Registration of medical men for the doctors' draft began Monday in nine New Orleans hospitals.
The registration is under the direction of Brig. Gen. Raymond Hufft and the state selective service system. It is hoped that the registration will establish a pool of from 5000 to 10,000 men throughout the nation from which 1522 doctors, dentists and veterinarians can be inducted by the end of January.
Those who must register include students in the army specialist training program or the navy's V-12 program during Worlcfr War II who served less than 21 months in one of the services or the United States public health service after completing their medical education, and those deferred from service in the last war to obtain medical education.
Doctors called in the present draft are not required to serve longer than 21 months and those over 50 are not required to regis-. ter. The registration is .to be completed by January 16. No provisions are made under the present law for the registration of pharmacists, optometrists, osteopaths, X-ray technicians and other specialists.
Medical men found acceptable for the draft will be placed in class 1-A immediately and a special category, 1-A-O, has been set up for conscientious objectors who will be drafted for non-combat duties. Objectors who say that they cannot perform any tasks will be classed 4-F. Reserve unit members will be 1-D and class 2-A is for doctors whose services are essential to their communities.
Hours" for registration are from 8 a. m. to 5 p. m., at the following hospitals: Charity, Foundation, Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat, Hotel Dieu, Flint-Good-ridge, Mercy-Soniat Memorial, Baptist, Touro infirmary, and the Veterans Administration hospital.
The first doctor to sign up for the draft Monday was Dr. W. J. Landry, 36, a radiologist in his third year of residency at Charity hospital. He served under the army's specialized training pro-
gram at Louisiana State university.
Most of those who registered Monday said that they didn't object to going into the service before the men who had served long periods during the last war. "We haven't volunteered because we just don't, feel any emergency. If there has been a Pearl Harbor as there was in the last war, we'd have joined up right away," was the way one of the registrants put it.
