The shift in demographics for incoming recruits would be irrelevant to war planners, except it coincides with an overall shortfall of about 10,000 recruits for the Army in 2023.
Now if this is a topic that interest you. I’ll try to dig up the old study I read. It’s fascinating why groups join the military. Many whites join for “adventure” and that’s why they go into combat roles. Wealthy families are highly represented in combat arms and especially special forces.
Black people join for careers and job skills. They go to non-combat units. Who wants to do 20 years in infantry ?
Good study. Explains why you see the breakdown in certain mos classifications and why special forces is so white and wealthy.
Hmm yes very interesting. I’d like to read that. It sounds almost as if you could make some careful inferences about US society as a whole based on observations of the military.
I still owe you the study that I am referencing, I have to find it. This is a newer study that appears to be referencing it but I can’t get the search to work properly to find it. I will try tomorrow.
However, blacks are also more army to learn skills that are transferable to the
civilian labor force. However, blacks are also more
likely than whites to seek to stay in the army for a
career because they feel the army is a more color-blind
employer than they are likely to find in the civilian
world. (Segal and Verdugo 1994, 628)
Barriers to Minority Participation in Special
Operations Forces subseguently cites the results of the
Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) as evidence of
relatively lower interest in combat related occupations by
minorities.
The other article that I need to find talks about Special forces having a higher amount of rich, white kids seeking adventure. Combat arms are the same, a bunch of white kids wanting to blow things up for a few years.
Intriguing stuff. I have not finished reading the whole thing but I feel like there could be some cultural, social and socioeconomic factors that are just kinda glossed over here. Seems like a simple question about a subject that I think is more complex than it initially appears.
Keep reading. They’re address many of those topics. One study isn’t going to cover everything but it’s an interesting read.
It makes you reflect on your time in service and you’ll see why people made the decisions they did.
Now if this is a topic that interest you. I’ll try to dig up the old study I read. It’s fascinating why groups join the military. Many whites join for “adventure” and that’s why they go into combat roles. Wealthy families are highly represented in combat arms and especially special forces.
Black people join for careers and job skills. They go to non-combat units. Who wants to do 20 years in infantry ?
Good study. Explains why you see the breakdown in certain mos classifications and why special forces is so white and wealthy.
Hmm yes very interesting. I’d like to read that. It sounds almost as if you could make some careful inferences about US society as a whole based on observations of the military.
I still owe you the study that I am referencing, I have to find it. This is a newer study that appears to be referencing it but I can’t get the search to work properly to find it. I will try tomorrow.
However, blacks are also more army to learn skills that are transferable to the civilian labor force. However, blacks are also more likely than whites to seek to stay in the army for a career because they feel the army is a more color-blind employer than they are likely to find in the civilian world. (Segal and Verdugo 1994, 628)
Barriers to Minority Participation in Special Operations Forces subseguently cites the results of the Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) as evidence of relatively lower interest in combat related occupations by minorities.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA384108.pdf
The other article that I need to find talks about Special forces having a higher amount of rich, white kids seeking adventure. Combat arms are the same, a bunch of white kids wanting to blow things up for a few years.
Intriguing stuff. I have not finished reading the whole thing but I feel like there could be some cultural, social and socioeconomic factors that are just kinda glossed over here. Seems like a simple question about a subject that I think is more complex than it initially appears.
Keep reading. They’re address many of those topics. One study isn’t going to cover everything but it’s an interesting read. It makes you reflect on your time in service and you’ll see why people made the decisions they did.