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Uncle Sam Does Not Want You: Military Rejection and Discharge during the World Wars

In the United States, rapid military mobilization for the world wars marked a turning point in the national need to manage and evaluate manpower. To orchestrate manpower needs for the military, industry, and those relating to familial obligations, Woodrow Wilson's administration created the Selective Service System during the First World War. In categorizing men, local Selective Service boards utilized rapid physical and psychological diagnostic techniques and applied their assessments to current military branch induction standards to pronounce candidates as militarily fit or unfit. From World War I to World War II, the Selective Service System expanded as a bureaucracy but did not adequately address induction issues surrounding rapidly changing standards, racism, and inconsistent testing procedures. These persistent problems with Selective Service prevented the system from becoming truly consistent, fair, or effective. As a result of Selective Service System, War Department, and military branch standards, military rejection and prematurely military discharge rates increased in World War II. Additionally, though Selective Service did not accurately predict who would or would not serve effectively, rejected and prematurely discharged men faced harsh discrimination on the American home front during World War II.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1538659
Date08 1900
CreatorsSmith Chamberlain, Tiffany Leigh
ContributorsWawro, Geoffrey, Moye, Todd, Velikanova, Olga, Hagler, Harland, Landdeck, Katherine
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formativ, 248 pages, Text
RightsUse restricted to UNT Community, Smith Chamberlain, Tiffany Leigh, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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