When should one enter military service? When is it best for this person to fulfill that obligation?

The answer depends on the person, his ambition, and his opportunities outside the service.

One thing that army, navy, marine, and air force recruiters all agree on is that they do not want boys or girls before they finish high school. They will take them if they are 17 and have their parents' consent, but the recruiters would rather wait until they have a high school diploma.

The armed forces need responsible men. The electronics equipment aboard one of today's destroyers is worth about as much as a whole destroyer cost in World War II. The equipment, designed by men with advance degrees, requires highly skilled men to operate it.

If a student does not have a diploma, his chances of being enrolled in a service training school are limited. The army guarantees high school graduates who

volunteer their choice of schools; the navy guarantees them their choice of fields. High school drop-outs receive no such guarantee.

The service needs skilled men; the best openings are assigned to the graduates holding diplomas. If not assigned to a special training school, a boy will be sent to a permanent post and will receive on‑the‑job training. From this, one can conclude that it is to his advantage to finish high school and then go into the armed forces.

A captain in charge of Naval reserve training at Great Lakes recently made the statement that the service does not want boys or girls until they graduate from high school. A boy who has finished high school has proved that he has some character and the ability to stay with a job until it is finished.

It is true that some boys quit school to go into service and make good. The possibility of this working out successfully for the recruit or the service, however, is very remote.