Who Will Fight? The All-Volunteer Army after 9/11

TLDR: The authors found that as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan progressed, there was an increase in the fraction of active-duty Army enlistees who were white or from high-income neighborhoods and that these two groups selected combat occupations more often.

Abstract: Who fought the War on Terror? We find that as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan progressed, there was an increase in the fraction of active-duty Army enlistees who were white or from high-income neighborhoods and that these two groups selected combat occupations more often Among men, we find an increase in deployment and combat injuries for white and Hispanic soldiers relative to black soldiers and for soldiers from high-income neighborhoods relative to those from low-income neighborhoods This finding suggests that an all-volunteer force does not compel a disproportionate number of non-white and low socio-economic men to fight America's wars

Figures

Table 1: Explaining Variation in Deployment (Men Only)

Full text

1
“Who Will Fight -
The All-Volunteer Force after 9/11”
1
Susan Payne Carter
United States Military Academy, West Point
susan.carter@usma.edu
Alexander A. Smith
United States Military Academy, West Point
alexander.smith@usma.edu
Carl Wojtaszek
United States Military Academy, West Point
carl.wojtaszek@usma.edu
American Economic Review Papers & Proceedings, May 2017
ONLINE APPENDIX
1
The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the U.S. Military
Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

2
Appendix Figure 1: The Military Enlistment Process
The enlistment process begins when an interested candidate meets with an Army
Recruiter. At this initial meeting, a recruiter will discuss the general qualification needed for
enlisting in the Army and conduct several basic screening tests and background checks. Based
on these initial tests, the recruiter will discuss a candidate’s overall eligibility and the types of
occupations within the Army for which she may be eligible. If the candidate passes the initial
basic screening and remains interested, the recruiter schedules an appointment for the candidate
at the nearest Military Entrance Processing Station. Here a candidate takes the Armed Forces
Qualification Test and undergoes a more thorough background check and medical examination,
as well as applies for any necessary waivers. Once complete and deemed qualified, a candidate
is presented with her set of occupational choices that are the result of both the candidate’s
eligibility for any specific job and the Army’s current need for the specific occupation. A recruit
at this point can choose to enlist in the military by selecting from the set of occupations offered
and signing an enlistment contract or exit the enlistment process. (U.S. Army, 2016)

3
Appendix Figure 2: Hostile Deaths by Service (2001 – 2010)
Source: Defense Manpower Data Center Casualty Analysis System (2016). Note: Hostile
deaths include service members killed as a direct result of hostile action in support of either
Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) or Operation Iraqi Freedom (Iraq). Hostile
deaths do not include deaths due to accident, illness, or suicide.

4
Appendix Figure 3: Proportion of New Army Enlistees Relative to the Proportion of 18-24 Year
Olds in the U.S. with at Least a High School Diploma
Source: Data for new Army enlistees comes from the U.S. Army’s Office of Economic and
Manpower Analysis. Data for the U.S. population comes from the Annual Social and Economic
Supplement of the Current Population Survey 2000-2010.

5
Appendix Figure 4: Share of New Enlistees by AFQT Category (2001 – 2010)
Faced with increasing the size of the force during a time of conflict, the Army began
lowering its recruiting standards in October, 2004 to meet recruitment goals. This initial
relaxation of standards was modest and allowed the Army to provide education and cognitive
score test waivers for up to 2 percent, rather than the traditional 1.5 percent, of its recruits
(Schmitt, 2004). In 2005, the cap was raised again to allow waivers for up to 4 percent of
enlistees. In 2006, the Army also broadened and increased its use of “moral waivers,” allowing
recruits with specific disqualifying criminal misdemeanors and felony charges to enter the Army
after a review by a senior military officer (Bender, 2007).
Source: Data for new Army enlistees comes from the U.S. Army’s Office of Economic and
Manpower Analysis. The Army categorized AFQT scores as follows: Category I (93-99), Category
II (62-92), Category IIIA (50-64), Category IIIB (31-49), Category IV (10-30), and Category V (0-
9). We have combined Category I and II for this purposes of this graph. The minimum AFQT
Category for enlistment is Category IIIB.