http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-size-civil-war-today-003500646.html
“”Before the Civil War began in 1861, American Military History states the regular U.S. Army had 1,080 officers and nearly 15,000 enlisted men as of June 1860...
By the end of the war, there were over 1 million volunteers serving in the U.S. military. Within two years, the force was reduced to just over 11,000, a size even smaller than before the war. Adding part-time enlistees, a regular force of 57,000 men was realized for about five years. By 1876, there were just over 27,000 personnel in the military.
World Wars
When World War I started, the American military was in the process of increasing in size. Congress authorized an increase to 400,000 members in the National Guard to augment a regular Army size of around 175,000 in peace time. When President Woodrow Wilson called for the United States to enter World War I in Europe, volunteers to the force topped 2 million.
The Information Please Online Almanac states the U.S. military reached its highest enlistment in 1945. By the time World War II ended, there were over 12 million military personnel in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps combined. The U.S. Army had about 1.5 million people at the start of World War II.
Modern Times
Since the Vietnam War, troop levels decreased from about 3 million to roughly 1.4 million active personnel over the past two decades. PBS reported in 2004 that there were 499,000 active duty U.S. Army personnel backed up by 700,000 part time National Guard troops. Those numbers were about a third less than the force available during the Persian Gulf War in 1991...””
If memory serves unless we are at war like WW1,, 2 or Nam around 1-2% OF AMERICANS EVER ENLIST.
Any one both male or female who wants to run for any public office should do a 4 year tour of duty starting as a E1 despite education level, and no outside help from rich parents. Let them find out how BAD it is for the lower ranks.
Our inland Navy base Millington TN was a training base, a few years ago they turned it into BUPERS paper pushers. Before we had 1 top Brass, now we have 12. Commissary cost as much as Kroger’s minus the 4.75 extra sales tax, Exchange only carries mostly top designer stuff like a Vera Wang wallet is $200, only the Brass can afford that crap.
Hubby is Ret SCPO who taught A/B schools there, when he was not at sea or posted in Japan. Couple of those sea duties was on the Midway part of the fleet that helped pull the Ambassador out of Nam, and off the Coast of Cuba during the Missile Crisis.