Military Service by Twentieth-century Generations of American Men

Abstract

A cohort perspective contrasting four historical generations of American men reveals sharp differences in the extent to which each generation served on active military duty, in the share of that service that occurred during wartime and in the battlefield ages from seventeen to twenty-four, in the resulting rates of combat-related deaths, and in certain features of selectivity with respect to military service—chiefly education. Service data from Defense Department sources combined with population data from computerized census files produce these military profiles of the Hard Timers, Good Warriors, Lucky Few, and Baby Boomers.