I Want You!: The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force

Should the U.S. reinstate the draft? With this inside look at the Pentagon and the White House, the author reviews the American military's transformation over the past thirty years into the world's finest fighting force, and describes why the volunteer force is still the best strategy for our national security. A vast archive of government documents on DVD allows readers to view exchanges between government officials at the highest level-including formally classified memorandum between Presidents and Secretaries of Defense-revealing for the first time the inner story of the All-Volunteer Force.

Bernard Rostker is a senior fellow at the RAND Corporation, where he has served as Associate Director of the RAND Arroyo Center and Director of the Defense Manpower Research Center in the RAND National Defense Research Institute. He was formerly Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Secretary of Defense's senior policy advisor on recruitment, career development, pay, and benefits for 1.4 million active duty military personnel, 1.3 million Guard and Reserve personnel, and 725,000 DoD civilians. He also had oversight responsibilities for the DoD health delivery system. Prior to that, he served as Under Secretary of the Army, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, and Director of Selective Service, where he formulated the Selective Service Revitalization Plan. Under his leadership, the first mass selective service registration since World War II was executed, and almost four million young men registered. Over his career, Dr. Rostker has been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate four times and received a number of awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal from the Selective Service, the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Army, and the Department of Defense. Dr. Rostker is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.