Military Stats

Many posts have discussed the US military.

Jenn Hatfield at Pew:

As of the end of March, the U.S. military had 1.32 million active-duty members, according to DMDC figures. This is an increase of 1.5% over the year prior, when there were about 1.30 million. (Active-duty military are those who work for the military full time. They do not include personnel in the Reserve or National Guard.)

Nearly 450,000 active-duty military members serve in the Army, the most of any military branch. The Navy has the second-largest number of active-duty members (about 334,000), followed by the Air Force and Marine Corps. The Coast Guard and Space Force are much smaller, with fewer than 50,000 active-duty members each.

All branches of the military have gained active-duty members in the past year. The Navy has gained the most in overall numbers (about 7,300). The Space Force and the Coast Guard have grown the most in percentage terms (6.1% and 3.4%, respectively).

Active-duty military members are assigned to work in every state and internationally, according to DMDC data. A large majority (86%) are stationed domestically, while 14% are stationed internationally.

The number of active-duty military working in each state varies greatly, based partly on the locations of military bases. California has the most active-duty military, with about 157,500. Virginia and Texas also have more than 100,000.

Six states have fewer than 1,000 active-duty military, and Vermont has the fewest of all with 128.

Some branches of the military have an especially large footprint in certain states:Texas has about 65,400 active-duty Army members, about 16,000 more than any other state. There are five Army bases there, the second-most of any state after Virginia.

Virginia (73,500) and California (72,500) have by far the most active-duty Navy members. No other state has even half that many, even though states like Florida, Maryland and Washington have roughly similar numbers of naval bases.

Colorado has about 4,300 active-duty Space Force members, nearly three times more than any other state. Three of the nation’s six Space Force bases are in Colorado

.

Juneteenth and the Army

From the US Army:

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Juneteenth is known as America’s “second” Independence Day because it commemorates the end of slavery in America. The holiday also represents the beginning of the fulfillment of America’s promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for Black Americans.

President Abraham Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863, declaring “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” However, Texas resisted the Emancipation Proclamation for more than two years.

On June 19, 1865, U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last enslaved Americans in Texas from bondage. This day became known as “Juneteenth”, or “Jubilee Day,” “Freedom Day,” or “Emancipation Day.”

Juneteenth is considered the longest-running Black American holiday. Over the years and through successive waves of migration, Juneteenth celebrations spread to the rest of Texas and eventually the country at large.

The Juneteenth Day of Observance officially became the 11th federal holiday in 2021 and is the first new federal holiday since the recognition of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in 1983.

“Juneteenth represents not only the commemoration of the end of slavery in America more than 150 years ago, but the ongoing work to bring true equity and racial justice into American society,” said U.S. President Joseph R. Biden before the signing of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17, 2021.

APG Soldiers, civilians advocate for equality in Harford County

Juneteenth is an integral part of Army life. It is a time to reflect on the crucial role the Army played in the Emancipation Proclamation and ending segregation in the U.S.

On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which ended segregation in the military. This order marked a significant moment in the civil rights movement. It was also one of the first instances where a U.S. president used an executive order to implement a civil rights policy.

Locally, APG Soldiers and civilians were instrumental in the desegregation of Harford County by leading efforts to desegregate local restaurants, facilitate school integration, and advocate for fair and open housing in the 1960s, said Patricia D. Cole, President of the Havre de Grace Colored School Museum and Cultural Center, Inc.

These efforts included peaceful protests, speeches, and involvement in lawsuits. For example, Cole said many Soldiers and civilians were involved in the Route 40 protests, advocating for the desegregation of restaurants and other public accommodations.

In the 1960s, George S. Pettit, an APG scientist, filed a lawsuit to enable his son A. Dwight Pettit to attend Aberdeen High School. After a two-year legal battle, the Pettit family won the lawsuit, allowing A. Dwight Pettit to attend Aberdeen High School instead of Havre de Grace Consolidated, a segregated school for Black students. Today, A. Dwight Pettit is a prominent Baltimore lawyer.

Cole said in 1961, APG leaders facilitated meetings between local restaurant owners and civil rights leaders to advocate for removing racial exclusions in restaurants along Route 40.

“This effort was crucial as Black Vietnam veterans returning home faced significant challenges in finding housing off the post,” Cole said.

This Juneteenth, take time to reflect on what it means to be free, celebrate the resiliency of Black Americans, and honor those who fought and sacrificed to ensure the Constitution fulfilled its promise to all Americans.

