Members: required service

§ 651. Members: required service (a) Each male person who becomes a member of an armed force before his twenty-sixth birthday shall serve in the armed forces for a total of eight years, unless he is sooner discharged because of personal hardship under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense or, if he is a member of the Coast Guard while it is operating under the Department of the Treasury, by the Secretary of the Treasury. For the purpose of computing service under this subsection, a member of an armed force may count service in the National Security Training Corps as if it were service in the armed forces. (b) Each person covered by subsection (a) who is not a Reserve, and who is qualified, shall, upon his release from active duty, be transferred to a reserve component of his armed force to complete the service required by subsection (a). (c) A member covered by subsection (a) who is released from active duty shall become a member of an organized unit of his reserve component or of an officers’ training program of his armed force, if the Secretary concerned determines that there is a vacancy that can be filled by that member without undue personal hardship.