Boards would decide exemptions from draft

There are 11 Selective Service System boards in Hawaii -- six on Oahu and the remaining spread throughout the neighbor islands.

All of the 55 board members and Ed Nakano, the state director, are volunteers who are not paid and were appointed for 20-year terms by the governor. Federal law prohibits retired military members, peace officers and members of the judiciary to sit on draft boards.

If Congress reinstated the draft, a lottery would be held starting with the names of men who are 20, said William Chatfield, director of the Selective Service System.

Registrants with low lottery numbers would be ordered to report for a physical, mental and moral evaluation. Once notified of the results of the evaluation, a registrant would be given 10 days to file a claim for exemption, postponement, or deferment with his local draft board. At that time, board members would begin reviewing and deciding the outcome of the registrant's case. They may personally interview the registrant and persons who know him to gain a better understanding of his situation. A man may appeal a local board's decision to a Selective Service District Appeal Board.

Current law provides exemption based only on "hardship and conscientious objection," Chatfield said. However, any man granted a "conscientious objection" exemption would still have to put into two years of some sort of non-wartime service.

Also, in contrast to the Vietnam War era, Chatfield said, "student exemptions" would be granted for only one year, generally to allow the student to graduate, and not four years.

The draft was created under the 1940 Selective Training and Service Act. From 1948 until 1973, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces that could not be filled through voluntary means. In 1973, the draft ended and the United States converted to an all-volunteer military. The registration requirement was suspended in April 1975. It was resumed again in 1980 by President Carter in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.