Service enforces draft registration

Mayfair High School senior Jerad Atherton has taken a casual approach to registering for the draft.

"It was one of those things I just did," said the lanky18-year-old, graduating this year. "I didn't really think about it too much."

Though Atherton's attitude may seem a typical one for a teen-ager, it's a far cry from the attitudes of the draft-card burners of the 1960s.

Nearly 30 years after anti-Vietnam War protests resulted in a moratorium on draft registration, the federal agency that registers all 18-year-old American men for the draft still performs the task set down by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940.

The Selective Service System, which is run almost entirely by volunteers at the grass-roots level, has been charged with educating and enforcing the federal laws requiring men to register for the draft so that, in the event of a declaration of war by Congress, they can be called to serve.

Within 30 days of turning 18, a man must register with the agency by filling out a card at a U.S. Postal Service office, calling the agency by telephone, checking a box on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or by visiting the agency's Web site, said Ron Markarian, the state director of Selective Service for California.

"Congress has supplied a lot of opportunities for compliance," Markarian said, referring to the Military Selective Service Act of 
1980, imposing penalties on men not registered with the agency.

These penalties include a maximum $250,000 fine and possible prison sentence for violation of the federal law, denial of all federal student aid, including some loans and work-study programs, denial of many state and all federal job opportunities, ineligibility to participate in federally-funded job training and, for noncitizens, denial of citizenship, according to Markarian.

The law allows men to register up to age 26, at which point, Markarian said, the individual enters a "no-man's land, because you've had ample opportunity to register. That is the individual's responsibility."

The agency was established in 1940 by President Franklin Roosevelt as a result of implimentation of the Selective Training and Service Act, said Alyce Teel-Burton, public affairs specialist with Selective Service. The agency's director answers only to the president, Teel-Burton added.

In 1973, immediately following the end of the the Vietnam War the draft ended. In 1975, a 7-year suspension of the registration requirement began in response to the protests of the time, Markarian said. The protesters complained local draft boards made unfair decisions to waive service, such as for college students.

"Local boards had a high degree of autonomy for who was drafted and who was waived," he said.

President Jimmy Carter reinstated the registration process in 1980 partly because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, Markarian said, with the inclusion of at least one change. College students were no longer able to claim exemption, Markarian said. Their service would only be postponed until the end of the school term in which they are called.

"Our role [now] is to manage the registration process and conduct a fair and equitable draft should such a requirement be established by Congress," said Markarian.

The responsibility for informing young men of their duty to register, at least in California, falls in the hands of the educational community, Markarian said.

The High School Registrar program, started in 1981, enlists volunteers, such as guidance counselors or teachers, to educate students about the registration requirement, help with registration and to represent the Selective Service agency on campus.

"For me it's a real patriotic thing," said teacher Susan Selman, who has been a high school registrar at Mayfair High School in Lakewood since 1986.