Our military--who fights for us?

I found an interesting piece in The Wall Street Journal that lays to rest the old lies about who really fights for us. We hear so often of our military as a refuge for those unable to make it in society, a place for the ill-trained and minorities of our society. The belief is that our nation is cruelly sending these poor saps off to die in lands they couldn't spell or find on a map. But the truth is far different.

In 2008, using data provided by the Defense Department, the Heritage Foundation found that only 11% of enlisted military recruits in 2007 came from the poorest one-fifth, or quintile, of American neighborhoods (as of the 2000 Census), while 25% came from the wealthiest quintile. Heritage reported that "these trends are even more pronounced in the Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, in which 40% of enrollees come from the wealthiest neighborhoods, a number that has increased substantially over the past four years."

Think about what that is saying. More than twice as many of our soldiers come from the wealthiest portion of our society as come from the poorest section. In fact, the Heritage report showed that "low-income families are underrepresented in the military and high-income families are overrepresented. Individuals from the bottom household income quintile make up 20.0 percent of Americans who are age 18-24 years old but only 10.6 percent of the 2006 recruits and 10.7 percent of the 2007 recruits. Individuals in the top two quintiles make up 40.0 percent of the population, but 49.3 percent of the recruits in both years."

What about the charge that our Army is disproportionately minority, especially African-American? This too is false, as the Journal points out in data for fiscal 2010 available on the Army's website: Whereas African-Americans comprise 17% of Americans ages 18-39 with high school degrees, they represent only a slightly larger proportion of enlisted soldiers, at 21%.

Yes, but what about whites? Are they shirking their military duty? Nope. They were significantly overrepresented among enlisted Army personnel in 2010. While 58% of Americans 18-39 years old are white, 64% of the Army's enlisted men and women are. One area that is particularly uplifting is the percentage of Army officers. While 74% of 25-54 year-olds with bachelor's degrees are white, 72% of Army officers are white. While 8% of 25-54 year-olds with B.A.s are African-American, 13% of Army officers are. So African-Americans are represented well as officers.

Why do myths persist despite all the evidence? It seems likely that it suits the interests of many members of the urban elite to believe that the military they do not join is composed of poor, uneducated victims of an unfair society. I'm so glad to know this idea is far from the truth.