My recollection from the 1950s is that President Eisenhower wished that every youth physically capable should be required to gain military experience, preferably while still a minor. In his approach to Uniform Military Training, he summarized his view toward it in his Executive Order of 1955 Renewing The Selective Service Act(click here):
"The first concerns the selective service act which expires next June 30th. For the foreseeable future, our standing forces must remain much larger than voluntary methods can sustain. We must, therefore, extend the statutory authority to induct men for two years of military service."From personal experience reflecting on my own past, entering the shock of university life directly out of high school without the military supervision of attaining personal accountability for one's behavior, I became quite soon fully persuaded of the need for the maturation into adulthood that two years of service could provide.
I believe it still would be a great benefit to both the individual and to the nation to reinstitute the draft, a boon which has since been scotched by the "do-gooders" of Congress.
“I believe it still would be a great benefit to both the individual and to the nation to reinstitute the draft, a boon which has since been scotched by the “do-gooders” of Congress.”
A minimum 2 year stint would be a great benefit which is why Congress will not allow it. Congress needs division and American haters to serve the current purpose of Congress.