WASHINGTON—Pledging to do everything in his power to ensure the mental and physical needs of his troops were being fulfilled, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday that the United States had officially instated a military wife draft.
Hegseth told reporters that given the “abysmal” numbers of Americans who voluntarily enlisted to wed U.S. soldiers, he had “no choice” but to conscript young, physically able women into mandatory military marriage service. According to Pentagon officials, over 10,000 women have already received notices ordering them to report to their nearest Army base and begin cooking, cleaning, and providing sexual satisfaction for their newly assigned spouses.
“Female Americans, you are being called upon to serve the most important men in our country,” said Hegseth, adding that women would be expected to complete at least seven weeks of basic training on wedding events and marital duties before being deployed. “Our warriors are strong, lonely, and sexually frustrated. As our mothers did, and their mothers before them, you must report for duty and put your body on the line.”
“Some of you will die, but it’s for a greater good,” Hegseth continued. “Your sacrifice will not be in vain.”
The military wives draft, which has been enacted only six times in U.S. history, was last initiated between 1964 and 1973, when over 1.8 million American women were selected via a televised “wife lottery” and assigned at random to wed U.S. soldiers being sent to fight in Vietnam.
With the policy taking effect immediately, women could be seen Thursday forming long queues to board buses and travel to spousal processing centers, where they were given a breast exam, issued standard military wife haircuts, and told which entry-level cadet, junior officer, or even four-star general they would be assigned to.
Although many women said they were honored to have been called to serve, some who were forced to register for the Sexual Selective Service on their 18th birthday expressed skepticism, arguing that they were being sent on a “suicide mission.”
“As much as I don’t want to do it, I’ve been given no choice but to put on that wedding dress and serve my country,” said 22-year-old Kansas City, MO, resident Kayla Wheatley, who noted that so-called “military husband dodgers” can face up to five years in prison. “They try to make it seem like when you enlist, you’ll marry some young cadet for two years, pop out a few babies, and come back a hero. I’m being deployed to marry some 45-year-old colonel who lives in South Carolina.”
“I’ve already got a husband and a kid at home, so I assumed I’d be exempt,” Wheatley added. “But instead, they’re shipping me off to a hellhole.”
In open defiance of the nation’s draft, women converged across Washington, D.C., for a series of peaceful rallies during which they marched, chained themselves to military chapels, and burned their government-issued Marriage Registration Cards.
Prominent anti-war-wife activists, many of whom enlisted to marry after 9/11, told reporters they understood completely why women had taken such drastic measures to avoid being conscripted, whether by fleeing to Canada, filing for “conscientious single-and-loving-it!” status, or shooting off their ring fingers.
“The things I’ve experienced as a military wife no woman should ever have to see,” said 43-year-old Maryland resident Jennifer Graf, who was medically discharged and awarded a Medal of Marital Freedom by Laura Bush after suffering several broken bones in the line of duty. “One minute I was out there in my kitchen burning a casserole, the next minute I woke up in a hospital bed at Walter Reed.”
“Everyone says I’m brave, but I did what I had to do,” Graf added. “I just hope the next woman they draft to marry my ex-husband is luckier than me.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theonion.com
