On this day in 1942, Congress approves a bill to lower the draft age to 18 and raising the upper age limit to 37.
In 1940, America launched its first peacetime draft in the history of the country. This highly charged George Strock photograph of inductees at Fort Dix, New Jersey — including the central figure still donning his own hat, a last vestige of civilian individuality amid the impersonal-cattle-call atmosphere of innoculations, pokings, proddings, and exams — speaks to a country in the grip of an unmistakable sea change. War is coming, the picture says. There’s no stopping it.
(see more photos here)
