While much research has been conducted into the political behavior and attitudes of American military officers, little has been accomplished with respect to enlisted personnel. Most reports assume that the American military identify largely with the Republican Party and are mostly conservative in attitude. The most recent large-scale study, the TISS Survey on the Military in the Post Cold War Era conducted by Feaver and Kohn in 1998-1999, confirmed those assumptions among senior officers and is often quoted as representative of the entire military. However, the demographic characteristics of enlisted personnel predict different behavior. The enlisted ranks of the American military are over-represented by minorities who traditionally identify with the Democratic Party. The present study gathered data on enlisted personnel, by means of a survey, to determine whether that specialized population is significantly different in attitude and behavior from that of the officer corps and of the general American population. Enlisted personnel identify with the Republican Party in about the same proportion as do the general American population. However, only about half as many enlisted personnel identify with the Democratic Party as do civilians. Enlisted personnel are also about three times more likely to identify as Independents as do other Americans. Active-duty enlisted personnel demonstrate a 1.7 to 1 partisan (Republican to Democrat) ratio, similar to that found in the veteran enlisted sample (1.8 to 1) and the officer sample (1.6 to 1). The civilian sample shows a .95 to 1 partisan ratio. Thus, active-duty enlisted personnel who identify with a political party are about twice as likely to identify with the Republican Party as are civilians. However, active-duty enlisted personnel are nearly four times as likely as civilians to report being Independent, and are substantially less likely than civilians to identify with the Democratic Party. The Republican to Democrat ratio may well explain the commentary about and observations of a Republican dominated military. Despite the fact that the overall proportion of Republicans within the military is no greater than that found within the general population, that there are twice as many individuals who will state that they are Republicans as those who will state that they are Democrats can easily give the impression of a heavily Republican population. However, active-duty enlisted personnel remain strongly independent when compared to the civilian population. Of special note is a markedly higher political efficacy among military enlisted personnel than is found within the general American population. / text

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This study examines the factors that influence active duty Marines in their retention decisions. Data from the 1999 US Marine Corps retention survey are matched with actual retention data from personnel files and limited to Marines eligible to make a stay/leave decision within 24 months of the survey. Four subgroups are defined: enlisted first-term males, enlisted first-term females, enlisted career males and officer junior grade males. Bivariate analysis of explanatory control variables (personal characteristics and military background) and focus variables (responses to questionnaire items about civilian employment opportunities and satisfaction with aspects of military life) indicates significant associations with retention. Factor analysis is used to create seven satisfaction dimensions from the satisfaction variables. Multivariate logistic regression model results show that all the satisfaction dimensions are significant for the enlisted first term male model. Satisfaction dimensions for pay and benefits, health benefits, work equity, current job characteristics, and future career opportunities are significant in one or more of the remaining models. Searching for a civilian job is significant in all models and perceptions of civilian job opportunities are significant in most. Among control variables, the interaction of marital status, dependents, and working spouse has a significant effect on retention for first term enlisted males, the only group large enough to test. / First Lieutenant, Turkish Army

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / The Pentagon is planning to gradually increase the Navy's SEAL force over the next several years to meet increasing global demands. The move was authorized by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) in a program decision memorandum (PDM) in December 2002. The PDM, which directed the growth of Special Operations Forces across the board, called on the Navy to bring the equivalent of two new SEAL Teams to the force between FY-06 and FY-08. Even though funding has been allotted to this task, there may not be enough manpower to fill these slots. Training issues coupled with retention issues have brought the growth process to a standstill. The purpose of this thesis is to identify which major variables and/or combinations of small variables need to be changed in order to increase NSW enlisted SEAL manning. The three major areas that will be looked at are recruitment, training, and retention. The focus will be to determine where NSW can do better at managing personnel in these areas. The end product will be a detailed analysis that will offer suggestions for program changes that can be implemented to increase NSW forces while raising the quality of operators at the same time. / Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The military has long-standing partnerships with institutions of higher education (Leporte, 2013; Parks, 2015 & Massie, 2016). These partnerships have been significant over time because the United States Army has incentivized civilian education via the Army enlisted ranks and promotional structure (Wilson, Smith, Lee & Stevenson, 2013). Researchers are beginning to recognize service members as adult students who need specific supports in an educational setting (Wilson et al., 2013; Leporte, 2013; Parks, 2015; Massie, 2016). Enlisted soldiers arrive on college campuses with identities ascribed and molded by the military. Thus, their primary identity is soldier not student (Nagel & Kleykamp, 2007; Wilson et al., 2013& Massie, 2016). Community colleges specialize in providing educational opportunities to all facets of the community (Kane & Rouse, 1999). The current cultural diversity discourse does not include military personnel and the degree in which institutions of higher education seek to integrate via policy and practice with the military. This qualitative study explores the perceptions of the ten enlisted soldiers who participated in a semi-structured interview and completed a demographic questionnaire. I used the Collective Affiliation model (Davidson, 2011) to analyze the data generated from the soldier-students interviews regarding their educational experiences at Hopkinsville Community College Fort Campbell Campus. The research participants discussed family support and expectations, preparation for life after the Army, reenlistment incentive programs, and civilian education embedded into promotional points as aspirations for college attendance. Lastly, the soldiers described their educational experiences as navigating military, family and academic bureaucracies to encompass; balancing multiple roles as adult students, discovering the opportunities and challenges of military educational benefits, enrollment experiences as community college students, and faculty interactions and support in the classroom. From this research study, I created the Dual System for Enlisted Soldier-Student Academic Persistence (DSAP) conceptual model to illustrate the lived experiences of enlisted soldiers as students specifically. The findings of this research add to the body of knowledge of the educational experiences of enlisted soldier-students attending community college.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / The purpose of this thesis is to firstly analyze the determinants on the survival of United States Marine Corps Officers, and secondly, to develop the methodology to optimize the accessions of prior and non-prior enlisted officers. Using data from the Marine Corps Officer Accession Career file (MCCOAC), the Cox Proportional Hazards Model is used to estimate the effects of officer characteristics on their survival as a commissioned officer in the USMC. A Markov model for career transition is combined with fiscal data to determine the optimum number of prior and non-prior enlisted officers under the constraints of force structure and budget. The findings indicate that prior enlisted officers have a better survival rate than their non-prior enlisted counterparts. Additionally, officers who are married, commissioned through MECEP, graduate in the top third of their TBS class, and are assigned to a combat support MOS have a better survival rate than officers who are unmarried, commissioned through USNA, graduate in the middle third of their TBS class, and are assigned to either combat or combat service support MOS. The findings also indicate that the optimum number of prior enlisted officer accessions may be considerably lower than recent trends and may differ across MOS. Based on the findings; it is recommended that prior enlisted officer accession figures be reviewed. / Major, Australian Army

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