The Pentagon says the U.S. should stick with mandatory registration for a military draft --- and also require women to sign up. The recommendation is contained in a report to Congress to serve as a starting point for examining the military.
“Now that they've opened a majority of the combat positions to women it just makes sense women should be required to do the same thing their fellow make citizens are,” says Charles "Bill" McClain, Army Major General (ret.).
About two million men ages 18-25 sign up for Selective Service each year. Women would add another 11 million to the pool of potential soldiers.
McClain says there would likely be exemptions.
“Women that are currently in the service that are single mothers, and males that are single fathers, they have to have a plan for what would happen to the child or children if they happen to be deployed,” he says.
“There might be different things said if a women was a mother and whether she would be drafted.”
But McClain thinks it would take a major conflict in the world to even initiate another military draft. “It would really have to be a grave, grave problem for us to do that.”