This plan partially accomplishes that end, but not wholly. While it would add 100,000 non-veterans to the Ready Reserve each year, the bulk of the Ready Reserves would be composed of men who have served for two years.

The new plan in this respect merely adds teeth to the reserve requirements of the 1951 Selective Service Act. Under that act, all inductees or enlistees contract for an eight-year military obligation. After serving two-years a man still is supposed to serve six years in a Ready Reserve unit. In practice, however, there are no teeth in the act which can force him to attend training. The new bill would add compulsion by providing that men who refuse to participate in required training will be subject to loss of retirement or promotion benefits and to discharge under conditions "other than honorable" at the end of the military obligation.

It is certain that this feature of the bill will get a careful going-over by the congressional committees, and reserve obligations may very well be modified.

The new plan provides that service in the Ready Reserve will vary with the time spent on active duty. Thus, if a man spends two years on active duty he will be in the Ready Reserve. If he serves three years he will be in the Ready Reserves four years and in the Standby or "Selectably Callable" Reserve for one year. For four years active duty he would serve two years in both, and for five years three in the Standby.

The distinction between the Ready and Standby Reserves is that the first will be subject to immediate call to active duty in a war or national emergency declared by the Congress or proclaimed by the President; Standby Reserves will be subject to call only in a war or emergency declared by Congress. In a period of so-called limited or "brush-fire" wars this distinction is an important one.

Four Alternatives

On the basis of the planned strength of the Armed Forces, it is estimated that the Ready Reserve should be roughly 2,900,000 and the Defense Department hopes to reach this goal by June, 1960. The minimum requirement for the Standby Reserve is 820,000.

There is one other new program provided by the bill, which would enable men between 17 and 19 to enlist directly in the reserves of the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps for a period of eight years, with the understanding that they will be called to serve a minimum of two years active service within 24 months of enlistment.

If the bill passes, then, there will be four ways for a young man to fulfill his military obligations: 1) he may wait for induction; 2) he may enlist in one of the regular armed services for three, four or six years; 3) he may enlist in the special Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps Reserve program, or 4) he may enlist in the six-month training program