As this year's annual conscription reaches a conclusion, the military reports more than half of the draftees are volunteers, government spokesman Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Sunday.
A total of 355,938 young men joined this year's military conscription. Of this number, 101,307 will be drafted into military service -- 75,324 to serve in the army, 16,000 in the navy, 8,099 in the air force, 735 in the Office of the Permanent Secretary of Defence, and 1,149 in the Royal Thai Armed Forces Command.
These draftees are partly selected through lot drawing while others have applied to join the military service voluntarily.
At some military conscription units, the number of volunteers exceeded the number of draftees required.
Maj Gen Sansern said whenever personnel are needed to join the pre-cadet school, schools for medics and nurses and a course for non-commissioned officers, people usually turned up in a large number to apply.
The spokesman said the media should not present only one side to military conscription by writing only about certain people, particularly big names like actors and singers, who show frustration and disappointment on being drafted through the lot draw.
While in the military service, apart from the training to make them strong physically and mentally, all draftees are entitled to monthly pay and subsistence money amounting to about 10,000 baht a month, plus other welfare benefits including medical care in military hospitals and special scores in an examination to join a non-commissioned school, he said.