MILITARY

RECRUITMENT

STATE

STATISTICS Mircea Hirko

GIS Certificate Program

Physical Science 202

Harold Washington College

Chicago, IL

05/12/10

Table of Content

I. Rational

II. Methodology

III. Work

1. Research

2. Extracting Data

3. Interpreting Data

4. Classifying

5. States & Numbers

6. Interpolating

7. Expressing Data

8. Arranging Data

9. Results

IV. Results

V. Discussion

VI. Conclusions

VII. Recommendations

VIII. References

Figures : 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4A, 4B, 4C, 5A, 5B, 5C, 6A, 6B, 7A,

7B, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A, 11A, 12A, 13A, 13B, 14A, 14B, 15A, 16A, 17A, 18A, 19A

Tables: T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, T7, T8, T9, T10

Abstract

As most people know the United States spends hundreds of billions, more than any

other nation and in many cases even more than other countries GDP's all together, on

its Military. This money doesn't all go to new equipment and weapons research though;

the Department of Defense who is in charge of the military spends money also on

operations and maintenance, personnel, construction, veteran care and even family

housing. The back bone, brain and heart of the military are its people. Without people

taking part in every single facet of the military, there would be no manpower to operate

the machines, use and construct various equipment, provide the security for the nation

and many other things. People join the military for various reasons, some stay as career

personnel and go on to become officers, and others enlist and stay for the minimum

requirement for financial help for college and so on. As time goes on people

leave/discharge, retire, age, and in a dangerous field like the military even die. So a

continuous cycle of recruitment, training, promotion and retention has to occur. The

United States is a very large country so it takes a big military to insure its security and

sovereignty. The research aims to find out which states recruit the most, which branch

of service do the majority serve in and if there is any correlation between amount of

recruitment and base distribution.

The Department of Defense, CIA and various government watchdog groups put out

and present statistical information on the military yearly. Not only do they include budget

information but also provide a breakdown for other aspects associated with the military.

The information these provide will be put together with shapefiles in ArcGIS. The raw

numbers will be turned into visual information that is more accessible and easier to

understand. The relevant data will be used to find if the research has any correlations

and if any of it is applicable.

The information will be valuable for websites that cater to aspects about the military.

People writing political blogs or on military forums can help debate their point of view

and maybe reach some kind of consensus on what ever issue that arises that is

comparable to what is being provided. The information will be readily available for

reference.

Rational

The research does not intend to fix a specific problem but instead aim to be an aid

for further research, debate and information. The research will provide easily accessible

data in a visual format that can be understood more readily than raw data. Although this

research only aims to provide some visual representation for baseline research it is

deeply connected to issues and areas of importance for the country.

The United States of America is a large country of nearly 4 million square miles, over 4 million acres and about 307 million people as of 2009. The country itself has a GDP of $14.3 Trillion dollars (2009). The United States not only has a rich cultural background but also a deep relationship to history. Its relationship to the past, present and future is conspicuous. Anyone who watches the news, has opened a school book or just been exposed to the world outside will know that the United States has just about taken part is every major facet of the world especially from the 20th century up. Because of the countries enormous wealth and power it is no stranger to being a belligerent in conflicts, engagement and relations around the world. As the world knows, diplomacy does not always work and the United States has been through various wars. There have been 23 million veterans from these conflicts and over a million combat deaths.

Obama has set the new defense budget for 2010 which will be looked over by Congress, the amount being $663.8 billion dollars. This includes $533.8 billion in defense programs and $130 billion for support to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.. This alludes to the business aspect of the U.S. military which in 2007 made over $7 billion in arms sales. This does not mean imply that the military is evil or malevolent. It just means that the military is a massive entity and quite powerful in its operations. To its core it exists to provide security, against perceived or evident threats, hold onto U.S. interests and maintain its sovereignty.

For the military to function it needs an enormous amount of personnel. Most people have been exposed to some form of recruitment adverts. Some from High School, others from ads all over media outlets and sometimes it’s just picked up for through being patriotic and a U.S. Citizen. The United States spends a lot of money on new recruits, to be able to meet quotas, gain necessary exposure and maintain longevity. Often giving sign up bonuses and other incentives. The military gives bonuses from a few thousand to $40,000. On average is had to pay around $10,000 incentives and after that for food, housing, clothing, training etc.

