Junior enlisted personnel are the workforce of the U.S. Army and a recruiting pool for Warrant and Officer Candidate School training programs. Before fulfilling their initial obligation of 8 years, 25 to 30 percent of enlistees receive separation orders from the Army. Consequently, attrition in this group has created a substantial problem in maintaining a trained and ready Army. The purpose of this correlational study was to understand what factors contribute to unfilled service of enlisted personnel. Specifically, this study focused on the number of years of service before departure, the cause of the early separations, and the subcategories as factors contributing to early separations. This was in comparison to the recruiting results of first-term, junior enlisted personnel. The data for this study came from the U.S. Department of Defense Demographics reports for years 2008 through 2013. These data were analyzed using a factor analysis procedure. The findings indicated 5 subcategories of early separations: Failure to meet military requirements, behavior unbecoming a soldier, inability to achieve the minimum Army standards, individual voluntarily requests for discharge, and serving their minimum active duty contractual obligations. The factor analyses revealed the percentage of variance of the early separations were most significant for individual voluntary requests for discharge and serving the minimum active duty contractual obligations. The positive social change implications stemming from this study include recommendations to the Defense Department to support eliminating the females’ exemptions from registering. This will allow all eligible individuals to register with the Selective Service, thereby advancing the integration of women into combat arms positions throughout the military services.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis was conducted to analyze certain factors affecting first-term attrition from U.S. Naval ships. The Survival Tracking File (STF) was used as the primary data source, and from it files were constructed that permitted three areas of study. First, the overall cohort of a year's worth of enlistees was examined. The survival curve for the cohort was generated and individual monthly cohorts were examined for attrition patterns. Secondly, overall attrition percentages were calculated for individual ships and for classes of ships and these attrition percentages were then examined for differences using statistical techniques. An ANOVA model using transformed data proved accurate in explaining attrition variance. Lastly, a comparison between attrition per month and underway hours per month was made for classes of ships and for individual ships of three specific classes. A rough relationship was observed, between peaks of high underway hours and peaks of attrition. In looking at individual aircraft carriers, the attrition percentage seemed to be inversely proportional to underway hours per month. Several of these findings warrant further investigation so that the Navy may more fully understand its attrition problem and thereby take steps to alleviate it. / http://archive.org/details/descriptiveanaly00carl / Lieutenant, United States Navy

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