Four-star general Walter (Dutch) Kerwin, who helped pioneer the US military’s historic shift to an all-volunteerforce in the 1970s, had seen firsthand the problems that could plague a conscripted army fighting a modern war.Kerwin was the Army’s personnel chief during the Vietnam War, grappling with draftees deserting, abusing drugs andeven murdering unpopular commanders. With draftees’ tours limited to 12 months, military units lost their vitalcohesion. In order to help “bring this level of indiscipline down,” as he told Congress at the time, Kerwin drafted plansfor what became the all-volunteer force that celebrated its 35th birthday on July 1, 2008.        

      Kerwin famously spoke of the line that he felt must be drawn between those in uniform and those they protect.“The values necessary to defend the society are often at odds with the values of the society itself,” he said. “The Armymust concentrate not on the values of our liberal society but on the hard values of the battlefield.”         The volunteer Army isn’t without problems—conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have forced it to lower recruitingstandards and increase bonuses to attract and retain soldiers—but with a conscripted force, the US probably couldn’thave waged the two wars now under way. Compared with morale during Vietnam, the spirit among US troops servingin war zones is relatively high—a fact that will no doubt be Kerwin’s legacy.