Eighty Years After D-Day

From the US Army:

Immediately after France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies planned a cross-Channel assault on German occupying forces. The opening invasion of the liberation of France would ultimately code-named Operation Overlord. By May 1944, 2,876,000 Allied troops were amassed in southern England. The largest armada in history, lay in wait, and more that 1,200 planes stood ready. Against a tense backdrop of uncertain weather forecasts, disagreements in strategy, and related timing dilemmas, General Dwight D. Eisenhower decided before dawn on June 5 to proceed with Overlord. Later that same afternoon, he scribbled a note intended for release, accepting responsibility for the decision to launch the invasion and full blame should the effort to create a beachhead on the Normandy coast fail.

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day's end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe, to defeat Adolf Hitler's crack troops.
...
Many explanations have been given for the meaning of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the day the Allies invaded Normandy from England during World War II. The Army has said that it is “simply an alliteration, as in H-Hour.” Others say the first D in the word also stands for “day,” the term a code designation. The French maintain the D means “disembarkation,” still others say “debarkation,” and the more poetic insist D-Day is short for “day of decision.” When someone wrote to General Eisenhower in 1964 asking for an explanation, his executive assistant Brigadier General Robert Schultz answered: “General Eisenhower asked me to respond to your letter. Be advised that any amphibious operation has a 'departed date'; therefore the shortened term 'D-Day' is used.”

Military Demographics

From the Department of Defense:

The total number of military personnel is almost 3.5 million strong, including DoD Active Duty military personnel (1,304,418); DHS’s Active Duty Coast Guard members (41,132); DoD Ready Reserve and DHS Coast Guard Reserve members (1,039,398); members of the Retired Reserve (208,032) and Standby Reserve (11,391); and DoD Appropriated and Non-Appropriated Funds civilian personnel (883,398). DoD’s Active Duty and DHS’s Coast Guard Active Duty members comprise the largest portion of the military force (38.6%), followed by Ready Reserve members (29.8%) and DoD civilian personnel (25.3%).

Active Duty Member Highlights

• Service Branches. The Army has the largest number of Active Duty members (471,990) followed by the Navy (325,395), the Air Force (321,618), and the Marine Corps (185,415). At a total of 1,304,418 DoD Active Duty members, the military force of 2018 is 4.8 percent smaller than it was in 2000, when there were 1,370,678 Active Duty members. From 2000 to 2018, the Army (-1.5%), Air Force (-8.5%), and Navy (-11.4%) all experienced a decrease in the number of members while the Marine Corps experienced an increase (+7.2%).

• Ratio of Ranks. The DoD Active Duty force is composed of 82.3 percent enlisted personnel (1,073,394) and 17.7 percent officers (231,024). Overall, the Active Duty force has 4.6 enlisted personnel for every one officer. In comparison, the Army and the Air Force have one officer for every 4.1 enlisted personnel, the Navy has one officer for every 4.9 enlisted personnel, and the Marine Corps has one officer for every 7.7 enlisted personnel.

• Gender. Women, who number 215,834, comprise 16.5 percent of the DoD Active Duty force, while 1,088,584 men comprise 83.5 percent of the DoD Active Duty force. Compared to 2000, the percentage of both Active Duty enlisted members and officers who are women has increased (from 14.7% and 14.4%, respectively, in 2000 to 16.2% and 18.0%, respectively, in 2018). Overall, the number and ratio of female enlisted members (174,331) to female officers (41,503) is 4.2 female enlisted members for every one female officer, while the number and ratio of male enlisted members (899,063) to male officers (189,521) is 4.7 male enlisted members for every one male officer.

• Race/Ethnicity. Nearly one-third (31.0%) or 404,851 of Active Duty members identify themselves as a racial minority (i.e., Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Multi-racial, or Other/Unknown). As compared to 2010, the percentage of Active Duty members who identify themselves as a racial minority is higher in 2018 (31.4% of enlisted members and 22.7% of officers in 2010, to 32.7% of enlisted members and 23.5% of officers in 2018). The overall ratio of racial minority enlisted personnel (350,495) to racial minority officers (54,356) is 6.4 racial minority enlisted personnel for every one racial minority officer. To conform to the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directives, Hispanic is not considered a minority race designation and only Active Duty members’ race was used to determine racial minority status. Regarding ethnicity, 16.1 percent of Active Duty members identify themselves as being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

• Geographic Location. While the Active Duty population is located throughout the world, the three primary areas in which Active Duty members are assigned are the United States and its territories (87.3%), East Asia (6.4%), and Europe (5.0%). The ten states with the highest Active Duty military populations are California (153,505), Virginia (122,314), Texas (117,844), North Carolina (99,193), Georgia (65,371), Florida (60,251), Washington (58,115), Hawaii (41,803), South Carolina (39,237), and Colorado (35,012). Active Duty members in these ten states comprise 70.0 percent of the Active Duty personnel stationed in the United States.

