Abstract
After a rocky start to the volunteer military in the late 1970s, since 1980 the United States military services have met or exceeded their recruiting and retention goals in most years and have done so at reasonable cost. The ongoing conflict in Iraq is the U.S. military's first protracted conflict since the inception of the volunteer force and raises questions about its impacts on recruiting, retention, and cost. This article briefly examines the effects of the war on recruiting, retention, and cost and studies ways of expanding the size of the active Army force, including a return to conscription.
Highlights
The ongoing conflict in Iraq is the U.S military’s first protracted conflict since the inception of the all-volunteer force (AVF).2 At the time of the conference, Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) was only six months old
Reserve or National Guard units – supplement the 1.4 million active duty personnel. Another 300,000 individuals serve in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), individuals who have prior military service and are not associated with active reserve units, but who are available for call-up during a national emergency
Some critics of the AVF argue for a draft on the ground that high ability, collegebound youth have largely avoided military service in the AVF era and that a draft is needed to infuse the enlisted ranks with more able personnel
Summary
Reserve or National Guard units – supplement the 1.4 million active duty personnel. Another 300,000 individuals serve in the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), individuals who have prior military service and are not associated with active reserve units, but who are available for call-up during a national emergency. Since the advent of the AVF, the U.S military has placed great importance on attracting high-quality recruits This means youth who have graduated from high school and score better than average on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT).. Two key long-term trends have been the rising return to a college degree and the decline in military veterans in the U.S population The former has increased the fraction of high school graduates who attend college, and reduced the supply of high-quality military recruits. The latter form an important component of so-called “influencers.” The decline in their numbers – those from World War II formed the largest contingent – has negatively affected recruiting.. Males account for over 80 percent of enlistments; DoD must recruit about 12 percent of qualified high-quality, non-college males, compared with just 3 percent of females
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