COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – The United States Selective Service draft hasn’t be reinstated by Congress, but if needed, the system is ready to respond. That was the message Coldwater Noon Rotarians heard yesterday from the Army officer in charge of the draft in more than half of Michigan.
Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Allen of the Army Reserve National Guard is one of the state’s two Selective Service Detachment Commanders and is responsible for Branch County and 54 other counties. The primary purpose of Allen’s visit Tuesday was to recruit potential local Selective Service Board members.
Branch County’s two current Board members are Harry Fallon and Don Shemel. Allen said in the event of a national emergency, the local boards are given six and a half months to provide trained and untrained personnel to the Department of Defense. He said his responsibility is to make sure Fallon and Shemel have an area office established and be prepared if Congress or the President say they want that done in less than 193 days. Those drafted would go to reporting stations in Lansing and Detroit.
According to Allen, the same draft lottery system that was last put into effect during the Vietnam War would be used again if the need arose. He said the statutory mission of the Selective Service is to also be prepared to manage a program for men conscientiously opposed to military service
