In the present tremendous national emergency, we of the Advisory Board for Medical Specialties are keenly conscious of expanded responsibilities and opportunities for service. First among our duties, of course, is that of serving the military forces of our country. Second, and scarcely less imperative, is our obligation to serve the civilian population. In the third place, there rests on us the responsibility of maintaining continuity of these services by educating and training our successors, in adequate number and ability, year by year, until and after the emergency has passed. Obviously, the degree of emphasis that should be placed on each of these functions is bound to vary with time and circumstance, but they are interactive and mutually supportive, and none can safely be ignored. Until recently any medical student whose work was satisfactory was, if it were so recommended by the dean of his medical school, deferred by the local draft board until he had completed his medical course and served an internship for at least one year. Furthermore, many draft boards permitted some of these young men to complete all or a substantial portion of a three-year graduate course in their chosen specialty. All this has been changed, however, since the meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The medical schools now decline to recommend deferment of a medical student by a local draft board unless, and until, he has been refused a commission in the reserve corps of the Army or Navy. As a large majority of recent graduates are physically fit, they are accepted for commissions and thus their opportunity for graduate training is controlled by the Surgeon General of the Army or of the Navy. It is understood, however, that they will not be called to active duty until they have served an internship of at least one year. If these men are called to duty as soon as they have completed their internship, the ranks of the specialists will be depleted progressively and rapidly. Soon the expanding medical services of the Army and Navy will be unable to obtain needed specialists. Medical service to the public by independent practitioners will deteriorate because competent consulting specialists will steadily become fewer. A scarcity of graduate students in hospitals, medical schools, and other institutions where prospective specialists are trained, and where they perform certain essential routine duties during the period of training, will be detrimental to the interests of the public served by these institutions. This is the situation that confronts the medical profession. At this time, and properly so, the emphasis is on medical service to the Army and Navy. Other medical activities must make adjustments and sacrifices. But all may hope and reasonably expect that these sacrifices will be determined and imposed with wisdom, fairness, and foresight.