You Never Know

General George Marshall was sworn in as Chief of Staff of the Army on September 1, 1939, the same day that Hitler invaded Poland and World War 2 began.  (What a way to start a new job!)  On that day, the U S Army and Air Corp had 189,839 regular troops and officers.  It was the 17th largest army in the world, just behind Portugal.

Marshall had been promoted above many more senior officers to become the highest-ranking person in the Army. 

In addition to the Great depression, the 1930’s also featured severe isolationism.  The overwhelming majority of Americans had no interest in becoming involved in Europe’s problems; Hitler, Fascism and Communism.

With all of Europe in war, the first peacetime draft was proposed in 1940, a presidential election year.  President Franklin Roosevelt was silent about supporting the draft until after his opponent, Wendell Wilkie, came out for it; Roosevelt then endorsed it.  With both candidates’ support, it was enacted in October.  Those drafted were to serve up to one year.

By the summer of 1941, the war in Europe had worsened and Asia was in turmoil.  Since the draftees’ year of service was coming to an end, Congress debated an unpopular bill to extend those draftees service beyond the year.  By then, Roosevelt had been reelected, so he showed great courage (sarcasm intended) and came out in favor of the extension.

On August 12th, the United States House of Representatives voted on the extension.  In the 1st vote, the extension was approved by 204 to 201.  Then, a House member changed his vote and the revised vote was 203 to 202.  There was concern that others would change the vote when an anti-war member asked, by mistake, for a recapitulation – instead of a reconsideration.  (A recapitulation only allowed for a recount while a reconsideration would have allowed House members to change their vote.) 

The recount confirmed the 203 to 202 vote and before the antiwar House members could act, Speaker Sam Rayburn banged his gavel and announced that the vote had passed. Under the House rules, the vote was frozen.

 The Senate approved it by a wider margin, 37 to 19, and Roosevelt signed the Service Extension Act of 1941 into law on August 18.

Less than four months later, Pearl harbor was attacked by the Japanese and we were in World War 2.  By the end of 1941, there were 1.4 million men in the U S Army.  1.8 million in all services.  (Remember, there were only 189,839 two years earlier.) 

The United States was woefully unprepared at the start of WW2 but had the draft not added a million trained men to the Army and Army Air Corp before the war broke out, WW2 would have had a very different path.

So why is this little piece of history important to us who are defending the 2nd Amendment?  Because, you never know when a small act will have huge consequences.

Roosevelt broke military tradition and angered many senior Army officers when he promoted George Marshal to be Chief of Staff, over more senior officers.  Most historians agree that Marshall was the most important and influential military officer in WW2 and very likely was irreplaceable.

Had Wendell Wilkie not come out with the politically difficult position of favoring the 1940 draft bill, Roosevelt would very likely not have come out for it and that would probably have defeated it.  The U S A might still have had a smaller Army than Portugal when WW2 broke out, with disastrous consequences.

203 House members voted to extend the draft, less than 4 months before Pearl Harbor.  Had any one of them voted otherwise, many of the trained soldiers would have already returned to civilian life when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the U S Army would have again been severely depleted.

House Speaker Sam Rayburn had a quick gavel and used technicalities in House rules to ensure the draft bill stayed passed.  Had he not done so, a change of one vote by the House would have changed the history of WW2.

2nd Amendment defenders are looking forward to the change of administrations on January 20th.  But the gun grabbers are not lying down in defeat.  As well as being a right, keeping and bearing arms is essential to a safe and prepared United States. 

We never know when our actions may have huge consequences down-the-line in our battle to preserve the 2nd Amendment and our American values.