Through A Mirror, Darkly
The War Manpower Commission was established by President Robert Shriver after the beginning of the Great War in order to better coordinate and balance the labor needs of the uniformed services, industry, agriculture and burgeoning service sector. With nation-wide conscription in place, manpower shortages were becoming acute on some worlds, necessitating the need for coordination. The WMC's most important job is to administer the Selective Service System and to promulgate draft regulations that are enforced by local draft boards. Placements and deferrals can be appealed through the WMC's administrative law judges. The War Manpower Commission also oversees the Training Within Industry, the Summer Agricultural Assistance Program, the Vocational Apprenticeship Program and the Office of Industrial Information. Planetary War Manpower Commissions have been established with local chairs appointed by the federal WMC and local representatives to further manage local affairs. There are more than 4 million local draft boards encompassing neighborhoods, towns, cities or entire counties. Membership on local draft boards is extremely prestigious, and is generally limited to members of the American Legion, Gold Star Families of America, Daughters of the American Revolution or Sons of Confederate Veterans.
All Americans register for the Selective Service System upon their 16th birthday with their local draft board, at which point they are given their first physical for the Selective Service. During their sophomore year of high school, all students take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test to determine their future military occupational specialty. All conscientious objector and preference forms must be submitted before their 17th birthday, at which point a student will undergo an additional physical along with an interview with the draft board and a psychiatric evaluation. Determinations for placement and potential deferrals are mailed at the end of January before their high school graduation. Draftees will serve for twenty four months in peacetime followed by a term of four years in the reserves, or for the duration during wartime (not to exceed 72 months), but they may reenlist for two, three or six additional years, though many are discharged early due to injury or by their Advanced Service Rating Score that is determined by months of service, months of service overseas, combat awards and dependencies under the age of 18 (the ASRS starts to accrue after 2 years of service). Draftees may not serve away from their home world if they do not volunteer to do so, and on many worlds, most American teenagers receive draft deferrals and are never called to service, but on worlds ravaged by war, most teenagers are drafted and serve for the duration, losing the best years of their lives to the Great War.
