A 2011 survey found that an astonishing 57 percent of active duty troops at that time were children of parents who had served in the military. As a result, members of military families are far more likely to serve than the rest of the population. One of the biggest factors affecting the propensity to serve is whether someone has grown up near someone with current or previous military service. Today, fewer than 1 percent of Americans serve in uniform at any given time - including active duty, reserves, and the National Guard.įurthermore, that 1 percent tends to increasingly comprise the same 1 percent of the population, one generation after the next. population has grown from 211 million to 321 million. The size of the active force has declined from 2.2 million in 1973 to just over 1.3 million today, while the U.S. There have also been fewer opportunities for Americans to serve in the military. Since the all-volunteer force replaced military conscription in 1973, the number of Americans with a personal connection to the military has shrunk dramatically. Media attention has diminished and will continue to fade - and that absence is fraying one of the few remaining connective threads between the U.S. But now the number of troops remaining in both countries is only a tiny fraction of what it once was. troops have served overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, and have been prominently featured in news headlines nearly every day. Since 9/11, America’s armed forces have been highly visible to the U.S. The yawning civil–military divide that was so evident to our Navy friend in the 1990s has every chance of returning and widening - with even more damaging effects on the U.S. But as those two wars evolve into smaller conflicts, the military is coming home once more, drawing back into its often isolated and tightly guarded bases. Today, after 14 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Navy commander is more likely to be recognized by his or her rank when introduced in public. When a friend introduced him by his rank as “Commander,” one of these well-to-do members looked deeply confused and said, “Commander? What the heck is that?” A retired Navy officer recently told us a story that happened 20 years ago in New Jersey, when he was introduced to several very successful businessmen at an elite golf course outside his base.
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