Draft Classification May Resume This December

Selective Service classification proceedings, suspended since the old Selective Service Act expired July 1, may soon resume.

Henry Williams, Assistant General Counsel to the National Selective Service system, predicted yesterday that new classification regulations will be published Tuesday or Wednesday in the Federal Register, a government publication.

Publication of the new regulations in the Register means they can legally take effect 30 days later. Thus, if the regulations are published next week as predicted, classification will be able to resume by the beginning of December.

Reaction

A new provision in the Selective Service Act requires that regulations be published in the Register to give the public a chance to voice reactions. But basically, said Williams, the final regulations will be the same as those published.

Reached by telephone in Washington. Williams said the new regulations should have already been published, but that "we're having a little bit of trouble" making decisions.

One decision which may already have been made, according to a highly placed source in the Massachusetts Selective Service System, is to abolish the 1-Y classification. Men are classified 1-Y if they have a medical condition that prevents their induction unless "in time of war or national emergency."

Differentiation

According to the source, all men qualifying for 1-Y classifications will henceforth be classified IV-F ("not qualified for any military service"), although a differentiation will be made between those with permanent disabilities and those whose condition might improve enough to permit induction.

Williams wouldn't confirm plans to abolish the 1-Y classification, but said the matter was "under active consideration."

The Selective Service source said he didn't know what changes would result if the 1-Y classification was abolished, but thought the difference might be little more than semantic.

"If a guy's got one arm," he said, "does it really make any difference if he's 1-Y or IV-F or III-Z?"