The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains a database of registered male U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription ("the draft").
Although the U.S. military is currently an all-volunteer force, registration is still required for contingency planning and preparation for two types of draft: a general draft based on registration lists of males aged 18–25 years old and a special-skills draft based on professional licensing lists of workers in specified health care occupations. In the event of either type of draft, the Selective Service System would send out induction notices, adjudicate claims for deferments or exemptions, and assign draftees classified as conscientious objectors to alternative service work.
All male U.S. citizens and immigrant non-citizens who are between the ages of 18 and 25 are required by law to have registered within 30 days of their 18th birthdays and must notify the Selective Service within ten days of any changes to any of the information they provided on their registration cards, such as a change of address. The Selective Service System is a contingency mechanism in the event conscription becomes necessary.
Beginning on December 18, 2026, the requirement for male U.S. citizens and residents ages 18 through 25 to register themselves with the Selective Service System will be replaced with a requirement for the Selective Service System to register them "automatically" on the basis of other federal government databases. This results from a provision of the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
Registration with Selective Service may be required for various federal programs and benefits, including job training, federal employment, and naturalization.
The Selective Service System provides the names of all registrants to the Joint Advertising Marketing Research and Studies (JAMRS) program for inclusion in the JAMRS Consolidated Recruitment Database. The names are distributed to the services for recruiting purposes on a quarterly basis.
Regulations are codified at Title 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter XVI.
History
1917 to 1920
Following the U.S. declaration of war against Germany on 6 April, the Selective Service Act of 1917 (40 Stat. 76) was passed by the 65th United States Congress on 18 May 1917, creating the Selective Service System. President Woodrow Wilson signed the act into law after the U.S. Army failed to meet its target of expanding to 1 million men after six weeks. The act gave the president the power to conscript men for military service. All men aged 21 to 30 were required to enlist for military service for a 12-month period. As of mid-November 1917, all registrants were placed in one of five new classifications. Men in Class I were the first to be drafted, and men in lower classifications were deferred. Dependency deferments for registrants who were fathers or husbands were especially widespread. The age limit was later raised in August 1918 to a maximum age of 45. The military draft was discontinued in 1920.
1940 to 1947
Conflict Dates active Number ofwartime draftees World War I September 1917 – November 1918 2,810,296 World War II November 1940 – October 1946 10,110,104 Korean War June 1950 – June 1953 1,529,539 Vietnam War August 1964 – February 1973 1,857,304
YearTotal draftees 1917 516,212 1918 2,294,084 1940 18,633 1941 923,842 1942 3,033,361 1943 3,323,970 1944 1,591,942 1945 945,862 1946 183,383 1947 0 1948 20,348 1949 9,781 1950 219,771 1951 551,806 1952 438,479 1953 473,806 1954 253,230 1955 152,777 1956 137,940 1957 138,504 1958 142,246 1959 96,143 1960 86,602 1961 118,586 1962 82,060 1963 119,265 1964 112,386 1965 230,991 1966 382,010 1967 228,263 1968 296,406 1969 283,586 1970 162,746 1971 94,092 1972 49,514 1973 646
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was passed by Congress on 16 September 1940, establishing the first peacetime conscription in United States history. It required all men between the ages of 18 and 64 to register with the Selective Service. To register, men typically completed a D.S.S. Form 1 Military Draft Registration Card from the Director of Selective Service. Over 49 million draft cards, including The Old Man's Draft, were completed.
It originally conscripted all men aged 21 to 35 for a service period of 12 months. In 1941, the military service period was extended to 18 months; later that year, the age bracket was increased to include men aged 18 to 37. In 1940, the act had registered 16 million men between the ages of 21 and 36. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and the subsequent declarations of war by the United States against the Empire of Japan and, a few days later, against Nazi Germany, the service period was extended in early 1942 to last for the duration of the war, plus a six-month service in the Organized Reserves. Until late 1942, the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps relied only on volunteers, and all those drafted before late 1942 went only to the Army or the Army Air Corps. Of those called up for service during the war, nearly 2 million were rejected by the draft boards for "neuropsychiatric reasons." The most common "neuropsychiatric reason" was homosexuality, which was considered to be a mental illness in the 1940s, and as such, the military refused to accept homosexuals. Another four million were rejected for medical or educational reasons, such as being near-sighted, having rotten teeth, or being illiterate. Because too many men were rejected for health or education, the U.S. Army was forced to take remedial actions. During the war, 25,000 Army dentists pulled 15 million rotten teeth and placed 2.5 million sets of dentures while Army optometrists fitted 2.25 million men with eyeglasses. Nearly a million men took educational courses to teach them how to read and write. In November 1942, Congress passed the Tydings Amendment, exempting all agricultural workers from the draft, thereby sparing an estimated 2 million men from serving in the war.
