America’s Volunteers

My choice of topic for my very first book was very personal to me, having served in the AVF for twenty–four years and five months. I found that the more research I did, the more inspired I became to tell the fifty–year history so that future generations will know both the struggles and the successes of AVF. This is important because if we had never transitioned to an AVF, then the draft we had prior would still be the way that we staff the United States Military. In the end, I hope that you enjoy reading about the AVF from the point of view of the individual soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen and the journey they took to become American veterans. My book will answer the following question. How did social, cultural, and political changes affect the transition from a draft to the most successful and powerful all–volunteer force?For the archive portion, I spent time at the following research centers: the Center for Military History (US Army), the US Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force research centers. Living in what is known as the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia), I could think of no better library than the Library of Congress, along with my own experiences and memories covering twenty–four years and five months of career in the United States Army and National Guard. There are those from the Veterans History Project, a program with the Library of Congress that consists of a collection of stories told by military veterans from all branches of service. In the end, I hope you thoroughly enjoy reading my very first book, but hopefully not my last.

-- Joseph Irving Reid