The Social Demography of the All-Volunteer Armed Force

Abstract

With the termination of the Selective Service System in 1973, the armed forces will be reduced in size, but for the first time the United States will have an expanded military operating as a "force in being" rather than a cadre for mobilization. Several fundamental public policy questions are involved: will the armed forces be able to recruit the necessary number and quality personnel; will this force be relatively representative of the larger society. With present reduction in force levels, recruitment is made more difficult because of lack of career stability and declining opportunities. The end of the draft has already resulted in shortages of skilled and technical personnel as well as declining enrollment in Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and National Guard and reserve units. Together with age restrictions and educational guide lines, this suggests that progress toward numerical quotas is in part a compromise in quality. A review of the characteristics of the manpower pool indicates that it is weighted toward the low-income and modest social status group. The social demography of the armed forces is not predetermined, but it will play an important role in the internal viability of the armed forces in civil-military relations in the post-Vietnam period.