ping
I agree. The military is a middle-class institution. Lower-class kids can use it to move into the middle-class. Not many upper-middle class people do, because it makes them feel out of place. Yesterday a local boy, a Ltc Kruger, age 40 . was honored. He was killed in Iraq, because he was out in the field. A man on the fast track. First class. The Army's loss, his family's loss, our loss.
Charlie is an expert only in whiskey selections.
First off, the military services are selective. They don't accept recruits of low mental ability. Some of our generals still remember McNamara's PROJECT 100,000, in which that many Category IV's (the lowest mental category) were accepted into service, and were found to be disasters. In the Air Force, they were kept at jobs like washing airplanes, where they couldn't do much damage. Since intelligence is to some extent inherited, that also means that those acceptable to the military services came from homes with parents of average or above average intelligence, and with high probability, average or above average incomes. Thus it shouldn't be surprising that recruits tend to come from homes that are above average in intelligence and income.
Second, it is significant that people of this caliber are volunteering for the military, despite other opportunities available to them. They may not be from the "elite," but they are from the solid middle of America, and are willing to put their lives where their mouths are. I respect them a lot more than I respect the "elite" who think they are too good to risk themselves defending the country.