Revised Armed Services Policies

The Office of Student Placement has compiled for students in the University the current regulations regarding the enlistment and commissions policies of the various Armed Services. This revised data supercedes a series of regulations published in December. The various policies will be published in the CRIMSON during the examination period.

GENERAL:

The various policies outlined below are, of course, subject to change daily. However, they represent current regulations regarding the various opportunities in the Services. As changes are made, efforts will be made to publish them.

Step 1--Under the Selective Service Act of 1946 all males between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to register with their local draft boards. In the event a student reaching the age of 18 finds it inconvenient to register at his home board, he may register with the Cambridge Local Board 17, a branch of which is located in Phillips Brooks House. The Cambridge Board will forward the registration to individual draft boards in other parts of the country.

Step 2-Some time after registration a questionnaire will be mailed to each registrant, which he must fill out and return to his local board. On the basis of the information in the questionnaire each registrant will be classified according to the following schedule.

I-A--Men available for military service.

I-A-O--Conscientious objectors who will serve, but not in combat units.

I-O--a. Inducted. Men inducted under the former draft law and presumably still in service. b. Enlisted. Men who volunteered. c. Discharged. Men who served and have been discharged. d. Reserve. Member of Reserve components already in active service.

I-D--Members of Reserve components or students taking military training.

II-A--Men in jobs essential to national health, saefty or interest.

II-A-C--Agricultural workers

III-A--Eligibles, but with dependents.

IV-A--a. Men who have completed service. b. Sole surviving sons in families that have lost other offspring in the war.

IV-B--Elected officials.

IV-C--Allens.

IV-D--Minsters or divinity students.

IV-E--Conscientious objectors who object to both combatant and non-combatant service.

IV-F--Physically, mentally, or morally unfit.

V-A--Men who have passed their 26th birthday.

Step 3--Those who receive a classification card indicating they are I-A, and who were in the upper half of their class during their previous college year (Note: This excludes Freshmen, who have no previous college year unless they are repeating. Graduate students use their last undergraduate year), may request a statement to this effect from the Registrar of the College (University Hall B). (Note: Graduate students from other colleges must obtain this statement from their own college), and send it to their local boards requesting that they be placed in deferred Class II-A. This may or may not be granted at the discretion of the local board. If II-A is granted, then no further action will be taken by the local board until the time indicated for expiration of the deferment (usually 1 July 1951). At the time of expiration of deferment, the individual case will be reviewed by the board, and the registrant either will be reclassified I-A, or his deferment will be extended. This latter will depend upon the policies, not yet determined, of Selective Service at that time.

Step 4--If a registrant is classified I-A, he will receive in due course an order to report for a pre-induction physical examination. (Note: If he has been able to obtain a II-A classification, he will not receive this order until after he has been reclassified I-A again). This examination may be taken at the Boston Army Base, 666 Summer Street, if the registrant's local board is far away, Registrants receiving such orders should report to their local boards at the time designated, or to Cambridge Local Board 17, Phillips Brooks House. In some cases, at the request of the registrant this order for pre-induction physical examination will be delayed until the end of the college year in June, even though he was not in the upper half of his class last year. The advantage of such delay is that it allows for flexibility of choice of service in June. It is important to note that any person who has received an order to report for pre-induction physical examination (the postmark on the notice is the crucial date) is frozen for Selective Service, and may not under any circumstances enlist, in any branch of the service. Currently the Army is the only Service using the Selective Service, but this does not mean that a man who is drafted will end up in the Infantry, although many will. It is also pertinent that all drafted men in the Army are eligible for OCS, and most college men will make the grade.

Step 5--Induction will take place some time after the pre-induction physical examination, but in no case will a student be inducted prior to the end of the college year. This is part of the Selective Service Act, and not left to the discretion of local boards.

This series will be continued in next week's CRIMSON.