• Age. Over half (52.3%) of Active Duty enlisted personnel are 25 years of age or younger, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 years (20.7%), followed by 31 to 35 years (13.5%), 36 to 40 years (8.9%), and those 41 years or older (4.6%). Almost one-quarter (23.7%) of Active Duty officers are 41 years of age or older, with the next largest age group being 26 to 30 years (22.9%), followed by 31 to 35 years (21.1%), 36 to 40 years (17.7%), and those 25 years or younger (14.5%). Overall, the average age of the Active Duty force is 28.2 years. The average age for Active Duty enlisted personnel is 26.9 years, and the average age for Active Duty officers is 34.4 years.

• Education Level. Most enlisted members (80.5%) have a high school diploma and/or some college experience, while fewer have an Associate’s degree (10.5%) or a Bachelor’s degree or higher (8.4%). Most officers have a Bachelor’s degree or higher (84.8%). Compared to 2010, the percentage of total Active Duty members who have a Bachelor’s and/or an advanced degree increased for enlisted personnel (from 4.8% in 2010 to 8.4% in 2018) and officers (from 82.7% in 2010, to 84.8% in 2018).

• Marital Status. Just over half (51.5%) of Active Duty military members are married, which is lower than the percentage that were married in 2000 (53.1%). In 2018, almost half (48.0%) of enlisted members and a majority (67.5%) of officers report themselves as married. Over half (52.8%) of Active Duty males and nearly half (44.8%) of Active Duty females are married. In addition, 6.7 percent of DoD’s Active Duty members are in dual-military marriages.2 In 2018, 3.4 percent of enlisted personnel and 1.5 percent of officers are estimated to have divorced.

Americans View the Military Services

Gallup reports:

Americans believe that the U.S. Army is the most important service branch to national defense, followed closely by the Air Force. Fewer than one in five choose the Marine Corps or the Navy. The Army has edged out other military branches in Gallup surveys conducted throughout the last decade.

...

Importance does not necessarily equal prestige, however. While the Army has held a thin lead in perceived importance to the United States' national defense over the last decade, the Marine Corps has consistently been considered the nation's most prestigious military branch, widening its lead over the Air Force and Army during the same period. Currently, nearly half of Americans (47%) say the Marines are the most prestigious, with the Air Force a distant second, at 17%.

"Religious Extremism" List

The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) issued a statement on the inclusion of “Catholicism” as an example of “religious extremism” on slide #24 of this U.S. Army Reserve training brief:

The Archdiocese for the Military Services and Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty recently became aware of a U.S. Army Reserve Equal Opportunity training brief that expressly listed “Catholicism,” “Evangelical Christianity” and other religious groups as examples of “religious extremism” alongside groups such as “Al Qaeda”, “Hamas” and the “KKK.”

The Archdiocese is astounded that Catholics were listed alongside groups that are, by their very mission and nature, violent and extremist.

According to an investigation and reply from the Army Chief of Chaplains office, the training in question appears to have been an isolated incident not condoned by the Department of the Army. The Archdiocese and the Chaplain Alliance explained that the Army can and should take steps to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Archdiocese calls upon the Department of Defense to review these materials and to ensure that tax-payer funds are never again used to present blatantly anti-religious material to the men and women in uniform.

Army's Fast Track to Citizenship

Many posts have discussed the connection between military service and citizenship. The Associated Press reports:

As debate swirls in Washington about changing the nation's policies on immigration, the Army is going ahead with offering some legal immigrants living temporarily in the U.S. a path to citizenship if they can fill certain critical jobs.

It is formally known by a mouthful of Pentagon-speak: Military Accession Vital to the National Interest, or MANVI. The Army began the program on a one-year trial basis in 2009, recruiting 789 soldiers with language skills and 143 health care professionals, said Maj. Carol Stahl, the Army program's manager in the Pentagon. Since the program re-opened at the end of September 2012, 451 linguists have enlisted in the Army with 28 different languages, as well as 19 dentists and three physicians, she said.

