MILITARY CLASSIFICATIONS

For Draftees
compiled by Anne Yoder, Archivist,

Swarthmore College Peace Collection, March 2007

 

WORLD WAR I

[From Selective Service Regulations, 1917 (see Subject File: Conscientious Objection/Objectors -- Government Documents)]

* Conscientious Objectors: any registrant found by his Local Board to be a member of any well-recognized religious sect or organization organized & existing before May 18, 1917,

& whose existing creed or principles forbade its members to participate in war in any form, & whose religious convictions were against war or participation therein in accordance

with the creed or principles of said religious organization, were to be furnished with a certificate by said Local Board stating that he could only be required to serve in a capacity

declared by the President to be noncombatant. He would, however, be classified as any other registrant was.

I                       Liable to military service in the order determined by the national drawing

II                     Temporary (dependency) discharge from draft; effective until Class I in the jurisdiction of the same Local Board was exhausted; registrants with both wife & children, or any

father of  motherless children, where such wife & children were not mainly dependent upon the registrant’s labor for support; also, registrants whose wives could support

themselves through employment

III                    Temporary (dependency) discharge from draft; effective until Classes I & II in the jurisdiction of the same Local Board was exhausted; registrants who were responsible for

children not their own & who were dependent on registrant’s labor for support; registrants who had aged, inform or invalid parents or grandparents mainly dependent on

registrants’ labor for support; also included various government employees

IV                    Temporary (dependency) discharge from draft; effective until Classes I, II & III in the jurisdiction of the same Local Board was exhausted; any married registrant whose wife

or children were mainly dependent on registrant’s labor for support; also included mariners employed in sea service

V                     Exemption or discharge from draft; included

- ordained ministers

                                    - students who on May 18, 1917 had been prepared for ministry

                                                in a recognized theological or divinity school

                                    - persons in the military or naval service of the United States

                                                (officers & enlisted men)

                                    - alien enemies

                                    - resident aliens

                                    - persons found to be totally & permanently physically or

                                                mentally unfit for military service

                                    - persons show to have been convicted of any crime designated

                                                as treason or felony, or an “infamous” crime

                                    - licensed pilots actually employed in the pursuit of his

                                                vocation

 

WORLD WAR II [through 1947?]

[From Selective Service Regulations. Volume Three. Classification & Selection, 1940 (see Subject File: Conscientious Objection/Objectors -- Government Documents); also “Memorandum Of the Rights Of Conscientious

Objectors Under the Draft Laws As Of December 1, 1942” (see Subject File: Conscientious Objection/Objectors -- U.S. Sources, 1942]
* all males between the ages of 18 & 65 were required to register for the draft; those who became 18 after January 1, 1943 were to register on their 18th birthday

I           Available for service

I-A                   Available; fit for general military service

I-A-O              Conscientious objectors eligible for military service in noncombatant role

            I-B                   Available; fit only for limited military service

I-B-O              Conscientious objectors available for limited service [not used after Aug. 18, 1942]

            I-C                   Members of land or naval forces of the United States

            I-D                   Students fit for general military service; available not later than July 1, 1941

            I-E                   Students fit for limited military service; available not later than July 1, 1941

            I-H                   Men deferred by reason of age [not in effect any more, as provision deferring men over 28 years of age had been repealed?]

II         Deferred because of occupational status

II-A                 Men necessary in their civilian activity

II-B                  Men necessary to national defense
            II-C                 Men necessary to farm labor

III        Deferred because of dependents

            III-A                Men with dependents, not engaged in work essential to national defense

            III-B                Men with dependents, engaged in work essential to national defense

IV        Deferred specifically by law or because unfit for military service

IV-A                Men who had completed service [not considered in time of war]

IV-B                Officials deferred by law
IV-C                Nondeclarant aliens

IV-D                Ministers of religion or divinity students

IV-E                Conscientious objectors available only for civilian work of national importance

            IV-E-LS          Conscientious objectors available for limited civilian work of national importance

            IV-E-H            Men formerly classified in IV-E or IV-E-LS, since deferred by reason of age

IV-F                Men physically, mentally or morally unfit

 

SELECTIVE SERVICE ACT OF 1948

IV-E                Conscientious objectors opposed to both combatant & noncombatant military service [all to be given statuatory deferments]

UNIVERSAL MILITARY TRAINING AND SERVICE ACT, 1951 [AS A RESULT OF THE KOREAN WAR]

I-A                   Available for combat service

I-A-O              Available for noncombatant service

I-O                  Available for civilian work assignment

 

MARCH 1, 1962 REVISED CLASSIFICATIONS
[See NSBRO reference files re: the Selective Service System, Series I-1; also Handbook for Conscientious Objectors (11th ed.) by the CCCO, Sept. 1970, for more details on ages of draftees, etc.]

* Some of the deferments listed were not available to new applicants by 1970
I-A                   Available for combat service

I-A-O              Available for noncombatant service
I-C                   Members of the active armed forces, or commissioned officers in Environmental Science Service Administration or Public Health Service

I-O                  Available for civilian work assignment [ordered into or assigned into the conscientious objector work program by their local draft boards, to perform civilian work

for 24 consecutive months]

I-S                   Deferment for students [for high school students under age 20, undergraduate college students who had received an order to report for induction, or a “very few”

graduate students]

I-W                  “At Work” conscientious objectors [once I-O registrants were assigned to civilian work, they were then reclassified I-W by their local draft boards]

I-Y                   Unqualified for duty except in time of declared war or national emergency

II-A                 Occupational deferment because of essential employment, or deferred to full-time study in a trade school, community or junior college, or approved

apprenticeship program

II-C                 Agricultural deferment

II-D [I-D?]      Deferment for members of military reserve units, or students taking advanced ROTC

II-S                  Deferment for college students [for those who had not yet reached their 24th birthday; also for graduate students of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, osteopathy &

optometry, & graduate students in their fifth year of continuous study toward a doctoral degree]

III-A                Dependency deferment

IV-A                Exemption for veterans & sole surviving sons [for those whose military duty obligation was completed, or for only surviving sons of a family in which the father, or one or

more sons or daughters, were killed or died in the line of duty while in the Armed Forces, or subsequently died as a result of such service]

IV-B                Certain officials

IV-C                Exemption for certain aliens

IV-D                Exemption for ministers & divinity students

IV-F                Unfit for military service

V-A                 Over-age [26 years old if never deferred; 35 years old for those who held a deferment]

 

IN EVENT OF A FUTURE DRAFT

[From Selective Service System website, April 2002: http://www.sss.gov/classif.htm]

* See http://www.sss.gov/FSconsobj.htm for SSS’s information about conscientious objector status & for more classifications

1-A                  Available immediately for military service
1-O                  Conscientious objectors opposed to both combatant & noncombatant military training & service; fulfills service obligation as a civilian alternative service worker

1-A-O              Conscientious objectors opposed to training & military service requiring the use of arms; fulfills service obligation in a noncombatant position within the military

2-D                  Ministerial students; deferred from military service
3-A                  Hardship deferment; deferred from military service because service would cause hardship upon their families

4-C                  Alien or dual national; sometimes exempt from military service
4-D                  Ministers of religion; exempted from military service

Student Postponements: a college student may have his induction postponed until he finishes the current semester or, if a senior, the end of the academic year. A high school student may have his

induction postponed until he graduates or until he reaches age 20. Appealing a Classification: a registree may appeal his classification to a Selective Service Appeal Board.

 

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SWARTHMORE COLLEGE PEACE COLLECTION [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace]