help me, i'm the new guy...

[foolmeonce]

can anyone tell me where to find us military admission/recruiting statistics? it seems that my right-winger friends are most worked up with mike's inference that the military was "made up" of low income, new graduates. of course, each of them can cite one friend who put off his post-graduate work/profession of medical science...blah blah blah to serve and protect.

i am certain that the majority of our military is made up of kids straight out of high school. i'm also certain that a majority come from financial situations that make enlistment the best option. i'm also certain that minorities have played a larger part than ever before....... i just can't provide statistical proof.

anyway, like i said, i'm new to the forum and so far, i really enjoy it! great work my people.

[LearnedHand]

1. Welcome to DU, foolmeonce!

:toast: :hi:

Not sure I can help answer your question, though. Have you looked on Michael Moore's website? He may have references posted there.

[foolmeonce]

10. thanks and.....no, but i'll check it

[pauliedangerously]

2. Welcome To DU!!!!

I guess I'd try Googling it.

I wouldn't be TOO certain about anything, but I also feel the big hunch that you feel may very well be true.

I just discovered this site a month or so ago.

Enjoy it, and try not to get too emotionally jolted by some of the opinions here...some threads can get pretty deep.

The Latest Breaking News forum is my favorite.

Glad you're here, brother!!!!

[RoyGBiv]

3. From the military's own files...

http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/yats/files2003/99Propensity.pdf

That's the most recent study I could find.

There are loads of statistics there you can go through. The summary shows the following trends:

Propensity to enter the military

- Is higher for men than women;
- Declines with age;
- Declines with increasing educational attainment;
- Is higher for unemployed than employed youth;
- Is highest for Hispanic youth, followed by Black youth, and lowest for
White youth;
- Is higher for youth who are not married;
- Varies by region: higher in the South and West and lowest in the North
Central region.

In other words, yes, low-income, uneducated people are more likely to enter the military than highly educated professionals. Previous and current studies (available at the parent site) have also found that desire to acquire skills and education are a strong reason many youth do enter the military. That is, they don't have education or employment, want it, and see the military as a way to get it.

OnEdit: Welcome to DU!!! :hi:

[Kipepeo]

4. Some stats...

I posted this in the other thread, but here it is in case you don't go back there:

Article that includes a lot of stats on race/income:

http://indypendent.org/webnews/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=160

It's hard to find income data. Some More race stats, these from the DOD:

http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter3/c3_race.h...

Education level stats from the DOD:

http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2002/chapter3/c3_educat...

Article on pentagon targeting latinos and mexicans for war on terror:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0910-06.htm

Senior Pentagon officials have identified Latinos as by far the most promising ethnic group for recruitment, because their numbers are growing rapidly in the US and they include a plentiful supply of low-income men of military age with few other job or educational prospects.

Recruitment efforts have also extended to non-citizens, who have been told by the Bush administration that they can apply for citizenship the day they join up, rather than waiting the standard five years after receiving their green card. More than 37,000 non-citizens, almost all Latino, are currently enlisted. Recruiters have even crossed the border into Mexico - to the fury of the Mexican authorities - to look for school-leavers who may have US residency papers.

edited to fix first broken link...

[foolmeonce]

5. thanks guys

kipepeo, your first three links are dead.

[Kipepeo]

7. aaak! sorry.

The DOD links can be accessed from here in Chapters 2 & 3: http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2002/contents/contents.htm

They are from 2002.

I fixed the link to the first article. It's here: http://indypendent.org/webnews/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=160

sorry about that! :)

[ronabop]

6. Broken links...

Try:
http://www.dod.mil/prhome/poprep2002/

And drill down.

-Bop

[Kipepeo]

8. thanks!

:)

[foolmeonce]

9. nice page brothers

it answers everything but socioeconomic background.

i love it.

[rustydog]

11. Welcome to DU

:toast: :bounce:

[JSJ]

12. also, you may want to try and run down a recent article in the...

...LA Times regarding pre-enlistment criminal records of the troops. It revealed that approximately 30% of them had criminal histories and went on to commit crimes during their military careers.

[pinto]

13. welcome to DU foolmeonce.

:dem: