The Military
Julie Raysbrook, Curtis Paramore, Moniurl Hawke, Ryan Warrington, Clare Honn
The army is organized by Squads, Platoons, Companies, Battalions, Brigades, Divisions, and
Corps and functions by utilizing ground troops in the United States and around the world to protect
and defend. The Army is the largest branch of the US military and has roughly 76,000 officers and
over 400,000 enlisted members. The difference between an officer and enlisted personnel, aside
from the pay scale and uniforms, is that an officer is required to have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher,
whereas an enlisted can have no degree, an associate’s degree, this is true for all branches of the
military. The Army has two reserve components, which are the Army National Guard, and the Army
reserve (http://usmilitary.about.com/od/army/l/blchancommand.htm). See your APA manual
and/or the cheat sheet on how to cite and reference websites. While it is important to include the
URL in the reference, it should not be sited in the paper. Here you would cite About.com – not the
URL.
Prior to 1947, the Air Force was a separate portion of the Army. The Air Force is now its
own branch, with its own set of rules and regulations. The Air Force protects and defends the
United States through oversight of air and space. Currently the Air Force has 69,000 officers and
about 288,000 enlisted members, and augments with its two reserve components just as the Army
does. Those components are Air Force reserves and the Air National Guard. The organization of
the Air Force is broken down into Flights, Squadrons, Groups, Wings, Numbered Air Forces, and
Major Commands (http://www.airforce.com/learn-about/history/).
The Navy’s primary function is protection of the seas, both foreign and domestic. However
the Navy is also responsible for transporting Marines to areas of conflict, and augmenting the
ground troops of the Marine Corps, as well as providing medical support to the Marine Corps. The
Navy is comprised of 54,000 officers and 324,000 enlisted personnel. The chain of command and
organizational structure of the Navy is far too complicated to try and explain in this paper, as it
would require several illustrations and several pages of explanation. There are different
organizational components depending on if we are speaking of the “green side” of the navy, which
refers to Navy personnel who are augmented in support of the Marine’s, or if we are referring to
“blue side” which refers to Navy personnel on ships and operations not at sea and not with the
Marines. The only reserve component of the Navy is the Naval reserve (Personal Communication,
2003).
Before 1798, the Marine Corps was not its own branch of the military. The Marine Corps
specializes in amphibious operations, with specific attention to assault, capture and control of
“beach heads.”. The term beach heads refers to when a force/fleet is positioned on an enemy
shoreline prior to that of an invading force. Marines have expanded their ground-combat
operations and comprise most of the “front line” defense in current operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan (Personal Communication, 2011). The Marine Corps is has roughly 18,000 officers and
153,000 enlisted personnel on active duty. Their unit structure and organization is broken down
into Teams, Squads, Platoons, Companies, Regiments, and Divisions and the Marine Corps is
augmented in wartime by the Marine Corps reserves.
The primary function of the Coast Guard is law enforcement on the water, boating safety,
rescue at sea and illegal immigration control. During a time of war, the President has the sole
authority to transfer a portion of, or all of the Coast Guard under the command of the Navy. While
the coast guard is the smallest service of all the branches of the military, their duties are vast and
incredibly important. They have only 7,000 officers and 43,000 enlisted personnel and are
supported in a time of need by the Coast Guard reserve (http://www.uscg.mil/top/about/).
(www.beforejoiningthemilitary.com)
The Enlisted pay is listed in table number one, and most people enter the Navy as an E-1 or E-2.
The second table is the pay for Officers.
The United Sates (US) military budget is the portion of federal budget that is allocated to
military related expenses. According to Wikipedia, the military budget pays for everything from
new equipment to salaries of civilian personnel and all branches of military are funded by this
budget.
The US spends an enormous amount of money for the military. In 2012, the expenditure
was 683 billion dollars (SIPRI). To put that into perspective, that is roughly the same as the next 11
counties’ total expenditures. A large amount of the funding goes towards operations and
maintenance. The rest pays for salaries, procurement, research & development, military
construction, & family housing (whitehouse.gov). So, one may feel that all of their tax dollars are not
going towards war efforts. This is how to site a webpage! 
However, these figures are just what is visible to the taxpayers. The US population is
essentially funding many different wars around the world. A reporter from Al Jazeera breaks down
the 2011 US budget, and the high number that goes towards the military, many of which is not
disclosed the average taxpayers. Given that you mention that information is provided by Al Jazeera,
it would strengthen your paper to include some of that information here.
