Free Republic

Are you a man born in Pennsylvania between 1893 and 1897? If so, a government agency may have just reminded you to register for the draft. The Selective Service System, which keeps a roster of potential men who can be enlisted in the military, inadvertently sent out mailings to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born in those years, reminding them to register. These letters were sent due to a computer error, the agency said in a message posted online, and the Selective Service has apologized to the families who have received these letters. The problem occurred following an automated data...

No, the United States isn’t trying to build a military force of centenarians. It just seems that way after the Selective Service System mistakenly sent notices to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born between 1893 and 1897, ordering them to register for the nation’s military draft and warning that failure to do so is “punishable by a fine and imprisonment.” The agency realized the error when it began receiving calls from bewildered relatives last week. Chuck Huey, 73, of Kingston, said he got a notice addressed to his late grandfather Bert Huey, a World War I veteran who was born...

No, the United States isn't trying to build a military force of centenarians. It just seems that way after the Selective Service System mistakenly sent notices to more than 14,000 Pennsylvania men born between 1893 and 1897, ordering them to register for the nation's military draft and warning that failure to do so is "punishable by a fine and imprisonment." The agency realized the error when it began receiving calls from bewildered relatives last week.

‘Was He Worth It?” blared the cover of Time magazine, as if that should be the question Americans ask in light of the release of Bowe Bergdahl after five years of brutal captivity by the Taliban. No, the question we should be asking is a version of the one Pope Francis made famous in a different context: “Who Are We To Judge?” Who are we, in the safety of our civilian homes, to judge whether an American soldier captured overseas is worthy of rescue? Who are we to decide whether, somehow, the fact that he was imprisoned for so many...

Saving energy is not an easy task but how do the Boeing engineers do it? The answer is flying above you.

Could Johnny Football ditch the pads and cleats for a future on the diamond as Johnny Baseball? Probably not. But he might want to consider it. The Cleveland Browns quarterback was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 28th round (No. 837 overall) of the 2014 MLB Draft Saturday. Manziel was listed as a shortstop for Texas A&M, although he hasn't stepped foot on the baseball diamond since his junior year of high school. Apparently, he was a pretty decent infielder and even talked to Texas A&M baseball coaches about joining the team in 2012.

see link to see who your ball club drafted today...

Last January 2013, then Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, ordered the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the feasibility of opening all military jobs to women by 2016. This would include more than 200,000 jobs that make up the core of the ground-level combat force in the Army and the Marine Corps. Opponents of women in combat argue, rightly in my opinion, that the military's physical standards must not be compromised to expand access because our military's fighting effectiveness is at stake. Hauling 50 pounds of equipment while walking 20 miles is a standard that must not be demoted as it...

Michael Sam, who became the first openly gay football player drafted on Saturday in the seventh round, believes he should have been drafted in the first three rounds.

The NFL draft — the league’s Radio City-staged, nationally televised, endlessly hyped off-season spectacle — opens Thursday night, and for the first time an openly gay player will be waiting for a phone call. But it could be a long wait for Michael Sam, the University of Missouri defender and all-American who came out in February. Draft analysts say he might not be selected until the last picks are made on Saturday — and perhaps not at all. If that happens, Sam could still sign with a team as an undrafted free agent and play on Sundays this fall. But...

<p>After the big names are off the board in the NFL Draft, the biggest question may not be when Michael Sam will be picked, it may be whether Michael Sam will be picked at all. Despite being named the Defensive Player of the Year in the SEC, Sam’s underwhelming physical measurables and his lack of a defined role in defenses could prevent him from being the first openly gay player selected in the draft.</p>

Just breaking on AFP. More as it becomes available.

Mounting tension in the Crimea is prompting calls for compulsory military service to be reintroduced in Germany. A number of German ex-generals have raised fears over the nation’s military strength should it be drawn into a NATO-led conflict. “We need compulsory military service. There is no other way for Germany to guarantee national defense within the [NATO] mutual defense alliance,” retired NATO general Egon Ramms told Bild newspaper. “[It certainly can’t be done] on a voluntary basis.” Ramms was commander of the Allied Joint Forces Command between 2007 and 2010, one of the highest-ranking positions in the NATO alliance. …

Ten city blocks of Manhattan became a river of black Sunday as 50,000 dark-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets to protest Israel's proposal to force their young boys into its army. The gathering took up a stretch of Water Street, with demonstrators standing behind police barricades amid tight security as they prayed in solidarity with their brethren in Israel. 'These kids, a lot of them don't know how to hold a gun. They don't know what physical warfare is,' said Long Island rabbinical student Shmuel Gruis.

Trent Richardson has become the cautionary tale for NFL teams using first-round picks on running backs. The days of the first-round running back aren't dead, but 2014 could be the second straight year no backs are selected in Round 1 after at least one had been taken in the first round in the previous 50 years. It's not that the running game is dead in the NFL, as some would have you believe. The Seattle Seahawks' offense was fueled by the run, as was that of the San Francisco 49ers. Successful teams such as the Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots,...

Today is the day the Syfy channel has it's annual Twilight Zone marathon. I just watched the 1963 episode "In Praise Of Pip", which has the Vietnam war as its background. I got to thinking of those times (I was 13 then) and the fact that I knew several guys of draft age that got MARRIED pretty much to get out of going over there because they weren't taking married men then. I can't remember anyone who thought that getting married to avoid the draft was a particularly bad idea back then. Weird huh?

At this time of Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the U.S. military — not just for the usual reason that it protects us from our foes but also because it has the potential to save us from ourselves. As I make my rounds each day in the capital, chronicling our leaders’ plentiful foibles, failings, screw-ups, inanities, outrages and overall dysfunction, I’m often asked if there’s anything that could clean up the mess. My usual answer is a shrug and an admission that there’s no silver bullet. There are many possibilities — campaign spending limits, term limits, nonpartisan primaries, nonpartisan redistricting, a...

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said that for various reasons Russia will not switch to a fully professional armed forces in the foreseeable future, but soon conscripts will no longer be used in combat missions. Speaking in a televised interview on the Rossiya-2 television, Shoigu noted that Russia’s vast territory was the main reason for keeping the military draft. “To have a purely professional army, our territory is too big. We have to have the opportunity for mobilization” the minister said. The official explained that the top military command had already taken the decision to create a permanent mobilization reserve...

The matador’s bright red cape and his agile moves to anger and tire the animal are the outstanding metaphor used by Attorney W. L. Albert. Moore, Jr., who is bringing an Amicus Curiae in support of lead appellant L. Dean Johnson in the request for an Alabama Supreme Court oral argument in yet another case dismissed by lower courts in the Barack Obama eligibility saga. Moore, no relation to Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, is a nationally certified fraud attorney who has a completely new angle on the American political nightmare that just will not die. Moore told CiR...

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Sunday renewed his call to reinstate the draft, arguing a vote should be held on mandatory military service before any decision is taken to launch strikes against Syria. “I truly believe we should have a National Draft Act before the Congress acts,” Rangel told MSNBC. Rangel, a decorated veteran of the Korean War, has for several years introduced legislation to bring back the draft and earlier this, for the first time, advocated that women should be included. The New York lawmaker said the burden of war unfairly falls on lower-income Americans. “They are not in...