Scoober,
Jim got it right. Not personal by any means. Oh, and I don't speak Latin (from Iowa, not Latin America) so I still don't get your point regarding education. Just to get it down to my level, are you arguing that the military today is not as well educated as their peers, or do you accept the the authors conclusion and disagree purely on methodology? It may be as simple as them not knowing Latin either.
OK, then help me out. I am dead serious. Break it down for me because while I know about causation, correlation and the like I don't see scoober's point re education. I don't even know what causation we are talking about. Where is causation. I don't think they are arguing any causation. And so what if the military requires a HSD. The claim is that as a group, the 18-24 year old cohort, military 18-24 year olds will have a higher % of HSD. No claim for any causation was made. They didn't argue that military enlistment caused 18-24 year olds to become better educated than their civilian cohort. Please commence edgeucatingLatin... or logic.
Your post is informative, but what is the measure of "quality" the survey is using?Previous Heritage Foundation research demonstrated that the quality of enlisted troops has increased since the start of the Iraq war. This report demonstrates that the same is true of the officer corps.
I think it is clear the measure of quality in the paper is education and asvab score. Your observations of sailors is instructive and I have no way of knowing how accurate your observations are. It must be accepted and stand on its own. I am certain what you have observed is true of some sailors, even some officers. But let me offer other observations based on experience with more sailors than you (stipulating that most of the sample were in aviation) and many years in the recruiting game. Some people enlist, even with degrees, not because they can't make it in the civilian job market, but because what they want to do in the military is only represented in enlisted ranks. What Pat Tillman wanted out of the Army could only be had as an infantry soldier, a Ranger at that. I know the senior recruiter that forwarded his app and that of his brother. They rejected officer program options. Some guys want to be air traffic controllers. Many want to be MPs, MAs or Air Police. Some want to be on subs in the worst way and wouldn't qualify for nuke officer even though they may have a 3.7 GPA, but that it is in History. Just because a guy has graduated and had a civilian job doesn't mean he is damaged goods or otherwise can't make it in the civ sector. I have heard many applicants claim their experience in the job market was not fulfilling, or they didn't like the field their degree prepared them for. Enlisting is a way to reinvent themselves. I wouldn't just assume a guy that enlists from the civ work force or that has a degree couldn't make it on the outside or will not make a "quality" sailor.Your post is informative, but what is the measure of "quality" the survey is using?
I'm finding that a good portion of Sailors who enlist with degrees do so because they couldn't make it in a competitive job market. The same traits that make them undesirable to private employers also cause them to struggle to get their bearings in their first few years of service, even when their only responsibility is essentially to do what they did in college - study and take oral/written exams until they are qualified.
Yes, high school... where attendance is mandatory...I know a lot of people who were much more disciplined in attendance in high school than college.
Some of those people still pull 3.7+ GPAs because they have a good short term memory, but it demonstrates the opposite of any quality of someone I'd want to hire.
Does it really make a difference if a kid came from a poor family or not? It is an all volunteer military. It isn't like there is a draft and the privileged can buy their way out making it inherently unfair. Economic history and even class says much less about our military than culture and values. You have poor people that value education, give to a church and vote in every election, and some that don't. What says more about the type of person they are, their checking account balance or that they were a girl scout, walked twice as far as necessary so they could attend a challenging college prep magnet school and was on student council? Like much of the race debate, in my opinion the whole economic class issue in this case is overstated.