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Building the Analytical Foundation for the U.S. All-Volunteer Force

In 1971, when the Vietnam War was at peak intensity and the United States was moving to implement an all-volunteer force (AVF), the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) asked RAND to establish a manpower research center that would include economists, cost analysts, operations researchers, and computer scientists. At first, the center's findings and recommendations were used to manage the transition to the AVF. Later studies focused on the unique problems of the reserve components and were used to establish new recruiting programs. RAND's research on the recruiting and retention of medical personnel resulted in new scholarship and bonus programs and suggested an expanded role for “physician extenders.” Research on the effects of paid advertising and the military personnel's retention and reenlistment decisions fundamentally changed how the force was managed. Most noteworthy was a study of the AVF's first five years that was briefed to Congress and used by the Carter administration to underpin its early policies. During the 1980s, RAND evaluated programs to improve the quality of new recruits and foretold the 1991 performance of U.S. troops in Operation Desert Storm — performance that brought an end to lingering doubts about the level of quality that could be sustained with a volunteer force. In 2001, RAND analysis was used to fundamentally change the structure of the military pay table, the benefits of which can be seen in the extremely high retention even in the face of the lengthy combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. A side benefit of RAND's continuous manpower policy research programs has been the training of numerous experts who have become senior DoD decisionmakers.