The US military’s personnel shortage is now so severe that a few academics, lawmakers, and military commanders are suggesting it may be time to revive the draft. This would not only fill out the crews of aircraft carriers, they say, but also re-instill a sense of national public service.

Unfortunately, the staffing challenge facing the military cannot be addressed simply by rotating millions of entry-level recruits through a year or two of national service. Like most large organizations, the military faces a war for talent—that is, a battle to recruit and retain officers and enlisted personnel who have the intellectual flexibility, technical abilities, and communications skills needed today. If it does not fundamentally rethink the way it attracts, develops, and retains people, it will lose this war.

As with many businesses, the problem is retaining talented midlevel people—something the draft would not address. But the military’s challenge is tougher than that of most companies. Why? First, military leaders uniquely lack the latitude to hire, promote, or fire their "employees." The development of talent is centralized and gets short shrift, since officers and enlisted personnel alike rotate every few years.

Second, the "fundamental value proposition"—what employees get for what they...