Pentagon planning medical draft
Medics, nurses, doctors would be called up to meet mass casualties

Posted: July 25, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jon Dougherty
2003 WorldNetDaily.com

The Pentagon will draft experienced medical personnel, including medics, nurses
and physicians, in the event of a national emergency, according to a report
published by the Newhouse News Service.

The "health care personnel delivery system" is being readied by the Department
of Defense to cope with military casualties from a large-scale biological or
chemical attack. The plan was authorized by Congress in 1987 to deal with
large-scale casualties that outstripped the active-duty military's ability to
handle them.

Also, the news service reported, the Pentagon is considering other "special
skills" drafts, to include military linguists, computer experts or engineers,
that could arise from other immediate needs.

"We're going to elevate that kind of draft to be a priority," Lewis Brodsky,
acting director of the Selective Service System, told Newhouse News Service.

The plan calls for the president to issue a proclamation ordering 13.5 million
health-care professionals to register for a draft within 13 days. Following the
proclamation, Congress would quickly pass legislation authorizing the draft of
health-care workers aged 20-44, and for the first time in U.S. history, the
draft would include women.

The Pentagon would then inform the Selective Service System of the number of
personnel needed for each of the 62 medical specialties. The news service said
a separate draft lottery would be held for each specialty.

The Defense Department believes it could draft up to 80,000 personnel ?
surgeons, dentists, nurses, X-ray personnel, paramedics, etc. ? within
several months of the draft through the Military Entrance Processing Command.

The news service said the plan, however, isn't well-known among the medical
community.

"If you were to ask 10 doctors, maybe one might have heard something about it,"
Dr. Marybeth McCall, chief medical officer at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse,
N.Y., and an Air Force veteran, told the news service.

According to the Selective Service website, the medical draft would "provide a
fair and equitable draft of doctors, nurses, medical technicians and those with
certain other health-care skills if, in some future emergency, the military's
existing medical capability proved insufficient and there is a shortage of
volunteers."

It would "draft a very small percentage of America's health-care providers into
military service. Impact on the availability of civilian health care would be
minimal."

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service
Act of 1940, which created the country's first peacetime draft and formally
established the Selective Service System as an independent federal agency.

"From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were
drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through
voluntary means," says information posted on the Selective Service website.

The draft ended in 1973, near the close of the Vietnam War, and reverted to an
all-volunteer force. Registration for the draft was suspended in 1975 but
resumed again during the waning days of President Jimmy Carter's administration
in 1980, in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Men who reach their 18th birthday are required by law to register for the
draft. Newhouse News said Selective Service maintains 2,000 active draft boards
around the country that would handle appeals for exemptions, deferments and
postponements.

As WorldNetDaily reported, the U.S. was not considering a military draft to
fill combat ranks even after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"No heightened measures have been undertaken to bring the nation closer to the
re-establishment of conscription" following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on
the U.S., Selective Service said in a statement issued in November 2001.