Conscription and the All-Volunteer Army in Historical Perspective

Despite the fact that the President, the Secretaries of Defense and the several uniformed services, the Chiefs of Staff, and leaders of Congress have declared the all-volunteer force viable and are committed to making it work in peacetime, some Army officers continue to insist that the volunteer Army is not working. These officers argue that before the Army can ever begin to perform its assigned functions adequately the active and reserve components must be filled to authorized strength with quality soldiers and that the replacement system cannot be left to the whims of voluntary enlistments. The consensus of this group is that experiment has not produced sufficient forces at an acceptable cost and should be scrapped.