Lecture: Legacies of the All-Volunteer Force

Legacies of the All-Volunteer Force, Fifty Years On

The 2023 Gold Star Hall Ceremony Lecture by Amy Rutenberg

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the American draft, it’s also a historical moment when the military, especially the Army, can’t make its recruiting quotas and the civil-military gap is gaping. With the help of the audience, we will discuss the legacies of the All-Volunteer Force, with a particular eye toward who serves, who doesn’t, and what can be done about it.

Amy J. Rutenberg is Associate Professor of History and the author of Rough Draft: Cold War Military Manpower Policy and the Origins of Vietnam-Era Draft Resistance.  She is currently working on a book tentatively titled In the Service of Peace: The Effects of Peace Activism on America’s All-Volunteer Force.