10/05/08 #2

Specific reasons for any rise or decline in enlistment numbers of the armed forces are not clear to me. This blog is not going to solve any major mysteries; it’s merely my take or even my opinion about the things I see. According to:

http://www.prb.org/Articles/2005/ArmyRecruitmentGoalsEndangeredasPercentofAfricanAmericanEnlisteesDeclines.aspx

African American enlistment numbers were around twenty percent in 2000 but have been on the decline and in 2005 it was around fifteen percent. Any number of reasons could be attributed to this decline and anything I say is just a speculation. Soldiers in the army are most of the time on the ground engaging in close physical battle with the “enemy.” It seems to me that the closer you are to the enemy, the chances of you dying rise. Based on the limited data from this article it doesn’t seem to be very attractive to people, in this case, African Americans. It certainly doesn’t interest me in anyway shape or form. The army has “depended on blacks to meet its recruiting goals and reenlistment targets.”

I don’t know the reason why we’re at war and I think that only a select few actually know the real truth behind this so-called war on terror. I have to be honest; I’m not a fan of getting shot or shooting somebody over a beef that I had no personal part in starting. As long as this war has been dragging on, it’s not surprising to hear that people are losing interest in joining the army. Although this same article has a graph showing an ever so slight rise in navy enlistment in 2004, which may or may not indicate a shift in popularity as far as the major branches of the armed forces are concerned. The sailors in the navy are generally lower on the list of active personnel to be deployed onto the front lines, and in a war such as this one which is on land; it might just be a safer way to earn a living while still serving this country.