While immigrants have long chosen military service as a way to qualify for citizenship, the new program was developed to speed up the process for specialties the military needs during times of conflict. That makes it easier to bring in medical professionals as officers, a rank where non-citizens cannot serve, or to pursue security clearances that non-citizens would also not qualify for.

Immigrants who qualify and agree to serve for a variable number of years can get on a fast track to citizenship. The process can be completed within weeks of putting on a uniform if they meet the multiplicity of requirements, officials say. The program is being used primarily by the Army, the nation's largest service. Other service branches could, but aren't doing so at present, Stahl said.

Horses and the Military

From The John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center

The Senior Mountaineering Course includes tactical mountain operations, field-craft training, horsemanship, animal packing instruction, maintaining mountaineering equipment, selecting appropriate mountaineering equipment, high-alpine medical considerations, medical emergencies, trauma emergencies, weather forecasting, belaying techniques, constructing improvised climbing equipment, casualty extraction, moving non-trained personnel over vertical obstacles, conducting mountain operations

Special Forces used horses in Afghanistan.




There is a monument to the horse soldiers near Ground Zero:

Bayonets

ABC News reports:

The most memorable line of Monday night’s debate was President Obama’s pointed “horses and bayonets” jab at Mitt Romney for questioning what Romney said was a shrinking U.S. Navy.

Obama responded that Romney “hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. ” He added, “You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed.”

Horses and bayonets quickly became a Twitter punchline, but while they may no longer be needed for bayonet charges, it turns out the Pentagon still owns a hefty arsenal of bayonets.

The Army said today it has 419,155 bayonets in its inventory. The Marine Corps has another 195,334 bayonets that it bought in 2004 and it plans on buying 175,061 more bayonets this year. A Marine official says it’s not accurate to add the two totals together as the new ones will include replacements for ones already in service as well as additional stocks.

Aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, Staff Sgt. Leon S. Parker tells recruits how to use bayonets,  July 24, 2012:


At The Wall Street Journal, Julian E. Barnes writes:  "In 1916, Army and Marine Corps forces were relatively small, the World War I buildup having not begun. There were about 200,000 active duty Army soldiers and about 14,000 Marines, making it unlikely that there were more than the approximately 614,000 bayonets in the inventory today."

Celebrating Army Rangers

A central theme of our book is that, while self-interest explains a lot about government, it does not explain everything.  Self-sacrifice is also part of the story, as we see in this release from the US Army Special Operations Command:

Army Rangers hold rare public ceremony to celebrate service, sacrifice

By David Poe
Northwest Guardian
TACOMA, Wash. (USASOC News Service, May 15, 2012) - The U.S. Army Ranger story is typically a closed book, but Joint Base Lewis-McChord's Rangers opened the pages of their latest chapter for an evening last week. The South Sound community had the rare opportunity to join 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, in recognizing its own at the Tacoma Dome, May 10.

More than 50 Rangers received commendations, which ranged from Army Commendation medals to a Silver Star for combat and non-combat action going back to 2005. The battalion also received two Valorous Unit awards for actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, 2-75th Rangers has deployed for Overseas Contingency Operations 14 times. Their most recent Operation Enduring Freedom deployment concluded in December. During the five-month rotation they conducted 475 combat operations where they lost four rangers and one attached Soldier.

Staff Sgt. Sean Keough received the Silver Star for courage under fire in Afghanistan last year. The Silver Star is America's third highest combat decoration.

Last fall, Keough, serving as a Ranger rifleman and squad leader, was part of a joint task force conducting a raid on a Taliban compound. When a comrade was injured during the assault, Keough positioned himself between the wounded Ranger and insurgent fire so that other task force members could administer medical aid.

After he and another teammate eliminated a charging insurgent, he was hit by enemy fire and still held his position between the enemy and his downed teammate as his squad radioed for a medevac. Refusing treatment throughout a long firefight, he continued his integral part of the mission, helping the team to overtake the enemy compound eight hours later. He also received a Purple Heart for the wounds he suffered during that engagement.

Lt. Gen. John F. Mulholland, commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, traveled from his Fort Bragg, N.C., headquarters for the event. He said to be a part of a night when so many Rangers were honored for heroic deeds was awe inspiring.

"That convergence -- that range of valor is extraordinary," he said, "and by itself should tell us what it means to be a Ranger, and to be a Ranger battalion."

Five 2-75th Rangers noncommissioned officers received Soldier's Medals for rescuing two climbers atop Alaska's Mount Denali a year ago. At 20,320 feet, the mountain formerly known as "McKinley" is the highest peak in North America.

