Harry S. Truman photo

Proclamation 2906—Special Registration

October 06, 1950


By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas the act of September 9, 1950, Public Law 779, Eighty-first Congress, amends section 4 of title I of the Selective Service Act of 1948 (62 Stat. 604), as amended, by adding thereto subsection (i), which contains, in part, the following provisions:

(i) (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, except subsections 6(j) and 6(o), the President is authorized to require special registration of and, on the basis of requisitions submitted by the Department of Defense and approved by him, to make special calls for male persons qualified in needed -

(A) medical and allied specialist categories who have not yet reached the age of fifty at the time of registration, and

(B) dental and allied specialist categories who have not yet reached the age of fifty at the time of registration.

Persons called hereunder shall be liable for induction for not to exceed twenty-one months of service in the Armed Forces. No such person who is a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces shall, so long as he remains a member thereof, be liable for registration or induction under this subsection, but nothing in this subsection shall be construed to affect the authority of the President under any other provision of law to call to active duty members and units of the reserve components. No person in the medical, dental, and allied specialist categories shall be inducted under the provisions of this subsection after he has attained the fifty-first anniversary of the date of his birth.

(2) In registering and inducting persons pursuant to paragraph (1) of this subsection, the President shall, to the extent that he considers practicable and desirable, register and induct in the following order of priority:

First. Those persons who participated as students in the Army specialized training program or similar programs administered by the Navy, and those persons who were deferred from service during World War II for the purpose of pursuing a course of instruction leading to education in one of the categories referred to in clauses (A) and (B) of paragraph (1) of this subsection, who have had less than ninety days of active duty in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to the completion of or release from the program or course of instruction (exclusive of the time spent in postgraduate training).

Second. Those persons who participated as students in the Army specialized training program or similar programs administered by the navy, and those persons who were deferred from service during World War II for the purpose of pursuing a course of instruction leading to education in one of the above categories, who have had ninety days or more but less than twenty-one months of active duty in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to the completion of or release from the program or course of instruction (exclusive of the time spent in postgraduate training).

Third. Those who did not have active service in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to September 16, 1940.

Fourth. Those not included in the first and second priority who have had active service in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to September 16, 1940. * * *

And Whereas section 6 of the aforesaid act of September 9, 1950, reads as follows:

For the purposes of this Act, the term "allied specialist categories" shall include, but not be limited to, veterinarians, optometrists, pharmacists, and osteopaths.

And Whereas title I of the Selective Service Act of 1948 contains, in part, the following provisions:

SEC. 6. * * *

(k) No exception from registration, or exemption or deferment from training and service, under this title, shall continue after the cause therefor ceases to exist.

* * * * *

SEC. 10. * * *

(b) The President is authorized -

(1) to prescribe the necessary rules and regulations to carry out the provisions of this title;

* * * * *

(5) to utilize the services of any or all departments and any and all officers or agents of the United States, and to accept the services of all officers and agents of the several State, Territories, and possessions, and subdivisions thereof, and the District of Columbia, and of private welfare organizations, in the execution of this title;

* * * * *

(c) The President is authorized to delegate any authority vested in him under this title, and to provide for the subdelegation of any such authority.

And Whereas bachelors of medicine, doctors of medicine, doctors of dental surgery, doctors of medicine, doctors of dental surgery, doctors of medical dentistry, doctors of veterinary surgery, and doctors of veterinary medicine, are urgently needed for service in the armed forces of the United States:

Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by title I of the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, do proclaim the following:

1. Every male person who participated as a student in the Army specialized training program or any similar program administered by the Navy, or was deferred from service during World War II for the purpose of pursuing a course of instruction leading to education in a medical, dental, or allied specialist category, and has had less than twenty-one months of active duty in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to the completion of, or release from, such program or course of instruction (exclusive of time spent in postgraduate training), and who, on the day or any of the days hereinafter fixed for his registration (a) shall have received from any school, college, university, or similar institution of learning one or more of the degrees of bachelor of medicine, doctor of medicine, doctor of dental surgery, doctor of medical dentistry, doctor of veterinary surgery, and doctor of veterinary medicine, (b) is within any of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Territory of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands, (c) is not a member of any reserve component of the armed forces of the United States, and (d) shall not have attained the fiftieth anniversary of the day of his birth is required to and shall on that day or any of those days present himself for and submit to registration before a duly designated registration official or selective service local board having jurisdiction in the area in which he has his permanent home or in which he may happen to h be on that day or any of those days.

