Hershey enlisted in the
Indiana National Guard in 1911. Hershey received a direct commission as a
second lieutenant in 1913. In 1916, his guard unit was called to active duty on the Mexican border. The unit was relieved in December 1916. His unit was again called to federal service during
World War I and sent to France with the
American Expeditionary Force. Hershey was raised a
Master Mason in Northeastern Lodge 210, Fremont, Indiana, in 1916. After the war, Hershey remained in the National Guard until he received a regular commission as a
captain in the
Regular Army in 1920. He attended the
Command and General Staff College and the
Army War College. Hershey taught
military science at the
Ohio State University and then served in the general staff as G-4 at the Department of Hawaii.
Career In 1936, he was assigned to the General Staff in Washington, DC. In October 1940, President
Franklin Roosevelt promoted him to brigadier general and named him executive officer of the
Selective Service System. On 31 July 1941, President Roosevelt named Hershey director of the Selective Service. In 1942, Hershey was promoted to major general. In 1943, he received an honorary degree in Doctor of Laws from
Oglethorpe University. While officially retiring on 31 December 1946, he was retained on active duty starting the next day. He was the longest-serving director in the history of the
Selective Service System, and held the position until 15 February 1970, spanning
World War II, the
Korean War and the
Vietnam War. Hershey was promoted to lieutenant general in 1956 and to four-star
general on 23 December 1969. On 24 October 1967, in response to increasing demonstrations against military recruiting on college campuses, Hershey issued Local Board Memorandum No. 85, since known as the
Hershey Directive, which recommended that when a draft card was abandoned or mutilated that registrant should be declared "a delinquent for failure to have the card in his possession" and then be reclassified as available for service. Two days later, he sent a letter to local boards suggesting that violators of any portion of the Selective Service Act or Regulations be treated as delinquent. Notably, he said that such violations included "illegal activity which interferes with recruiting," which was assumed to mean demonstrating against military recruiters. Unlike the Memorandum, the letter was unofficial. This order outraged students, many of whom were not subject to being drafted due to education deferments, and campus demonstrations against the war (and Hershey's order) increased. Various Supreme Court cases voided the Memorandum, and after one of them Hershey withdrew it with Memorandum No. 101, on 21 January 1970. The most explicit overruling of the Memorandum and Letter came in a decision from the United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit in
Bucher v. Selective Service System on 2 January 1970, which ruled that there is "no statutory authorization for such reclassification," but did not rule on First Amendment issues: Since we have reached the conclusion that the delinquency reclassifications here are invalid for the separate and independent reasons that (1) they violate the constitutional procedural due process guarantees of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and (2) they lack statutory authorization, we find it unnecessary to advert to the plaintiffs' contention that the reclassifications violate their First Amendment rights. (Many online articles erroneously refer to
Bucher v. Selective Service System as a Supreme Court decision.) The controversy over the Hershey Directive led to calls for his retirement. On 10 October 1969 president
Richard Nixon announced that Hershey would leave the office of Director of the Selective Service on 16 February 1970. Nixon appointed Hershey as Presidential Advisor for Manpower Mobilization effective the day after Hershey left his position with the Selective Service. ==Retirement==