“Be all that you can be.” That’s the slogan of the U.S. Army, and when it’s uttered, the picture
that likely springs to mind is one of a young, white male in fatigues. G.I. Joe — “the real American
hero” (Wyant, 2012). In today’s military, the recruits are coming from all races and both genders.
In 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order number 9981 which outlawed racial
discrimination in the military. The order stated, “It is hereby declared to be the policy of the
President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the Armed
Forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin” (Shavlson, 2010, p. 4)
In today’s military, females play a major role. A study by the Pew research center found that
black females are joining the military faster than other races. Another great statistic about females
in the military is from 1973 to 2010, the number of women in active duty enlisted in the military
increased from 42,000 to 167,000. In the New York Times, an article by Carissa Wyant, she
reported on the study, stated that “black women are a crucial source of new recruits for the armed
forces, especially for the Army and the Air Force” (Wyant, 2012, p.3). White females represent 53
percent of women in the military which accounts for 78 percent of the civilian female population
(Wyant, 2012, p.3).
In 2006, among active duty forces in all services, including the Army,
Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, 70.2% were white, 17.3%, were
black, 1.6% were American Indian or Alaska Native, 3.4% were Asian, 0.6% were
Pacific Islander, 1.0% were multiracial and 6% were of an unknown. (Lutz, 2008,
p.9).
As you can see our military is made up of a variety of different races; Asian Americans,
African Americans, White and Hispanic all create our US military without their courage and
commitment our military would not be the same.
Military Recruitment- Demographics by Year
Race
Year
Black White Asian/PI Native Other
Ethnicity
Sex
Age (yrs)
Hispanic
Male
Female
FY07 14.9% 80.8% 3.2%
1.0%
0.1%
10.7%
83.6% 16.4%
FY08 16.6% 79.2% 3.3%
1.0%
0.0%
10.9%
21.7
83.8% 16.2%
FY09 17.2% 78.1% 3.8%
0.9%
0.0%
10.9%
21.9
84.4% 15.6%
FY10 18.9% 75.6% 4.8%
0.8%
0.0%
11.9%
21.6
85.8% 14.2%
(http://nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2011/military-recruitment-2010/)
America was founded on battles, wars and bloodshed. As society has developed and
evolved you might think that the United States has grown with it and turned away from its violent
roots, however, America is currently engaged in at least 10 wars throughout the world
(http://historyguy.com/current_us_wars_of%202013.htm#.UXWAxcrEWc1).
There are the wars we know about, the War on Terror for example. In 2003 the United
States ignored UN suggestions and bombed Afghanistan
(http://www.humanist.org.nz/docs/UN_Afghanistan.html). From there the Middle East became a
breeding ground for violent American involvement. Currently, we are on the ground in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Iran, with threats of entering Syria becoming more and more likely every day. The reason
behind our occupation in these countries as we have been told is that the Middle East has terrorists
with nuclear powers just waiting to bomb the United States. As we all know now, this was merely
an excuse to enter countries with oil just waiting to be tapped, with people just waiting to be taken
advantage of (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1626889.stm).
To all things in American policy there is a cost benefit analysis. Simply put, what is the
expected cost of the action or inaction vs. the potential benefits gained from that action. This is the
primary thought process put into every action taken by the United States when a military
intervention is needed; however, not every cost benefit is based on the public interest. Often, this
analysis is focuses on what is good for the American economy in particular, the interests of
American Multinational Corporations. This policy has placed American military forces in direct
conflict on more than 20 separate occasions.
A shining example of this policy in action is “operation just cause,”, or the Panama war. In
1989 American launched an all-out OPLAND campaign against the united armed forces of Panama,
and dictator / drug lord Manuel Noriega. However, Noriega’s status of most hatted hated American
enemy prior to Saddam Hussein was not always the case according to the Guardian a United
Kingdom News outlet:
“Noriega was recruited as a CIA informant while studying at a
military academy in Peru. He received intelligence and
counterintelligence training at the School of the Americas at Fort
Gulick, Panama, in 1967, as well as a course in psychological
operations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was to remain on the
CIA payroll until February 1988.” No need for quotation makes when
using block format for a quote. Also, double space block quotes.
