New Sources of Active Duty Military Personnel

Considers an alternative source of military personnel: the pool of armed forces veterans who served regular tours of duty and who now work in the civilian sector. Section II sets out armed forces regulations governing prior service accessions. Section III examines current prior service accessions in some detail to judge whether this group should serve as a basis for further analysis. Section IV describes labor force characteristics of veterans, including geographic location and geographic mobility, personal characteristics, and distribution by civilian occupation. Section V looks at a major issue in prior service accessions, occupational differences in civilian and military earnings. The Note ends with a discussion of future work planned in this area. Although this research partially answers the question of why so few veterans reenlist, it does not tell manpower planners at what level prior service accessions ought to be. Future research will address this question.