In America, it is increasingly the case that the people who make, support, or protest military policy have no military experience. As Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer assert in this groundbreaking work, the gap between the "all-volunteer military" and the rest of us is widening, and our country faces a dangerous lack of understanding between those in power and those who defend our way of life. “Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth Douquet have done our country a great service . . . ” - Senator John McCain (R-AZ) “AWOL is a powerful and timely account of those missing in action―the privileged class of America staying out of uniform and out of harm’s way.” - Tom Brokaw “AWOL is the personal tales of two upscale overachievers who discover the humanity, the dignity and the value of the military world. It is a book for everyone who believes that the military is ‘not our kind, dear.’ It challenges. It cajoles.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer “As America looks for balance in a dangerous and complex world, AWOL is a great place to start.” - General Tommy Franks (retired) “AWOL drives home...the need to address the evaporating sense of duty and service to our nation.” - General Les Palm (retired), President and CEO Marine Corps Association “AWOL is unique in its scope, intent and implications. [It] is clearly written and meticulously researched.” - Leatherneck Magazine In America, it is increasingly the case that the people who make, support, or protest military policy have no military experience. As Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer assert in this groundbreaking work, the gap between the "all-volunteer military" and the rest of us is widening, and our country faces a dangerous lack of understanding between those in power and those who defend our way of life. Kathy Roth-Douquet is a veteran of the Clinton White House and every presidential campaign of the past twenty-four years and is the author with Frank Schaeffer of AWOL . She lives with her marine officer husband on Parris Island, South Carolina. Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times bestselling author whose books include Keeping Faith (as seen on Oprah ) and Crazy for God . He lives in Salisbury, Massachusetts. AWOL The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country By Kathy Roth-Douquet HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Copyright © 2007 Kathy Roth-Douquet All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060888602 Chapter One It's Personal The evidence is that those who serve and those who don't are looking at each other with growing uneasiness and across a widening philosophical, ideological, political, and even religious social gap. Frank and Kathy We were the last people who expected to be drafted into the military. People like us -- Frank, a novelist, Kathy, a lawyer with political connections -- never would be, we thought. Yet here we are. The last draft in America is a draft of the heart -- it takes women and men, it takes parents and grandparents. Someone we love is in the military, and before we know it -- sometimes against our will -- we, too, are part of the military family. Of course, like the professional military, this "family draft" doesn't take many people from our demographic. The extended military family, like those in uniform, increasingly includes fewer and fewer of those who are particularly influential in affecting the opinions and policies of the country. It was not always this way. During World War I, World War II, and the Cold War, we had conscription, and many people from the influential classes served, either through the draft or by volunteering. About half of the graduating classes of Princeton and Harvard entered the service for a tour of duty in the fifties. Today, less than one percent do. The change has everything to do with the Vietnam War. After the Vietnam War, America made what turned out to be an almost universally popular decision to create an all-volunteer military. For the first time in history, the country had a large military, wars, and no conscription. It seemed like a perfect solution to our problems of domestic disputes over the use of our military and the blowback from the draft. If you wanted to join, fine. If you didn't, that was fine too. Military service became just another item on an ever-lengthening list of personal choices. And how connected you wanted to be to your country's foreign policy entanglements was optional. If you wanted to live as if the world ended at our borders, that was fine, and if you wanted to take personal responsibility for your citizenship, that was fine too. To use the vernacular of the time you could "do your own thing." As a result, it has become increasingly comfortable for most young adults of all social classes to avoid even thinking about military service. This nonservice is a reflection of the idea that service is just a choice in the same category as deciding which college to go to, what car to buy, where to g