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Wednesday, August 2, 2017 - 7:10amSanction this postReply
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Per http://www.governing.com/gov-data/military-civilian-active-duty-employee-workforce-numbers-by-state.html we have (emphasis added):

 

Military Active-Duty Personnel, Civilians by State

Numbers of U.S. military service members vary by state, driven mostly by workforce levels at large bases.

There were a total of 1.3 million active duty military and more than 800,000 reserve forces as of 2016, according to Defense Department data. Total active duty personnel for the five armed service were 471,397 for the Army, 326,276 for the Navy, 309,682 for the Air Force, 183,917 for the Marine Corps and 39,084 for the Coast Guard.

The states with the most active duty and reserve members of the military, as of May 2016, were:

  • California: 190,160
  • Texas: 173,118
  • North Carolina: 129,049
  • Virginia: 117,084
  • Florida: 94,288
  • Georgia: 88,521
  • Washington: 65,731
  • New York: 50,824
  • South Carolina: 50,426
  • Hawaii: 49,347
  • Maryland: 49,187


Post 1

Thursday, August 3, 2017 - 3:53amSanction this postReply
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Yes, of course, you can look it up. It is not secret.  The point is that without googling it, most people do not know.  Despite the fact that the military enjoys strong emotional support across the entire political spectrum, few Americans know much about the numbers, the people, or their work.  

 

What percentage of West Point cadets self-identify as liberal or Democrat?

What percentage of active duty non-commissioned officers self-identify as liberal or Democrat?

 

Do you know without asking your search engine, where the most US troops are stationed outside the United States?

What percentage are female?

What combat roles do females fill?

 

Conservatives and Republicans are no better at these numbers.  

 

During World War II fully 10% of the populace was in the military. Even through the 1970s, the draft meant that many people knew service members, had family members, or co-workers who were veterans.  Right now, as Luke's report shows, about one-half of one percent (maybe 0.8% all active combined; and maybe just under 2% including all reserves) are in the military.  Yet, we expect a "global war against terrorism" as well as profiled responses to North Korea, China, and Russia, in addition to high-tech status, even into outer space. 

 

The numbers that Luke posted explain one population skew: the South and West are over-represented in the military with the Northeast and Midwest under-represented statistically.  One factor is that kids from high school tend to volunteer from those places because they have military people in their social settings. They are familiar with it. One reason for that is that the South and West have the open land for big installations. But it is also true that after the Civil War, the North placed big army bases in the South. In addition, the South and the West have cultural traditions of male personal honor that reinforce a commitment to military service. 

 

(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 8/03, 4:02am)



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Thursday, August 3, 2017 - 6:54amSanction this postReply
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"The extensive pair of surveys by Schake and Mattis examined attitudes within the general population and contrasted them with samples from within the military. The 200 pages of numerical results provide a treasury of salient facts. One of the reasons for the disconnect between the military and civilians is that the person in your family most likely to have served in the military is your father (39%), all the moreso, if you are between the ages of 45 and 64 (52%). 

 

"Comparing the Citizenship and Service Survey (2004) designed by Jason K. Dempsey and the National Annenberg Election Survey (2004), revealed strong self-identified minorities of liberals among West Point cadets (20%) and serving Army lieutenants (24%).

 

"Discussing politics at work is always problematic. For her doctoral dissertation, Civil-Military Relations in a Time of War,  at Georgetown (2010), Heidi K. Urben found that, broadly, senior officers (major and above) who self-identify as Republican tend to speak up and speak out at work.  Liberals and Democrats (about 27% of the junior officers and about 47% of the enlisteds) tend not to speak up at work. That allows the easy assumption that the Army is Republican."

 

(More at NecessaryFacts: Do You Know Your Military? )

 

(Edited by Michael E. Marotta on 8/03, 6:55am)



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