ARMED FORCES: Part of Their Lives

Secretary Stimson gingerly put his left hand in the jar, took the first capsule he touched, handed it to Mr. Roosevelt. The President, old stager that he was, glanced at the newsreel and radio men, got their nod before he intoned: "The first number is one—five—eight." Registration serial number 158, held by some 6175 registrants throughout the U.S., thus became Draft Order No. 1.

—TIME, Nov. 11, 1940

Eighteen years, a war, a police action, and 12½ million men after Secretary of War Henry Stimson pulled No. 158 out of the jar, young U.S. men are still being drafted into...