Without conscription the fraction of Americans who have military experience is certainly now diminishing. Let us hope that it will continue to drop, but I doubt that it will. It diminished sharply after WWI, in the 1920s and 1930s; but WWII sent it up again, sharply .
Moreover, our 'volunteer' American military is showing signs of fatigue. Its members are being redeployed into combat zones much too frequently. Their periods of respite are now, in the words of the Scots poet, "short and far between". My point was, however, a different one. It was that if the millions of Americans who have served in the military were able to master the 24-hour clock almost anyone else can do so too. The intellectual difficulties of doing so have been greatly exaggerated. American specialism about things like the 12-hour clock and the "English" system of weights and measures grows ever more tedious and dysfunctional. John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
