Selective Service registration

A requirement for jobs with the 2010 US Census is that Males born after December 31, 1959, must be registered with the Selective Service. http://www.census.gov/2010census/jobs/007655.html
If you were born after that date are you registered?
Just curious.

Also, is this a requirement for any other federal job or educational loan?

Thanks

 

Yes - Here is the quote from the Selective Service System FAQ:

For more info, look here.

 

Interesting; I asked several young people I know here in So Cal and their uniform response was "No - what's the Selective Service System?"

 

Were these young people males? In college? The FAFSA for Federal Financial Aid specifically asks under penalty of perjury if they have registered. I always thought that an application for federal financial aid from a male would be rejected if they were not registered.

 

I registered when I turned 18 and feared that I would be drafted. 3 months later I was really excited about joining the military... funny how these things work

 

How true. I registered when I enlisted while I was 17. I was required to register when I enlisted even though I was already going in.

 

Went down to the post office on my 18th birthday and did it.

 

Oh, I don't know. Something about the 5th Amendment makes me wonder about this poll.

As for signing up, we had people already on active duty who had to sign up. (I'm a '59er; missed the deadline by 6 mos.)

 

A guy in my basic training company received a new anus courtesy of the drill sergeants when they found out he hadn't registered yet. This was during Reagan's first term when anti-Soviet sentiment was at its peak, so this poor schmoe had to wear a Soviet Army helmet instead of his BDU cap or steel pot everywhere he went for a week, and we had to address him as "Comrade Snuffy" instead of "Private Snuffy".

Further proof of my theory that drill sergeants, drill instructors, training instructors, etc., are all frustrated comedians.

 

Same here.

 

For those who would like to check their selective service status online:

https://www.sss.gov/RegVer/wfVerification.aspx

 

That's interesting. I registered when I enlisted which was 5 months prior to the date shown as being registered. But I was still registered before my 18th birthday.

 

When I turned 18 I received a card in the mail about registering, so I did it. Of course, I later found out it was a good thing because this was required to receive financial aid.

Funny thing is that now, with No Child Left Behind in play, there are certain portions of that law that require schools to allow military recruiters into schools and also provide them with certain student information. While that's not exactly related to the selective service, it does expose more students to military careers.

 

When I was active duty I worked for recruiting for the western U.S. for a while. We had a number of areas, especially in California, where teachers and professors were dead set against having military recruiters on to their campuses. The recruiters would tell us (I was an analyst) that students would spout off anti-military sayings, but that they had no idea what they were talking about. Instead they were parroting their teachers or professors. Kind of pathetic IMO. I say leave these kids to form their own opinions.

Personally I think it is a good thing to allow military recruiters access to schools and campuses. For some students, the military is the best thing. Not everyone is cut out for college and the military provides job training, a wage, and benefits that are pretty good when compared to a lot of jobs that someone would get straight out of high school.

 

While I agree that it's great to have military recruiters on campus (personally, I don't see this as any different from having career people on campus) I think most teachers had issues with the military obtaining personal information about the students as a result of NCLB. I believe that portion of NCLB has since been updated and removed, but schools still must allow recruiters in.

And you are absolutely right about some kids not being cut out for college. My school pushes everyone towards college, when they are obviously not ready for it. They seem to think everyone needs a degree. No, we also need trade professionals like carpenters or masons (many of which probably have higher salaries than we do!).

-Matt

 

That is exactly how I see military recruiters as well. They are the same as the career people on campus or in school. No one is forcing students to join the military just like no one is forcing students to take a job with a company or an organization.

 

OT Commentary Follows....

I was a military trainer for many years, including four as a training officer at Lackland and another 4 as a commandant of cadets at an AFROTC unit (San Diego State University). (Before that, I was an NCO.) What you're describing crosses the line from training to abuse. Here's why:

Training is about behavioral change. In basic military training, we put people through a lot of stuff, some of it kind of humiliating. But it's intended to improve skills, enhance knowledge, and change values. It should always be about improving the trainee. In the case Bruce describes, the drill sergeants weren't doing any of that. The behavior--failing to register--was not only outside their scope, it was something that could be dealt with immediately. Going through a week of abuse accomplished nothing. It was, as Bruce noted, their way of having fun with a trainee. If what they did was immediate and brief, maybe. But a week? What were they trying to prove? What were they trying to improve? In fact, doing it for a moment might have been funny and had a positive effect. Doing it for a week would look sadistic. And it wouldn't improve the trainee, nor the trainees around him.

According to what Bruce has said, those drill sergeants behaved as real-life caricatures of the block-headed, screaming nutballs we see in depicted in the movies. All hat, no brains.

 

Schucks missed by 10 years the other way. Anybody remember the lotter?

 

Pretty much, but I wasn't going to say anything at the time.

 

Maybe I'm dating myself, but I remember when the Regan administration brought the registration process back to life. I was 21 and went to the post office to register the day they kicked it off. It was just me and another guy in there that morning.

Not that I wanted to be first in line, I just had some time on my hands that morning and thought I would just get the whole thing out of the way.

Hopefully I'm too old to be drafted, but my Grandfather, was 45 when he was drafted into the British military during WWII. It seems they were a bit more desperate than here in the US at max draft age of 35.