The war may have something to do with it

August 24, 2005

Fox News ran an interesting item yesterday on the decline in the number of applicants to the U.S. military academies. The stunning part was to see Fox News go to great lengths to avoid the real cause for the drop. (Thanks to reader D.S. for the tip.)

Obviously, this is a real problem. All four U.S. service academies have found fewer applicants, while the branches of the military are falling short of their recruitment goals. To read the Fox News report, though, this is due to complex societal pressures, not the obvious cause.

A statement from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., said: “We do not know for certain why the total number of applications rise and fall from year to year. Various factors such as personal motivation and aspirations, the economy, the appeal of military service, and other issues potentially influence those applying to the Academy.”

The Navy doesn’t “know for certain” why people aren’t signing up? You don’t suppose it has something to do with an intractable war in Iraq, do you?

Col. Trapper Carpenter, director of admissions at the Air Force Academy, said a stronger economy is partly responsible, as is an increase in grants at Ivy League schools. Others said a series of sexual harassment scandals has lessened interest among young women. Still others pointed to an artificial increase after 9/11, which means the current drop is back to where the level should be.

With all due respect to the service academies and their admissions offices, is this trend really all that difficult to figure out?

Can the family change the title to “Bush’s War”?

  • I’d bet that this is another one of those instances where “common sense” is in the same league with “conventional wisdom.” I’d be surprised if the Iraq war was a really big factor in the decline of applications to the service academies. Remember that the applicants are teenagers who, in many cases, are pursuing a dream they’ve had for a good portion of their lives. Others may be attracted to the idea of a good, free education, a chance to wear a cool uniform, and the possibility that it may get them laid. They may or may not think the Iraq war is a good idea, but they’re not likely to have internalized the idea that it could possibly affect them.

    Now, if applicants to the service academies had to be 21, instead of 16 or 17, then I would agree that current policies and political climate would probably have a lot more effect. Just my opinion.

  • HMMM yes I want to go to the Air Force Academy to be force fed Christianity (and I am Christian), sexually harassed (I female), and sent to a foreign country to prosecute a ill planned war. Sign me up.

  • Jim Strain,

    No offense, but I think you are “strain-ing” to find rationales that defy reality [really sorry for the bad pun]. I’ve worked in public schools for four years, and I am very much aware that 16, 17 and 18 year olds are not as “worldly” as 21 year olds, or even older people. To NOT consider the Iraq war, however, and the trends in the national population against both the invasion and the incompetence with which it has been (mis)managed, is to ignore the (Rethug) elephant in the room.

    On top of that are several other circumstances that have been added to the public consciousness recently: it has been well-publicized that veterans are not being taken care of; the back-door draft, and the abuse of National Guardmen being used in war when that has never been done before, make the current enlisted personnel feel cheated, lied to, and many simply go AWOL; that recruiters are using deceptive and unethical practices and still falling way short of enlistment goals; that parents are actively engaged in efforts to keep their children out of the military; and that there is a long, sorry history of misconduct at the service academies (e.g., Tailhook, rape, religious intolerance) by both the cadets and the administrative/teaching staff.

    Most of the time, the common sense answer IS the answer. Too bad that Faux News and so much of the RightWingNoiseMachine obfuscate reality because they choose to hew to the ideological or party line instead of truth or even objective fact.

  • AL, is spot on, as usual. Many high schoolers look to the military as a way of getting a college education they can’t otherwise afford. The thought of actually going to war is enough to make them think otherwise.

    I know when I graduated a decade ago, some people joining the military assumed they would never be involved in any conflict and just viewed it as a means to an end. I guess they were wrong.

  • I would think, though, to some extent the current Iraq war should not have as large an effect on the military academies as it would have on the basic Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines recruiting. Now I may be mistaken but the academies do usually buy the student/”soldier” at least 4 years before they would see any active military duty. Not the case, though, with non-academy military. So I can see other factors (esp. things like those posted by ET) having a significant effect on the academies, but not on the regular militaryIraq is THE only factor with the latter.

  • It’s not just the war itself, but the fact that the adminsitration and military leaders do not support the troops, whether from incompetence or because the just regard them as units of production. This is clear to anyone who reads a newspaper from no armor on vehicle to substandard quality flak jackets, to attempts to diminish veteran’s benefits, to Rumsfeld using a mechanical signer on letters of condolence.

    The general public may not be sophisticated about political nuance and marketing, but on matters of life and death and social security, we get the picture.

  • If you’ve seen the odious recruitment ads for the services, you know the administration knows very well why the young are shunning the military. Parents won’t let their kids go. They portray the parents as uncertain or not happy about the kid’s decision but yet offering them the respect for it that kids crave. Despicable…but quite telling.

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