The research may provide information to possibly change the direction of these trends. To hopefully aim for smarter and more prioritized spending of tax money. Also may prove valuable to people who interested in joining the service and which branch would be more fitting. With two wars and an unsure future domestically and abroad the military, its services and opportunities may appeal to new recruits and their ideologies.

Methodology

19A

Work

1. Research began by scouring the internet and searching for military statistic. Through the search two websites stood out the most; The Department of Defense and the National Priorities Project. Also various bits of miscellaneous information came from sites like InfoPlease, Wikipedia and CIA Fact Book. Also shapefiles were attained to visually show the data, they were downloaded from the US Census TIGER service.

2. From the main websites which proved to be most valuable data which was specific to the researches intent was scrutinized and looked over. Data was then put into Open Office to create a spreadsheet.

3. The Spreadsheet created in Open Office was then opened in Office Excel and organized and trimmed. In other to create a database for the map the spreadsheet was then put into Office Access and converted to a more recognizable form for ArcGIS to understand when changed into a database The information had to be formatted correctly to properly be able to open in ArcGIS 9.3.

4. Classified data into location, specifically states and also classified statistically numbers into year and states respectably.

5. Inserted database information into shapefile through joining tables. The tables were formatted correctly and were linked by a key which was the State name information.

6. Turned data into visual representation on map of contiguous United States. Preceded to color code information by numbers and percentages. Also the information was turned into pie and bar charts.

7. Group similar information together to represent different time periods of same specific attribute.

8. The information was observed and linked it to hypothesis while finding correlations between bases, recruitment levels and service branches.

Results

Does not include Alaska and Hawaii on map

Does include them in computation of percentage

Alaska and Hawaii are included in total numbers

Map only shows contiguous United States

Does not represent any territory helped by U.S.

The first three images will help illustrate and be the foundation for the research. The first image is a refresher on U.S. States. The second shows United States Military bases on google maps. This serves as a visual reference for the rest of the data being provided. The third shows land designated for military use.

The information is broken down into the following:

1. Active Military Employees 2. Defense Contracts and Expenditure 3. Defense Procurement and All Salaries 4. Civilian Employees 5. Reserve & National Guard Employees 6. Total Active Duty Air Force Recruits 7. Total Active Duty Army Recruits 8. Total Active Duty Marines Recruits 9. Total Active Duty Navy Recruits

Also includes other maps to better understand the above:

1. Map of United States 2. Map with Locations of Military Bases 3. Map of Military Base Territory 4. 5 Pie Charts / 2 Bar Charts / 1 Conceptual Map

18A (above) T10 (below)

