Mr. Duschene, your column of April 14 was amazing. In it, you totally lambasted a presentation on the draft that you neither attended nor made any attempt to find out about. Since I made the presentation, I would like to get a chance to respond. Until you do a bit of research on the draft, your statements should be a bit more guarded. My presentation was based upon observations made in four years in the Army as an intelligence analyst and one year as an infantryman in the Guard. Consider a few facts:

1. 10,000 draft board members nationwide have been trained (ask Sgt. Kaelin at Sycamore Armory about his draft board training).

2. Selective service was taken out of so-called “deep standing” in 1980 after seven years. Since then, 16 million men have registered. Congress could enact the draft immediately.

3. At my class at regional PLDC (preliminary leadership development course) I was told by a National Guard Master Sgt. that the return of the draft is inevitable, including, for the first time, drafting people into Guard units.

With these things in mind, consider how little knowledge you expressed and how much personal attack was in your column. To be brief, Dave, “… are you going to eat that last Ding-Dong?”

Tom Rogers

jls

research committee