The question of drafting African-American men caused much controversy, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt had promised several civil rights leaders in 1940 that the draft would be a color-blind one, and the Selective Service Act of 1940 stated "there shall be no discrimination against any person on the account of race or color." However, the U.S. military practiced segregation during the war, as African Americans did not serve alongside men of other races and in practice were only drafted to keep the all-black units of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Army Air Force up to strength. Furthermore, the military, as a general rule, preferred to use African-American servicemen only in menial roles and tried as much as possible to avoid sending African Americans into combat out of a belief that they were not brave enough. As such, the Army in particular did not form many divisions out of the African-American men drafted, which limited the number subject to the draft. Due to these practices, in early 1943, African-Americans made up 10.6% of the American population, but only 6% of the men serving in the military.
The issue of conscientious objectors was controversial during the war. In World War I, only the so-called "peace churches," namely the Mennonites, the Quakers, and the Brethren, had been allowed to reject national service on grounds of conscience. The 1940 Selective Service Act allowed the same exemption to the "peace churches" but also allowed anyone "who, because of religious training or belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form." In practice, draft boards would exempt anyone who proved they were opposed to war on the grounds of some religious belief, which allowed more to claim conscientious objector status than had been the case in World War I. About 75,000 individuals claimed conscientious objector status; about half of these claims were accepted by the draft boards. Married men were exempt from the draft, and in late 1940, about 40% of those called up for the draft could evade it by promptly getting married. In February 1942, General Hershey, who was responsible for the draft, complained "that most of the recent marriages...might have been to evade the draft."
In his 1945 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the draft be expanded to include female nurses (male nurses were not allowed) to overcome a shortage that was endangering military medical care. This sparked a debate in the House of Representatives about the drafting of all women, which ultimately failed. The House passed a bill to draft nurses, but it died without a vote in the Senate. The publicity caused more nurses to volunteer, and agencies streamlined recruiting.
The Selective Service System created by the 1940 act was terminated by the act of 31 March 1947.
1948 to 1969
The Selective Service Act of 1948, enacted in June of that year, created a new and separate system, the basis for the modern system. All men 18 years and older had to register with the Selective Service. All men between the ages of 18 and 25 were eligible to be drafted for a service requirement of 21 months. This was followed by a commitment for either 12 consecutive months of active service or 36 consecutive months of service in the reserves, with a statutory term of military service set at a minimum of five years total. Conscripts could volunteer for military service in the regular United States Army for a term of four years or the Organized Reserves for a term of six years. Due to deep postwar budget cuts, only 100,000 conscripts were chosen in 1948. In 1950, the number of conscripts was greatly increased to meet the demands of the Korean War (1950–1953).
The outbreak of the Korean War led to the creation of the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1951. This lowered the draft age from 19 to , increased active-duty service time from 21 to 24 months, and set the statutory term of military service at a minimum of eight years. Students attending a college or training program full-time could request an exemption, which was extended as long as they were students. A Universal Military Training clause was inserted that would have made all men obligated to perform 12 months of military service and training if the act were amended by later legislation. Despite successive attempts over the coming years, however, such legislation was never passed.
President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11119 (signed on 10 September 1963), granting an exemption from conscription for married men between the ages of 19 and 26. His vice president and later successor as president, Lyndon B. Johnson, later rescinded the exemption for married men without children by (signed on 26 August 1965 and going into effect at midnight on that date). However, married men with children or other dependents and men married before the executive order went into effect were still exempt. President Ronald Reagan revoked both of these exemptions with in February 1986.
The Military Selective Service Act of 1967 expanded the ages of conscription to the ages of 18 to 55. It still granted student deferments but ended them upon either the student's completion of a four-year degree or his 24th birthday, whichever came first.
1969 to 1975