The Soldier's Medal is an award recognizing life-risking heroism that didn't involve an enemy. The recipients were Sgt. 1st Class. Joseph Lachnit, Staff Sgt. Austin McCall, Staff Sgt. Keith Pierce and Staff Sgt. David Ray, and Sgt. Kyle Cresto.

Seven Rangers received Bronze Star Medals with "V" devices for valor during the ceremony. Pfc. Joshua Overly, 24, was one of them. During a 2011 firefight, the Ranger rifleman drew enemy fire and eliminated the threat so that two injured troops could be safely reached and extracted.

The native of nearby Gig Harbor shied away from the "hero" label.

"I was just in a bad situation and I did my job; that's what it boils down to," he said. "Anybody in my unit could have been in the same exact situation as me and did the exact same thing."

verly said he was glad his family and friends could see his fellow Rangers, instead of just hearing his stories about them.

"(The ceremony) gave my family a sneak peek of the men that I'm surrounded by," Overly said. "I could tell them on the phone that I'm in the company of heroes at all times -- it means a little bit more for them to see it and hear it from somebody else."

Carol Overly, Joshua's mother, said she appreciated that opportunity. As a mother of two enlisted military members, (another son, Joel, is a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif.), she said last week's ceremony provided her valuable lessons.

"(Our family) has used it as an opportunity to learn about our country's history and the history of the world," she said. "Seeing the work that my boys do now -- the physical training, the mental training -- it's astounding the amount of hard work they do. It's made me proud -- proud of our country and all of the men and women in the military."

Lt. Col. David Hodne, 2-75th Rangers commander, said the openness of the ceremony was a reminder that though Ranger operational missions are shrouded in security, it's important to touch base with a public that might know the legend of the Army Ranger, yet never have the opportunity to shake his hand.

"The community is insulated from the Rangers when we're only in our compound, and they are our biggest fans and supporters," he said, "so when you talk about getting a perspective on what these great Rangers are doing, there's no better way to do it."

Hodne also said any benefit to the community was matched by appreciation from his ranks.

"After now more than 10 years of war, for families to celebrate amongst themselves -- to do this in isolation -- they've done that for years," he said. "Over time it's difficult to continue when you think you're alone in your effort in fighting the war. These men get up every day and do the hard jobs -- without complaint."

The Buffalo Soldiers

From the Library of Congress:

The term “buffalo soldiers” dates to post-Civil War conflicts with Indians who granted the honorific to an all-black cavalry outfit. Buffalo soldier units served in the Spanish-American War, World War I, and the Italian campaign of World War II, when elements of the 92nd Division were among a handful of black units in that war to serve in combat. The road to Italy passed through various posts in the segregated South and Ft. Huachuca, an isolated Arizona outpost where the 92nd assembled for the final push. As featured in the novel and film Miracle at St. Anna, the 92nd distinguished themselves on the battlefield, disproving skeptics and earning an honored chapter in the history of World War II. Two years after the war ended, President Truman signed an order to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces, closing the book on the buffalo soldiers.

In The New York Times, columnist Charles Blow notes that the Captain America movie falsely depicts an integrated army in the Second World War. he recounts his grandfather's heroism as a Buffalo Soldier, and observes:

As the 1997 study “The Exclusion of Black Soldiers from the Medal of Honor in World War II” pointed out, by mid-1947 the U.S. Army had awarded 4,750 Distinguished Service Crosses and only eight, less than 0.2 percent, had gone to black soldiers and not a single black soldier had been recommended for a Medal of Honor. (Roughly 1.2 million blacks served in World War II and about 50,000 were engaged in combat.) Until 1997, World War II was the only American war in which no black soldiers had received a Medal of Honor. President Bill Clinton changed that that year by awarding Medals of Honor to seven of the men who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Crosses, the only ones whose cases were reviewed for the upgrade. Just one of them, Joseph Vernon Baker, a lieutenant in my grandfather’s regiment, was alive to receive it.

Even when this news of the Buffalo Soldiers was making headlines in the ’90s, my grandfather never said a word. There’s no way to know why. Maybe it was the pain of risking his life abroad for a freedom that he couldn’t fully enjoy at home. Maybe it was the misery of languishing in a military hospital for many months and being discharged with a limp that would follow him to the grave. Or maybe it was simply the act of a brave soldier living out the motto of his division: “Deeds Not Words.”

More on the patriotism of veterans here.