Professor Tackles Sensitive Topic
David Armor
David J. Armor, professor
of public policy, studies the history
of the U.S. military population and charts
the statistical enlistments of various
racial ethnic groups. He brings his experience
and sensitivity to the challenging task
of compiling and analyzing data about
this sometimes controversial topic.
Armor has studied enlistment
trends over the past 24 years, and in
1999, he was appointed to the National
Academy of Science Committee on Military
Recruiting. Currently, Armor is writing
a paper with the Pentagon’s director
for accession policy, Curtis Gilroy,
which focuses on the decline of African
Americans enlisting in the military since
the 1990 Persian Gulf War. Their research
shows that after that war, African American
enlistments dropped sharply, plummeting
again after the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001. Altogether, the number
of African Americans enlisting in the
military dropped from more than 35,700
in 2000 to only 21,700 in 2006, a decline
of nearly 40 percent.
In their paper, which
will be published in Armed
Forces and Society later this
year, Armor and Gilroy examine the following
factors affecting the overall decline:
the size of the military, the size of
the youth population, the military aptitude
and education requirements, civilian
labor market conditions, and the willingness
to serve.
The U.S. Department of
Defense’s policy is that the U.S.
military should represent all groups
of the U.S. population. In 2000, 20 percent
of all enlistees were African American,
and in 2006, only 13 percent of all enlistees
were African American. In contrast, Hispanic
enlistees grew from 11 to 13 percent
over that same period.
“Right now, our
minority representation is pretty representative
of the youth population, but if the African
American decline were to continue, the
military could underrepresent African
Americans,” says Armor. “However,
the statistics show we are not yet at
that point.” Armor is quick to
note that one should not assume that
the data show who is or is not patriotic. “Some
of the decline might be seen in the general
opposition to more recent U.S. military
involvement,” says Armor.
Trends in Enlistment by Race & Ethnicity
(Active Duty Force) |
