Early in the movie Sinatra tells Durante that he has several things to do & one is to register for the draft. He just served 4+ years in the Army and already signed up for the draft unless he enlisted at 17 which would make him 21 in the movie. If he was drafted he would be 22. He would not need to sign up for the draft. And he would not be drafted at that age or older during peace time. That line was strange to me. Any thoughts?
shareThe Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 remained in effect through 1946 and required registration of all men 18 to 65 with local draft boards. It was replaced by the Elston Act in 1948 that is the basis for most of the draft mechanisms now in place. Even the Elston Act defined eligibility for service to be from 18 to 26 years old, however.
The STSA required all men to register with their local draft board (which is how Sinatra wound up in his old school again). He was re-registering for the draft, and his classification would be "I-C (Discharged)", showing he was a military veteran who had honorably completed his term of military service. This did not exempt him from further service in time of war or national emergency, but it did place him lower in the pool of those eligible. Veterans of World War II were drafted into the services during Korea to fill perceived needs in some specialties, but the I-A pool was used to conscript for the infantry.
Every change of status required a "re-registration" with the local board, including age deferments (which were lowered from 35 to 26 at the end of the war but then raised again to 30 the next year, the last under the old draft). That was what Sinatra was doing, as he explained to Nick early on.
Also, a deferment, even under the Elston Act, was just that--you were deferred from eligibility for being drafted but that eligibility could be reinstated by Congress for men judged fit for military service. Also presidential executive orders changed deferments, particularly during the Vietnam War--one was not "deferred" permanently. The only true exemptions were those judged unfit for service.