There’s been a spate of headlines lately about the military draft system and with the Trump administration’s war in Iran and high school graduation right around the corner, it seemed like a very good time to make this clear:
There is no military draft in the U.S. right now and hasn’t been since the early 1970s. (And no one is talking openly or seriously about implementing one at this point, either.)
So why the headlines?
There is a change underway, however, at the Selective Service System and how that federal agency collects and maintains the list of eligible 18- to 25-year-olds who could be called into service quickly if deemed necessary.
Recently, the Selective Service put out word that by December 2026, it will drop the decades’ old system by which eligible 18-year-old men have been required to sign up for the registry for which a draft would be called to one that uses federal data sources (think Social Security, or maybe tax information) to automatically register them.
The change was mandated by law
Last year, Congress passed and President Donald Trump signed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA in Washington-speak. The change was one of dozens and dozens of measures included in it.
As for why it was thought necessary, legislation passed a few years before that dropped the prohibition on denying federal student loans to men who didn’t sign up for the Selective Service registry. By 2024, registration of eligible 18- to 25-year-olds had declined to 81%. Coincidentally, that occurred as voluntary military recruitment numbers had dipped in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (which put a crimp on recruiters’ in-person efforts and, at the same time, resulted in higher private sector wages and a hot job market as the economy rebounded).
Military recruitment has rebounded
Yes, it has. The Trump administration says all of the Armed Forces surpassed their recruiting goals for 2025 and they hit them, as well, in 2024 before former President Joe Biden left office. In 2025, 163,731 new recruits joined the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Marines combined.
You still have to register for now
While change is apparently coming, if you’re a male U.S. citizen, dual national or immigrant between the ages of 18 and 25, you still have to register with Selective Service yourself. (There are some exemptions from potential service for people who are considered disabled but they still have to register.) Failing to register qualifies as a felony for which a person can be fined up to $250,000 or face five years in prison.
And even if you don’t get caught right away, you can face some pretty serious issues after age 26 for having not signed up when you could have, like losing out on potential jobs.
You can register, by the way, at https://www.sss.gov.
Women don’t have to register
No. Despite some efforts to change it over the years, the Selective Service law only requires (and permits) men to sign up for the registry.
What would it take to restart the draft?
Congress and the president would have to declare a war or national emergency exists requiring the call-up of additional military personnel. That would be followed by lotteries to determine which men would be required to present themselves for duty, as well as the implementation of a classification system to determine who is eligible to serve, deferred, exempted, etc.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Important info for you or your son about the military draft
Reporting by Todd Spangler, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
