Members of the military with a rank below that of commissioned officer constitute a vital portion of the overall strength and mobility of an armed force. RAND research on enlisted military personnel provides objective analysis and recommendations to military leaders and civilian policymakers regarding such issues as health care, diversity and quality of recruits, reenlistment behavior, personnel management, family issues, and the effects of multiple deployments.
TOOL
The U.S. Department of Defense sponsors many programs for servicemembers and their families. RAND compiled a searchable online catalog of 211 programs that address psychological health and traumatic brain injury.
REPORT
The fraction of American youth meeting U.S. Army enlistment standards for weight and body fat has declined markedly. In response, the Army developed a waiver program tied to a fitness test known as the Assessment of Recruit Motivation and Strength (ARMS) test. Through difference-in-differences estimates and other analytic techniques, the authors examine the program's effect on Army accession and attrition rates.
REPORT
Military enlistment increases earnings about 40 percent in the first few years following application, then diminishes to about 11 percent 14–18 years later. While enlistment delays college education in the short run, it increases the likelihood of attaining a two-year college degree.
REPORT
A major source of reserve manpower is the flow of enlisted members from an active component (AC) to a reserve component (RC). This volume examines how effective RC bonuses are in attracting prior service members and, in doing so, explores how AC and RC bonuses interact to affect both AC reenlistment and prior service enlistment in the Selected Reserve.
REPORT
Air Force leaders are concerned about the well-being of airmen's families, but are the programs set up for their benefit doing enough? To find out the answers to this and other issues, the Air Force asked RAND to survey the spouses of active-duty airmen. The main concerns related to children, finances, employment, and the effects of moves and deployments. By and large, however, the families were satisfied with Air Force life.
REPORT
The U.S. military services and the combatant commands have reported vacancies in funded officer billets, a situation that can have adverse effects on organizational performance and mission readiness. By examining options for using alternative mixes of military manpower, the authors conclude that there may be opportunities to better leverage enlisted personnel, warrant officers, and limited-duty officers in some billets designated for…
REPORT
While most U.S. government officials working in Iraq believe the use of armed private security contractors has been a useful strategy, many worry that the contractors have not always had a positive effect on U.S. foreign policy objectives.
MULTIMEDIA
In this Congressional Briefing, held on June 14, 2010, James Hosek and Beth Asch describe the effect of enlistment and reenlistment bonuses on military recruitment and retention efforts and on attrition.
NEWS RELEASE
Although U.S. Army deployments have been linked positively to the likelihood of reenlisting for much of the past decade, by 2006 the mounting burden of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reached the point where deployment had a negative effect on reenlistment.
REPORT
Although U.S. Army deployments have been linked positively to the likelihood of reenlisting for much of the past decade, by 2006 the mounting burden of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan reached the
point where deployment had a negative effect on reenlistment.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Air Force, Army, and Navy training programs for enlisted medical personnel are being consolidated to increase interoperability. A RAND methodology defines standards of practice across services and evaluates options for obtaining qualified personnel.
REPORT
Presents the results of an econometric analysis that explored how effective military advertising is in generating active-duty enlistments. The author discusses trends in spending on military advertising, the effectiveness of different types of media at varying budget levels, how the different armed services' recruiting efforts affect each other, and the implications for military recruiting policy.
REPORT
To reduce costs and increase interoperability of the military services, a joint medical education and training campus is being established at Fort Sam Houston, Texas with a view to consolidating training across the services. A methodology is outlined for defining and implementing a common standard of practice for a given specialty and its use illustrated through an application to the medical surgical technologist specialty.
NEWS RELEASE
As the U.S. military continues to rely on the National Guard and Reserve for overseas deployments, making sure their families are adequately prepared for those missions is critical.
NEWS RELEASE
Lower high school graduation rates and higher rates of obesity are two of the reasons that many Hispanics are denied entry into the U.S. military.
REPORT
Because test scores that are part of its enlisted promotion system are not standardized, the U.S. Air Force emphasizes longevity and test-taking ability differently and randomly across and within specialties. Random emphasis implies that the Air Force cannot be sure it promotes individuals with the highest potential. The authors discuss a range of predictable outcomes the Air Force could achieve by adopting various standardization…
REPORT
A fundamental goal of the Air Force personnel system is to ensure that the manpower inventory, by Air Force specialty code and grade, matches requirements. However, there are structural obstacles that impede achieving this goal. To remove one of those obstacles, the authors propose a methodology that would marginally modify grade authorizations within skill levels to make it possible to better achieve manpower targets.
NEWS RELEASE
April 12, 2007 news release:RAND Study Finds Divorce Among Soldiers Has Not Spiked Higher Despite Stress Created By Battlefield Deployments.
REPORT
The Air Force typically trains 30,000 to 40,000 new airmen a year. It utilizes two methods for training enlistees: centralized initial skills training (“schoolhouse” training) and decentralized on-the-job training. The authors develop a methodology to determine the most cost-effective combination of the two, based on a cost-benefit analysis of seven Air Force specialties.
REPORT
In 1998, the U.S. Army became the only service to shift its senior enlistment force from a fixed enlistment contract system to indefinite reenlistment, which eliminated the reenlistment requirement in the latter half of a noncommissioned officer's career and placed them on the same indefinite service contract as officers. This study considers the utility of this program and potential applicability to the other service branches.
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