Service In The Armed Forces

Toward a Consensus on Military Service: Report of the Atlantic Council's Working Group on Military Service compiles the work of several authors who are all members of Working Group on Military service. Each chapter tackles relevant issues regarding the U.S. peacetime military volunteer force, such as its previous experiences and future prospects. The opening chapter covers the setting, which in turn provides a geopolitical overview of the issues faced by the U.S. military. The next chapter discusses the history of American military recruitment system, from colonial times up to the last draft era. Chapter 3 tackles the present and future of the U.S. security requirements, while the next chapter discusses the concept of an all-volunteer force as well as its implications. The fifth chapter provides an analysis of the experience and prospects of military reserves in the all-volunteer era. Chapter 6 discusses the possible repercussions of an all-volunteer forces as well as the possible remedy of such predicament. Chapter 7 explains several recruitment options for both active and reserve forces, while the Chapter 8 discusses the use of a compulsory military service when an all-volunteer system is proven inadequate. The ninth chapter examines the relationship between how the U.S. military builds up its military manpower and how it affects U.S. society both morally and ethically. The last chapter provides recommendation based on the information inferred from the previous chapter.

In 1950, when he commissioned the first edition of The Armed Forces Officer, Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall told its author, S.L.A. Marshall, that "American military officers, of whatever service, should share common ground ethically and morally." In this new edition, the authors methodically explore that common ground, reflecting on the basics of the Profession of Arms, and the officer's special place and distinctive obligations within that profession and especially to the Constitution.

Committee Serial No. 12. Considers the extension of the Universal Military Training and Service Act to provide for the conscription of men for compulsory military service, and considers possible technical changes in the Act to provide a more equitable means of drafting servicemen.

In September 1939, Canada’s tiny army began its remarkable expansion into a wartime force of almost half a million soldiers. Building the Army’s Backbone tells the story of how senior leadership created a corps of non-commissioned officers (NCOs) that helped the burgeoning force train, fight, and win. This innovative book uncovers the army’s two-track NCO production system: locally organized training programs were run by units and formations, while centralized training and talent-distribution programs were overseen by the army. Ultimately, this two-pronged system produced a corps of NCOs that collectively possessed the necessary skills in leadership, tactics, and instruction to help the army succeed in battle.

Problems stemming from the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs are by no means a new phenomenon, although the face of the issues has changed in recent years. National trends indicate substantial increases in the abuse of prescription medications. These increases are particularly prominent within the military, a population that also continues to experience long-standing issues with alcohol abuse. The problem of substance abuse within the military has come under new scrutiny in the context of the two concurrent wars in which the United States has been engaged during the past decade-in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn). Increasing rates of alcohol and other drug misuse adversely affect military readiness, family readiness, and safety, thereby posing a significant public health problem for the Department of Defense (DoD). To better understand this problem, DoD requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) assess the adequacy of current protocols in place across DoD and the different branches of the military pertaining to the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces reviews the IOM's task of assessing access to SUD care for service members, members of the National Guard and Reserves, and military dependents, as well as the education and credentialing of SUD care providers, and offers specific recommendations to DoD on where and how improvements in these areas could be made.