en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_Service_Act
Under the Burke-Wadsworth Act, all American males between twenty-one and thirty-five years of age registered for the draft. According to the Burke-Wadsworth Act's provisions, drafted soldiers had to remain in the Western Hemisphere or in United States possessions or territories located in other parts of the world. The act provided that not more than 900,000 men were to be in training at any one time, and it limited service to 12 months.
Nothing contained in this Act shall be constructed to require any person to be subject to combatant training and service in the land and naval forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form. Any such person claiming such exemption from combatant training and service because of such conscientious objections whose claim is sustained by the local draft board shall, if he is inducted into the land or naval forces under this Act, be assigned to noncombatant service as defined by the President, or shall if he is found to be conscientiously opposed to participation in such noncombatant service, in lieu of such induction, be assigned to work of national importance under civilian direction. Civilian oversight of the program for conscientious objectors was a significant improvement over WWI policy where the military was responsible for COs, resulting in mistreatment such as short rations, solitary confinement and phyical abuse.
Congress did not define work of national importance nor was the country, while gearing up for war, planning for the infrastructure necessary to handle thousands of conscientious objectors.
By the early summer of 1941, President Roosevelt asked the US Congress to extend the term of duty for the draftees beyond twelve months. The United States House of Representatives approved the extension by a single vote. The Senate approved it by a wider margin, and Roosevelt signed the bill into law. Many of the soldiers drafted in October 1940 threatened to desert once the original twelve months of their service was up.
After the United States entered World War II, a new selective service act made men between 18 and 45 liable for military service and required all men between 18 and 65 to register. The terminal point of service was extended to six months after the war. From 1940 until 1947--when the wartime selective service act expired after extensions by Congress--over 10,000,000 men were inducted.
edit After WWII A new selective service act was passed in 1948 that required all men between 18 and 26 register and that made men from 19 to 26 liable for induction for 21 months' service, which would be followed by 5 years of reserve duty. Though the United States halted conscription in 1973, the Selective Service remains as a means to register American males upon reaching the age of 18 as a contingency should the measure be reintroduced. The registration requirement was suspended in April 1975, but reinstituted in 1980.
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