What do you think of mandatory 4 years of military service followed by 4 years of free education?

I did a lil more than two and with disability And still working I get by. I think two is enough and during Viet Nam years when I was in it was allowed. National Guard was pretty boggy in those days but after 9/11 they stepped up and pulled more than their fair share I salute my brothers in Nat Grd they are fine Soldiers and Marines. I have to plead ignorance as to weather Navy has a Nat Grd component. I just don't know. I know Air Force does and not sure about Coasties either. They do great work in rescue and drug interdiction. Plus got a couple of distant cousins that retired well out of Coast Guard. But am unaware of reserve component of Navy or Coast Guard.

yea. Alot of countries do this and it works for them. The problem is with Doctrine. Yea, you will have, after 50 years or so, a pool of half trained/semi-trained people numbering in the high tens of millions. But wars are won, by the US anyways, with MLRS, A10s, 155s, Abrams, Apaches, and other heavy CAS. Not so much by warm bodies/cannon fodder....The Chinese, Russians, Israelis, etc., might do well with such a system but I believe the Army should focus on wargaming the next war. Which, no doubt, will be another counter insurgency somewhere. And counter insurgencies are not won by 19 year old privates. They are won by E6s, E7s, O1s-O3s...

I think that is great just don't make it mandatory. also with women in combat arms you can just make me do military service and not women.

Stupid! We have amended the Constitution to prohibit slavery and indentured servitude. We need and want willing warriors. If we feel there is a lack of civic mindedness in the US we must look to improving schools (K-PhD). If we want to create more opportunities for in kind deferred compensation (tuition) consider bringing back and or the CCC, City (4) Year(s), Peace Corps, etc.

HOOAH... it would be only fitting for someone to give of themselves and receive something that others have not "paid for" with blood sweat and tears...

Troops need to take advantage of the On Post education center! CLEP out of those fluff and sunshine courses that keep the Liberal Arts teachers employed. Example, get the humanities text book read the thing and go take the test. Boom 3 credit hours in a week or 10 days instead of a whole semester. Find another low hanging fruit and repeat. Then start taking the English 101 and 102 classes. Get as much of the general requirements done as possible.

Old school basic training, I definitely agree with. Making mandatory, no, some people will do things just to get kicked out because they don't want to be here.

Couple things about that.

1) American College is expensive and long. a 4 year BS degree is an American phenomenon, in most other places its 2. We force students to take unnecessary "Gen Eds" for a "Well Rounded Education", but it doubles the amount of how much the degree costs. The cost of tuition is half of the time why its attainable. We would have to change this money hungry education system first, or we would financially just be shooting ourselves in the foot.

2) Aside from 1, the fact that 75% of American Youth is ineligible to serve anyways (Health/Physical/Criminal reasons)

I'm all for it...not just Males though, Females also.

Everyone wants "Equality", let's get them ladies out there signing up for Selective Service at 18 too.

On the surface these schemes all seem reasonable, particularly when posed with a reward in the form of 4 years free education. Unfortunately there's ONE word in that statement that changes everything. That word is "mandatory". Mandatory means one does not have a choice. We have a name for the idea of being forced to work for the benefit of others against one's own will. That word is "slavery".
"Slave - a person who is forced to work for another against his will"

I am against all forms of slavery, including the government kind. Our voluntary service system is working just fine. If our government wants to encourage our populous to join the service, or another governmental service organization, it should do so with incentives, of pay or benefits that lead one to a rational choice to serve.

Militarily speaking, I would argue that if the cause is just, we have never had a shortage of volunteers, conversely, if the government can't make the case to enough volunteers for a given action, it may very well be that we shouldn't be engaging in that particular action.

My opinion, respectfully submitted.