on the island.
THE TWO AGREEMENTS also sought to legislate out of existence Makarios' known ambition for enosis (union) with Greece.
Altogether it was unworkable from the start. And the differences that existed between ethnic Greeks and Turks on Cyprus then exist today with irritation piled upon irritation.
Makarios continues to insist upon eventual union, and the Turks remain adamantly opposed, backed by the Turkish government whose jet fighters are only 40 miles away.
UNITED STATES contributions to the UN operation are by far the largest and now run around $20 million out of a total cost of about $50 million. Estimates published last March, the last time the UN peace force was extended, placed the deficit at around $7 million.
What feeble hopes there are for any early agreement on Cyprus rest with the home governments of Greece and Turkey. Foreign ministers of each conferred in Brussels just after the NATO ministers' meeting and additional meetings are planned.
Graduates holding summer jobs in AEC
Two KU graduate students have summer research positions in the laboratory of the Savannah River Plant and Laboratory of the Atomic Energy Commission between Aiken, S.C., and Augusta, Ga.
They are Deane E. Peterson chemistry, from Monmouth, Ill., and Dale E. Starchman, radiation biophysics, from Asbury, Mo.