Posted on 01/24/2004 2:22:04 PM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
I think it's more that you don't appreciate what you're given, when you earn it, you respect it.
Freedom isn't Free
Washington, D.C. – The United States Army achieved mission success for a fourth straight year. Regular Army projections are for 74,167 accessions for the mission of 73,800, equaling 100.5 percent of the mission. The Army Reserve expects to achieve 27,485 soldiers against a mission of 26,400, equaling 104.1 percent of the mission. Cadet Command, the parent organization of the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program exceeded its fiscal year 2003 mission of commissioning 3,900 officers. Lt. Gen. Dennis L. Cavin, Commander of the U.S. Army Accessions Command, states, “Innovative programs, incentives, and a fully integrated marketing and advertising program supporting both officer and enlisted recruiting are keys to the Army’s mission success. For example, the Army is using ‘cyber recruiters’ who run online chat rooms in English and Spanish, fielding more than 750 e-mail messages daily.
“Our commitment to recruiting a quality force continues to be a top priority for the Army.” Cavin said. In fiscal year 2003, 94.5 percent of new enlistees received their high school diploma. This is a three percent increase over fiscal year 2002. The percent of enlistees with some college increased from 21.6 to 23.9 percent in 2003.
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There was little evidence to suggest that hostile deployments reduced reenlistment. Predictions based on the empirical models indicated that a 25 percent increase in hostile deployments, randomly distributed, would have virtually no effect on reenlistment rates.
Similarly, RAND researchers found nonhostile deployments tended to have a positive effect on retention of junior officers (O-2s and junior O-3s with roughly four to five years of service) and midgrade officers (O-3s and O-4s with between five and ten years of service). Deployment to hostile areas affected junior and midgrade officers in different ways.
For junior officers, hostile deployment in the late 1990s tended to lessen, but not eliminate, the positive effects of deployment on retention. By contrast, hostile deployment for junior officers in the early 1990s was associated with higher retention, perhaps because hostile deployments then were perceived as a way to distinguish oneself from one's peers during the drawdown or because hostile deployments of that time (e.g., Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) were perceived as more rewarding than those of the late 1990s.
For midgrade officers, hostile deployment in the late 1990s had lesser effects on retention rates. This is not surprising, given that midgrade officers are self-selected, having chosen to remain in the service after an initial obligation. In the early 1990s, by contrast, hostile deployments appear to have reduced retention of midgrade officers, perhaps because such officers, having served in a Cold War military with fewer deployments, were discouraged by increased hostile deployments and fewer career opportunities during the drawdown.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences banished the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in 1969 during the Vietnam War. Harvard students could continue to participate in ROTC, but they had to train with the ROTC program at MIT.
One thing about the enlistment process that many people don't understand are military recruiting goals. Most people assume, because of the "War on Terrorism," and the War in Iraq, that the military services would be stepping up recruiting efforts to increase the size of America's military force.
"We entered fiscal 2004 with a very healthy inventory of individuals who have signed a contract and are waiting to ship under the Delayed Entry Program," Gilroy said. The DEP numbers, he said, are "almost at record levels" with all the services having already signed at least half of all the recruits they need through next September.
"This is an interesting phenomenon," Gilroy said. "The numbers do not bear out what we read in the newspapers (about rising interest in a military draft) and what some of our political candidates are espousing."
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