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Friday, July 14, 2006

USMC Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert on the military-civilian cultural divide 

When we sent my son to Stanford four years ago, we filled out a form asking for demographic information. One of the questions for the parents said, what is your profession? After it was a list of about thirty professions including doctor, lawyer, congressman, educator, architect. Military was not listed so I filled in “other.”

My son was the only graduate who had a parent serving in the armed forces. As I was introduced to his friends’ parents, it was interesting to watch their reaction. Few had ever spoken to a member of the military. One asked me how my son was able to gain admittance with the disadvantage of having to attend “those DoD schools.” Many voiced support for our military and told me that they’d have served but clearly military service was not for their kind of people.

This year of the so-called elite schools, Princeton led them with nine graduates electing military service. Compare that with 1956 when over 400 of the Princeton graduating class entered the military. Most of the other Ivy League schools had no one entering the military this year. I wonder how many of you know the young people who are serving today. I wont embarrass anyone by asking for a show of hands to ask how many really know a young enlisted Marine who has been to war. I’m going to try to give you a better feel about those who serve our nation.

Our Marines tend to come from working class families. For the most part, they came from homes where high school graduation was important but college was out of their reach. The homes they come from emphasize service. Patriotism isn’t a word that makes them uncomfortable. The global war on terrorism has been ongoing for nearly five years with Marines deployed in harms way for most of that time. It is a strange war because the sacrifices being levied upon our citizens are not evenly distributed throughout society. In fact, most Americans are only vaguely aware of what is going on.


Consider the population our high-gloss media come from. That answers the question why Americans are only vaguely aware of what is going on.

More from the General on Payday lenders here, where I've consolidated some of the personal-finance-related content from CounterColumn and IraqNow over the last couple of years.

Jason

Comments:
Compare that with 1956 when over 400 of the Princeton graduating class entered the military.

Wasn't military service an obligation back then, not a choice?
 
A. nonnymus has sort of a point there. One of the reasons thre were 400 Princetonians entering the miltiary in 1956 is that there was a draft, and some of them at least, would have been drafted in anycase. Some probably thought it better that they go to college, enter ROTC and do their service that way rather than get drafted. Others likely did it because their fathers had served in WWII or Korea.

It would be interesting to see the numbers over all between 1945 and 1965 to see what the trend was.

The college deferment program was definitely a nasty piece of work that pretty much allowed a very large segment of the baby-boomer generation to avoid military service.

The all-volunteer military has pretty much enabled upper middle class and upper class America to avoid service all together. If they don't want to serve, they simply don't.

There's no penalty for not serving, so most won't.
 
I guess there really are a lot of adults who haven't been around so long.

A. Nony.; Between WW2 and Korea, and between the end of active fighting in Korea and the mid-60s, while you *had* to register for the draft, people weren't being called up *in* the draft.

Eric;

No, in 1956 the draft wasn't calling people up. And you need to do some more homework about the all-volunteer military. It's not largely made up of uneducated lower-class men and women.
 
Eric,

Where do you get your info, dude? You don't know anyone in the military, do you? You should go meet some -- you'd learn a lot about the world around you.

MDE
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
"Most of the other Ivy League schools had no one entering the military this year."

That's inaccurate. Most Ivies are not producing many grads entering the military, but most are producing some grads entering the military. The problem is that too few Ivies have their own ROTCs, and those that don't are actively discouraging their students from military service.

For example, Columbia University, which does not have its own ROTC, graduated two cadets in May 2006: Army 2LT Sean Wilkes and Air Force 2LT Robert Wray. Sean Wilkes has also been the Chairman of Advocates for Columbia ROTC.

Eric
 
A. Nony.; Between WW2 and Korea, and between the end of active fighting in Korea and the mid-60s, while you *had* to register for the draft, people weren't being called up *in* the draft.

Hundreds of thousands of unlucky men were drafted between 1952 and 1965. Just ask Elvis!

http://www.sss.gov/induct.htm
 
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