Post by mj on Nov 6, 2005 11:55:26 GMT -5
WASHINGTON - As sustained combat in Iraq makes it harder than ever to fill the ranks of the all-volunteer force, newly released Pentagon demographic data show that the military is leaning heavily for recruits on economically depressed, rural areas where youths' need for jobs may outweigh the risks of going to war.
More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas, Pentagon figures show. Just 14 percent come from major cities.
Youths living in the most sparsely populated ZIP codes are 22 percent more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities. Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West (24 percent).
Nearly half come from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to Pentagon data based on ZIP codes and Census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.
Such patterns are pronounced in such communities as Martinsville, Va., that supply the greatest number of enlistees in proportion to their youth populations. All of the Army's top 20 counties for recruiting had lower-than-national median incomes; 12 had higher poverty rates; and 16 were nonmetropolitan, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group that analyzed 2004 recruiting data by ZIP code.
"A lot of the high recruitment rates are in areas where there is not as much economic opportunity for young people," said Anita Dancs, research director for the NPP, based in Northampton, Mass.
Senior Pentagon officials say the war has had a clear impact on recruiting, with a shrinking pool of candidates forcing the military to accept enlistees of lesser quality.
Least-qualified recruits
In fiscal 2005, the Army took in its least-qualified group of recruits in a decade, as measured by education and test results. The war also is attracting youths driven by patriotism, including a growing fringe of the upper class and wealthy.
Tucked into the Piedmont foothills of southern Virginia, where jobs in the local economy are as scarce as NASCAR fans are plentiful, Martinsville is typical of the lower-income rural communities across the nation that today constitute the U.S. military's richest recruiting grounds.
Albert Deal, 25, had struggled for years to hold onto a job in this rural Virginia community of rolling hills and shuttered textile mills. So when he got his latest pink slip, from a modular-homes plant, he took a hard look at his life. Then he picked up the phone and dialed the U.S. Army.
Two weeks later, on Oct. 27, Deal sat in his parents' living room and signed one enlistment document after another as his fiancée somberly looked on.
Something different
Left adrift, young people such as Deal "are being pushed out of their communities. They want to get away from intolerable situations, and the military offers them something different," said Morten Ender, a sociologist at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
To be sure, some young people who need jobs or college money also seek adventure and a chance to serve their country. Others come from towns with large bases or populations of veterans interwoven with a military culture that helps keep enlistments high. And a rising percentage of youth from wealthy areas is signing up, presumably for patriotic reasons.
But nationwide, data point above all to places such as Martinsville, where rural roads lined with pine and poplar trees snake through lonely, desolate towns, as the wellspring for the youth fighting America's wars.
"They are these untapped kids," Enders said "that nobody found."
More than 44 percent of U.S. military recruits come from rural areas, Pentagon figures show. Just 14 percent come from major cities.
Youths living in the most sparsely populated ZIP codes are 22 percent more likely to join the Army, with an opposite trend in cities. Regionally, most enlistees come from the South (40 percent) and West (24 percent).
Nearly half come from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to Pentagon data based on ZIP codes and Census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.
Such patterns are pronounced in such communities as Martinsville, Va., that supply the greatest number of enlistees in proportion to their youth populations. All of the Army's top 20 counties for recruiting had lower-than-national median incomes; 12 had higher poverty rates; and 16 were nonmetropolitan, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonpartisan research group that analyzed 2004 recruiting data by ZIP code.
"A lot of the high recruitment rates are in areas where there is not as much economic opportunity for young people," said Anita Dancs, research director for the NPP, based in Northampton, Mass.
Senior Pentagon officials say the war has had a clear impact on recruiting, with a shrinking pool of candidates forcing the military to accept enlistees of lesser quality.
Least-qualified recruits
In fiscal 2005, the Army took in its least-qualified group of recruits in a decade, as measured by education and test results. The war also is attracting youths driven by patriotism, including a growing fringe of the upper class and wealthy.
Tucked into the Piedmont foothills of southern Virginia, where jobs in the local economy are as scarce as NASCAR fans are plentiful, Martinsville is typical of the lower-income rural communities across the nation that today constitute the U.S. military's richest recruiting grounds.
Albert Deal, 25, had struggled for years to hold onto a job in this rural Virginia community of rolling hills and shuttered textile mills. So when he got his latest pink slip, from a modular-homes plant, he took a hard look at his life. Then he picked up the phone and dialed the U.S. Army.
Two weeks later, on Oct. 27, Deal sat in his parents' living room and signed one enlistment document after another as his fiancée somberly looked on.
Something different
Left adrift, young people such as Deal "are being pushed out of their communities. They want to get away from intolerable situations, and the military offers them something different," said Morten Ender, a sociologist at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
To be sure, some young people who need jobs or college money also seek adventure and a chance to serve their country. Others come from towns with large bases or populations of veterans interwoven with a military culture that helps keep enlistments high. And a rising percentage of youth from wealthy areas is signing up, presumably for patriotic reasons.
But nationwide, data point above all to places such as Martinsville, where rural roads lined with pine and poplar trees snake through lonely, desolate towns, as the wellspring for the youth fighting America's wars.
"They are these untapped kids," Enders said "that nobody found."
