Although polls of Hispanic youth show a strong propensity to serve in the military, Hispanics are nonetheless underrepresented among military recruits. The authors discuss the major characteristics that disproportionately disqualify Hispanic youth and explore actions that could be taken to increase Hispanic enlistments.
Hispanics are underrepresented among military recruits. In 2007, Hispanics made up 17.0 percent of the general population (ages 18 to 40) but only 11.4 percent of Army enlistment contracts and 15 percent of Navy enlistment contracts. While the trend is upward (in 1994, 6.6 percent of Army contracts and 8.9 percent of Navy contracts were Hispanic), Hispanics are still underrepresented. Social representation within the armed forces is an ongoing concern of policymakers. Indeed, each year, the Department of Defense is required by Congress to publish statistics on the social representation of the armed forces in terms of such characteristics as race, ethnicity, marital status, and age. An implicit goal is that diversity in the armed forces should approximate diversity in the general population. Furthermore, recruiting challenges in meeting enlistment goals mean that the services need to understand the factors affecting the supply of key demographic groups, including Hispanics.
The U.S. military has been continuously engaged in foreign conflicts for over two decades. The strains that these deployments, the associated increases in operational tempo, and the general challenges of military life affect not only service members but also the people who depend on them and who support them as they support the nation â€" their families. Family members provide support to service members while they serve or when they have difficulties; family problems can interfere with the ability of service members to deploy or remain in theater; and family members are central influences on whether members continue to serve. In addition, rising family diversity and complexity will likely increase the difficulty of creating military policies, programs and practices that adequately support families in the performance of military duties. Strengthening the Military Family Readiness System for a Changing American Society examines the challenges and opportunities facing military families and what is known about effective strategies for supporting and protecting military children and families, as well as lessons to be learned from these experiences. This report offers recommendations regarding what is needed to strengthen the support system for military families.
Recruiting an all-volunteer military is a formidable task. To successfully enlist one eligible recruit, the Army must contact approximately 120 young people. The National Research Council explores the various factors that will determine whether the military can realistically expect to recruit an adequate fighting force-one that will meet its upcoming needs. It also assesses the military's expected manpower needs and projects the numbers of youth who are likely to be available over the next 20 years to meet these needs. With clearly written text and useful graphics, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth offers an overview of important issues for military recruiters, touching on a number of important topics including: sex and race, education and aptitude, physical and moral attributes, and military life and working conditions. In addition, the book looks at how a potential recruit would approach the decision to enlist, considering personal, family, and social values, and the options for other employment or college. Building on the need to increase young Americans' "propensity to enlist," this book offers useful recommendations for increasing educational opportunities while in the service and for developing advertising strategies that include concepts of patriotism and duty to country. Of primary value to military policymakers, recruitment officers, and analysts, Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Aspirations of American Youth will also interest social scientists and policy makers interested in youth trends.
Latinos comprise the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States, and this interdisciplinary anthology gathers the scholarship of both early career and senior Latina/o scholars whose work explores the varied and unique latinidades, or Latino cultural identities, of this group.
A comprehensive guide to the lives and experiences of military service members, veterans, and their families in the United States today, with special emphasis given to those of the post-9/11 era. This reference work provides detailed information on the issues U.S. service members face both stateside and during deployments overseas. Issues covered include relations with family; substance use; housing; educational and job training opportunities; post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues; and experiences of women, sexual minorities, and ethnic/racial minorities in the armed services. This set also examines major issues related to military service for people close to the men and women who serve our country, such as spouses or partners, children, and parents grappling with such issues as single parenthood during deployment and bereavement at the loss of a loved one. Finally, this set is a valuable resource for people seeking a greater understanding of the issues that confront some military service members and veterans, from chronic health problems to economic vulnerability to suicide to incarceration. The two volumes are written in a comprehensive yet succinct and accessible style by experts familiar with the latest trends and findings.
In Proving Patriotismo, the authors examine Latino military recruitment and question whether military service is perceived and functions as a vehicle by which Latinos in the United States can be accepted as first-class citizens and improve their economic station? This work provides the first empirical analysis of the poverty draft by asking over 1,800 Latino high school students in South Texas about their experiences with military recruitment. The authors then employ additional original interview data with high school faculty and administration to assess how the military seeks to attract Latino students. Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces are also surveyed to understand their military experience and assess whether their service improved their acceptance as American and improved their post-service quality of life. The work concludes with an examination of national survey data where Latinos provide their views of the U.S. military and Latino military service. The result of this work is a complex picture where the intersection of poverty, ethnicity and patriotism demonstrates why the U.S. military targets a growing Latino population for recruitment and why Latinos in the United States seeking to improve their economic station and their acceptance as American are open to these overtures.
This volume synthesizes literature on military service and its life course consequences. It considers how the military has changed over time, how experiences of military service vary across cohorts and persons with different characteristics, how military service affects service members' lives and families and the linkages between research and policy.
Clinical Military Counseling provides current research and ethical practice guidelines for the assessment, diagnosis, and mental health treatment of active-duty service members, veterans, and military families in a 21st-century multicultural environment. Author Mark Stebnicki discusses contemporary military culture; the medical and psychosocial aspects of military health, including the neuroscience of military stress and trauma; suicide; chronic illnesses and disability; and blast and traumatic brain injuries. In addition, he offers integrative approaches to healing the mind, body, and spirit of service members and veterans dealing with clinical issues, such as spirituality, moral injury, and trauma; complex posttraumatic stress disorder and co-occurring mental health conditions; the stresses of the deployment cycle; and military career transitions. *Requests for digital versions from ACA can be found on www.wiley.com. *To purchase print copies, please visit the ACA website *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to [email protected]