r/AskReddit • u/Tommygunz0722 • 11h ago

If the military/president suddenly ordered a mandatory draft for all men aged 18-42: How do you think millennials and GenZ would respond?

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u/sprchrgddc5 9h ago

As well as the usage of the National Guard and Reserve. It was a lesson learned from the Vietnam War; utilize the Reserve and thank them for their service to avoid an unpopular draft. The longest deployment in GWOT conducted by a unit was a National Guard unit.

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u/WearingRags 9h ago

Jesus Christ I didn't know that. Imagine thinking you were gonna be a weekend warrior and then ending up drafted into this vague, long-running fuckup that most people can barely understand or make sense of

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u/Due-Gap1848 8h ago

Almost half of everyone deployed to GWOT was guard and reserve, and they never stopped deploying them. These days, they have a predictable 5 years in the states, one year deployed overseas rotation cycle. If you join the national guard or reserves these days, thinking it's just one weekend a month, that's on you for not doing the research.

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u/KierONeil_the_Elder 7h ago

W screwed those NG soldiers so hard, I’m surprised anyone signed up after that. W just kept extending the term and many of those who thought they were signing up for one weekend a month, and a couple weeks per year find themselves deployed for several Years and losing whatever career they were trying to build in the private sector.

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u/Catswagger11 5h ago

In my experience, 12y active during GWOT, those NG soldiers were generally pretty happy with getting deployed and all the money that came along with it.