ALABAMA AL

ALASKA AK

ARIZONA AZ

ARKANSAS AR

CALIFORNIA CA

COLORADO CO

CONNECTICUT CT

DELAWARE DE

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DC

FLORIDA FL

GEORGIA GA

HAWAII HI

IDAHO ID

ILLINOIS IL

INDIANA IN

IOWA IA

KANSAS KS

KENTUCKY KY

LOUISIANA LA

MAINE ME

MARYLAND MD

MASSACHUSETTS MA

MICHIGAN MI

MINNESOTA MN

MISSISSIPPI MS

MISSOURI MO

MONTANA MT

MONTANA MT

NEBRASKA NE

NEVADA NV

NEW HAMPSHIRE NH

NEW JERSEY NJ

NEW MEXICO NM

NEW YORK NY

NORTH CAROLINA NC

NORTH DAKOTA ND

OHIO OH

OKLAHOMA OK

OREGON OR

PENNSYLVANIA PA

RHODE ISLAND RI

SOUTH CAROLINA SC

SOUTH DAKOTA SD

TENNESSEE TN

TEXAS TX

UTAH UT

VERMONT VT

VIRGIN ISLANDS VI

VIRGINIA VA

WASHINGTON WA

WEST VIRGINIA WV

WISCONSIN WI

WYOMING WY

17A

16A

1A

1B

1C

2A

2B

2C

3A

3B

3C

3D

4A

4B

4C

5A

5B

5C

6A

6B

7A

7B

8A

8B

9A

9B

10A

11A

12A

13A

13B

14A

14B

15A

Discussion

The main hypothesis was that states with more military bases had higher recruitment levels. Also other hypothesizes included such as if Southern states have higher recruit levels than other parts of the U.S. and that the Army would have the highest number of recruits. From the data it is indeed shown that states with more military bases have higher recruitment levels than states with less base distribution. The second hypothesis proved not to be exclusively true. The West Coast has the largest amount of territory for military purposes and the East coast had higher recruitment levels than expected. Most of the recruitment concentration was around ocean bordering states and states bordering Mexico. The third hypothesis was tricky to answer because from the data it is technically true that most joined the Army. This is because technically the U.S. Military is broken down into five services; The Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Information on the Coast Guard was not as readily available so it was not factored in but interestingly enough the National Guard and inactive personnel had the highest recruitment and employment levels in military service. The National Guard which, is a reserve force, is mostly linked to States but when needed used by the Federal government, it arguable whether it is a true military faction. Another interesting fact is that non-military civilian employees, people who work with the military but are not a part of it, had exponentially more employees than any recruits in the five branches and had more employees than the in reserve (in-active units) and National Guard.

If the viewer looks closely he will notice trends in the data from year to year including seeing hotspots, i.e., most of the states with higher recruitment and employment numbers stayed the same color value (very red) meaning they continually saw high numerical trends.

Active Military Employees (T1)

1A - 1995, 1B - 2001, 1C - 2008

Total Active Military Employees in:

1995 = 1,085,473

2001 = 991,006

2008 = 1,009,000

Defense Contracts and Expenditure (T2)

3a– 1986, 3B – 1995, 3C – 2001, 3D – 2008

1986 = $150, 188,022

1995 = $126,003,864

2001 = $149, 314, 126

2008 = $355,654,514

Defense Procurement and All Salaries (T3)

4A – 1995, 4B – 2001, 4C – 2008

1995 = $197,196,071

2001 = $219,587,789

2008 = $447,467,278

Civilian Employees (T4)

2A – 1995, 2B – 2001, 2C – 2009

1995 = 767,907

2001 = 627, 347

2009 = 665,467

Reserve & National Guard Employees (T5)

5A – 1995, 5B – 2001, 5C – 2009

1995 = 5,153,854

2001 = 1,172,988

2009 = 1,031,706

Total Active Duty Air Force Recruits (T6)

6A – 2000, 6B – 2006

2000 = N/A

2005 (*not shown) = 34,362

2006 = 19,174

Total Active Duty Army Recruits (T7)

7A – 1999, 7B – 2008

1999 = 67,007

2008 = 69,357

Total Active Duty Marine Recruits (T8)

8A – 1999, 8B – 2005

1999 – N/A

2005 – 38,152

Total Active Duty Navy Recruits (T9)

9A – 1999, 9B – 2005

1999 = N/A

2005 = 38,146

Conclusion

Higher Recruit levels where Military Bases are concentrated

More people join the Army than Air Force, Navy and Marines

Hotspots are on ocean or Mexican border

More Civilian and Reserve & National Guard Employees than Recruits

Trends tend to stay same or near same

Number One location is California

Number Two is Texas

Recommendations

Calculate Ratio between Population and Recruit numbers

Include Alaska and Hawaii on Map

Include Army Reserve

Include data on Gender and Ethnicity

Include Coast Guard

Create GIS map of Base locations

Find more correlations

More Precise numeric allocations

As for recommendation for possible use :

A. Target recruiting more effectively if ratios are figured out. B. Target recruiting if gender and ethnicity is figured out. C. Locate hotspots of large military activity and either:

1. Move away 2. Move to 3. Accept 4. Avoid 5. Explore Other Options

References

United States Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, 2009, Department of

Defense: Budget DoD Releases Fiscal 2010 Budget Proposal

http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=12652 (last accessed 11 May 2010).

National Priorities Project (NPP) Research Organization: National Priorities Project

Database

http://www.nationalpriorities.org (last access 11 May 2010).

U.S. Census Bureau Geography Division, 2008: TIGER/Line® Shapefiles

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/ (last access 11 May 2010).

National MACA Working group, Chief of Aviation Safety, Air National Guard Aviation Safety Division: SeeAndAvoid http://www.seeandavoid.org/ (last access 11 May 2010).

National Resource Center for Paraprofessionals, 2010: Paraprofessional Resources from Each of the US States http://www.nrcpara.org/states (last access 11 May 2010).