I lost a hard drive recently or I would have a lot of sources for you, but this Heritage report for example, gives you an idea that our military is a sort of elite compared to the general population, only about 13 to 20% of the age group are even qualified for military service.
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2008/08/who-serves-in-the-us-military-the-demographics-of-enlisted-troops-and-officers
“Based on an understanding of the limitations of any objective definition of quality, this report compares military volunteers to the civilian population on four demographic characteristics: household income, education level, racial and ethnic background, and regional origin. This report finds that:
U.S. military service disproportionately attracts enlisted personnel and officerswho do not come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.
Members of the all-volunteer military are significantly more likely to come from high-income neighborhoods than from low-income neighborhoods. Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile. These trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40 percent of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods-a number that has increased substantially over the past four years.
American soldiers are more educated than their peers. A little more than 1 percent of enlisted personnel lack a high school degree, compared to 21 percent of men 18-24 years old, and 95 percent of officer accessions have at least a bachelor’s degree.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, minorities are not overrepresented in military service. Enlisted troops are somewhat more likely to be white or black than their non-military peers. Whites are proportionately represented in the officer corps, and blacks are overrepresented, but their rate of overrepresentation has declined each year from 2004 to 2007. New recruits are also disproportionately likely to come from the South, which is in line with the history of Southern military tradition.
The facts do not support the belief that many American soldiers volunteer because society offers them few other opportunities. The average enlisted person or officer could have had lucrative career opportunities in the private sector. Those who argue that American soldiers risk their lives because they have no other opportunities belittle the personal sacrifices of those who serve out of love for their country.”
The Cindy Sheehans, Michael Moores, Ted Ralls, `Alan Colmes’ and Bill Mahers of this world have no idea what it takes just to get into the “easiest” MOS/AFSC/ratings, much less Special Forces, military intelligence, nuclear power, aviation, etc. Anytime a presstitute or blogger tries to take on the subject of the military, foreign policy or intelligence, they usually spin-off into fantasyland within a paragraph or two.
Thanks for posting the study. It’s not the same one I was referring to — because it was pre-2008. But it reinforces the same message.
Very interesting, but what about my concern that the U.S. military seems to be composed of very young soldiers (almost all of them high school graduates, to be sure) and not augmented by the presence of men of an older age who hold bachelor and advanced degrees, such as the ones that I encountered during the early 60s?
My question may have its answer in this excerpt from your post: “Only 11 percent of enlisted recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth (quintile) of neighborhoods, while 25 percent came from the wealthiest quintile.” The wealthiest quintile would suggest—but that’s all it does, i.e., suggest—that college educated men and women are found in significant numbers in the enlisted ranks, but there’s no data showing the various age groups in the military in your post. That’s what I wanted to see.
It seems to me that it’s that component of the current U.S. military that one lacks once draftees have been done away with. The draft sweeps up that older population (especially those from the Ivy League schools) and puts them in the military, where their varied backgrounds contribute significantly, I would think, to the ability of the military to react to its missions.