Recently, I was reading some statistics about the military and military
service. Couple of things jumped out at me.

1. In 2013, with all the global conflicts, terrorism and wars the
USA has been involved in over the past one and a half decades, only
0.5 percent of the US population is on active duty in the branches
of the US military at any one time.

2. In 1975, two years after the draft ended and the US shifted to an
all volunteer force, 70 percent of the members of Congress had
prior military service. Today, only 20 percent have prior military
service.

Surprised me.

On 11/11/15 6:49 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
Recently, I was reading some statistics about the military and military
service. Couple of things jumped out at me.

1. In 2013, with all the global conflicts, terrorism and wars the
USA has been involved in over the past one and a half decades, only
0.5 percent of the US population is on active duty in the branches
of the US military at any one time.

2. In 1975, two years after the draft ended and the US shifted to an
all volunteer force, 70 percent of the members of Congress had
prior military service. Today, only 20 percent have prior military
service.

Surprised me.




One half of one percent of 300 million people is a lot of people.

On 11/11/2015 9:11 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 11/11/15 6:49 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
Recently, I was reading some statistics about the military and military
service. Couple of things jumped out at me.

1. In 2013, with all the global conflicts, terrorism and wars the
USA has been involved in over the past one and a half decades, only
0.5 percent of the US population is on active duty in the branches
of the US military at any one time.

2. In 1975, two years after the draft ended and the US shifted to an
all volunteer force, 70 percent of the members of Congress had
prior military service. Today, only 20 percent have prior military
service.

Surprised me.




One half of one percent of 300 million people is a lot of people.



It sure is. Hopefully it's enough.

A more interesting stat for me would be how many of the names on the Vietnam Wall Memorial were the sons of congressmen or senators. I'm thinking very few.