2. The special registration of the male persons required to submit to registration by paragraph numbered 1 hereof shall take place in the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on the day or days hereinafter designated for their registration, as follows:

(a) Persons who shall have received any of the degrees above referred to on or before October 16, 1950, shall be registered on Monday, the 16th day of October, 1950.

(b) Persons who receive any of the degrees above referred to after October 16, 1950, shall be registered on the day they receive any such degree, or within five days thereafter.

(c) Persons who shall have received any of the degrees above referred to and who enter any of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Territory of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands after October 16, 1950, shall be registered on the day of such entrance, or within five days thereafter.

3. Every male person who has not had active service in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to September 16, 1940, and every male person not included in the first or the second of the priorities defined in section 4(i)(2) of the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, who has had active service in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, or the Public Health Service subsequent to September 16, 1940, who on the day or any of the days hereafter fixed by the Director of Selective Service for his registration (a) shall have received from a school, college, university, or similar institution of learning one or more of the degrees of bachelor of medicine, doctor of medicine, doctor of dental surgery, doctor of medical dentistry, doctor of veterinary surgery, and doctor of veterinary medicine, (b) is within any of the several States of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Territory of Alaska, the Territory of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands, (c) is not a member of any reserve component of the armed forces of the United States, and (d) shall not have attained the fiftieth anniversary of the day of his birth is required to and shall on that day or any of those days present himself for and submit to registration before a duly designated registration official or selective service local board having jurisdiction in the area in which he has his permanent home or in which he may happen to be on that day or any of those days.

4. The Director of Selective Service is hereby authorized and directed to fix the date or dates for the special registration required under paragraph numbered 3 hereof: Provided, that the date or dates so fixed shall be not later than January 16, 1951.

5. The Director of Selective Service is hereby authorized to require special registration of, and fix the date or dates of registration for, all other persons who are subject to registration under section 4(i) of the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, and who are not required to register under or pursuant to this proclamation.

6. All orders and directives of the Director of Selective Service issued pursuant to paragraph numbered 4 or paragraph numbered 5 hereof shall be published in the Federal Register.

7. (a) A person subject to registration under or pursuant to this proclamation who, because of circumstances beyond his control, is unable to present himself for and submit to registration during the hours of the day or any of the days fixed for registration shall do so as soon as possible after the cause for such inability ceases to exist.

(b) Every person subject to registration under or pursuant to this proclamation who has registered in accordance with Proclamation No. 2799 of July 20, 1948, issued under the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, and the regulations prescribed thereunder, shall, notwithstanding such registration, present himself for and submit to registration as required by or pursuant to this proclamation.

(c) The duty of any person to present himself for and submit to registration in accordance with Proclamation No. 2799 of July 20, 1948, issued under the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, and the regulations prescribed thereunder, shall not be affected by the proclamation.

8. Every person subject to registration under or pursuant to this proclamation is required to familiarize himself with the rules and regulations governing such registration and to comply therewith.

9. I call upon the Governors of each of the several States, the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands and the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and all officers and agents of the United States and all officers and agents of the several States, the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia, and political subdivisions thereof, and all local boards and agents thereof appointed under the provisions of title I of the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, or the regulations prescribed thereunder, to do and perform all acts and services necessary to accomplish effective and complete registration.

10. In order that there may be full cooperation in carrying into effect the purposes of section 4(i) of title I of the Selective Service Act of 1948, as amended, I urge all employers and Government agencies of all kinds - Federal, State, territorial, and local - to give those under their charge sufficient time in which to fulfill the obligations of registration incumbent upon them under the said Act and under or pursuant to this proclamation.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington this sixth day of October in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fifth.

Signature of Harry S. Truman

HARRY S. TRUMAN

By the President:

JAMES E. WEBB,

Acting Secretary of State.

Harry S Truman, Proclamation 2906—Special Registration Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/287395

Simple Search of Our Archives