In 1977 as puppet head of the Panamanian intelligence and foreign affairs service, Noriega
helped negotiate a treaty for use of the Panama Canal heavily skewed to favor American interests.
In 1981 Noriega’s superior officer General Omar Torrijos was killed in a “mysterious” plane crash
Noriega promoted himself to supreme general and permanently suspended Panamas democratic
elections. He continued to be supported by the United States until 1988 when he refused to grant
America a second no cost treaty to the Canal. In 1989 American forced invade forces invaded (?)
Panama, citing concern for Noriega’s connection to the drug trade and human rights violations.
This is an unfortunate reality regarding American policy. The interest of the American
government or allies as it pertains to American economic interest supersedes the political
independence of weaker nations. In 1953 the CIA and military special operation forces
“orchestrated the over throw of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed
Mossadegh”(Herman, C, 2012). [Do not include author initials in in-text citations, but do include the
page or paragraph number in citations of quoted material.] The reason behind this action was that
at the time the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was taking 85% of all oil profits extracted from Iranian
soil and refused to renegotiate the terms of their contract.
America has a very poor habit of leaving jobs half done. After Osama Bin Laden’s forces
drove the Soviets out of Afghanistan territory much of the Country’s major urban centers were
destroyed by indiscriminate fire from withdrawing Russian troops. The Afghanistan government
were was neither excited by the Russians or by the people as collaborators leaving a power vacuum
that the then American allied Taliban happily filled. With the Russians in full retreat, the USA cut
off all aid to Afghanistan allocating no funds for rebuilding the devastated nation. With no school,
employment, or hope the people of Afghanistan fractured into two components ether supporting
the northern alliance either as fighters or poppy farmers, or with the Taliban in the south forced to
live under their fundamentalist rule. Four years later Osama Bin Laden’s al Qaeda terrorist network
attempt to bring down the world trade towers, eight years after His network finished the job.
This then is the inherent flaw in the American policy of intervention chiefly that we almost
always end up creating our own enemies, ether from a previous alley becoming an impendent
liability, or by creating a power vacuum to be filled by something much worse.
REFERENCES References
Grau, L. (1996). Bear went over the mountain: Soviet combat tactics in Afghanistan.
Washington DC: National Defense University Press. Double space references
Herman, C. (2012, January 8). US overthrew Iran’s democracy 1953-1979, armed Iraq to invade 19801988, now lies for more war | Washington's Blog. Retrieved April 20, 2013, from
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/01/us-overthrew-irans-democracy-1953-1979armed-iraq-to-invade-1980-1988-now-lies-for-more-war.html
Lutz,. A. (2008) Who joins the military?: a look at race, class and immigration status. Retrieved from:
http://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=soc
Shavelson,. L (2010) More Asian-Americans Signing Up For The Army. Retrieved from:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127986892 [Capitalize only the first
word of the title, subtitle, and any proper nouns in the title.]
Wyant,.C (2012) Who’s joining the US military? Poor, women and minorities targeted. Retrieved
from: http://www.mintpressnews.com/whos-joining-the-us-military-poor-women-and-minoritiestargeted/
http://www.airforce.com/learn-about/history/
www.beforejoiningthemilitary.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/manuel-noriega-us-friend-foe. Retrieved from:
Manuel Noriega - from US friend to foe | World news | guardian.co.uk. (n.d.).
http://historyguy.com/current_us_wars_of%202013.htm#.UXWAxcrEWc1
http://www.humanist.org.nz/docs/UN_Afghanistan.html
(Graph) http://nationalpriorities.org/analysis/2011/military-recruitment-2010/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1626889.stm
http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/milex_database/milex_database
http://www.statista.com/statistics/157935/countries-with-the-highest-military-spending/
http://www.uscg.mil/top/about/
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/army/l/blchancommand.htm
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
Curtis, Julie, Ryan, Monirul, and Clare,
Thank you for an exceptional presentation. You did a great job of teaching the class about military
structures, facilitating discussion, and sharing diverse perspectives. In your paper I have offered
some APA editing suggestions. As has become my mantra - I encourage you all to refer to your APA
manual and/or the APA cheat sheet when writing academic papers. As soon as I receive a brief
individual email from each member of your group, I will post your grades in Bb. In your email tell
me (1) what you contributed to the project, (2) how you experienced the group process, and (3)
what you think your grade should be (and if you wish to receive and individual or group grade).
Well done!