Trends in military influences on Army recruitment themes: 1954-1990

Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Summer 2002 by Padilla, Peter A, Laner, Mary Reige

TRENDS IN MILITARY INFLUENCES ON ARMY RECRUITMENT THEMES: 1954-1990(1)

Academic interest in U.S. Army recruiting was sparked by the implementation of an all-volunteer force in 1974. Across the decades since, Moskos's (1977) Institution/Occupation (I/O) thesis has dominated the literature on military sociology regarding recruiting. Moskos held that the U.S. Army was becoming less an institution and more of an occupation. He warned that it was dangerous to offer monetary incentives for enlistment since, he believed, this threatened to transform a patriotic duty into a mere job. The research reported here examines recruiting theme trends through an analysis of recruitment materials (posters, ads, and the like) from 1954 to 1990. Findings indicate that military changes (including the emergence of a unique elite military culture) influenced recruitment. Moreover, the Army attempted to interest potential recruits using themes other than economic incentives to a greater extent than it used economic lures.

INTRODUCTION

In The American Enlisted Man, Moskos (1970), building on earlier work by Janowitz (1960), advanced the idea that primary group solidarity was essential for effective military service. This idea formed the basis for his Institution/Occupation (I/O) thesis which warned of the dangers of recruiting through financial incentives. Later, Moskos (1977) argued that as the U.S. moved toward a civilian-influenced soldiering model, the American soldier was rendered the status of a mere employee. Whether a group of mere employees could develop primary group solidarity has been the central question in discussions of recruitment. Although other concerns are reflected in this literature (Stephens, 1977), none of them received the level of attention that Moskos's thesis was given (Afford, 1980; Faris, 1981; Moskos, 1988a, 1988b). Some military analysts argued in favor of reinstating conscription, as against the essentially mercenary army. Others argued that the I/O relationship was not mutually exclusive (Faris, 1981; Faris and Burk, 1982; Chadoff, 1983). Caforio (1988) contended that the actual bifurcation was between combat oriented and technical/administrativesubdivisions. The I/O debate continued into the 1990s (see Gilroy, Phillips, and Blair, 1990; Perry, Griffith, and White, 1991; and Shyles and Hocking 1990).

Earlier, Padilla and Laner (2001) undertook an examination of recruitment materials in the period from 1914 to 1953. Although they did not directly test Moskos's (I/O) thesis with those data, their examination of recruitment materials over those years showed that there was no discernible reflection of a movement away from institutional and toward occupational themes. In the present study, we test two hypotheses: first, that the military division of labor and manpower needs influenced the themes of recruitment messages and, second, that elite military cultures (and their insignia) and related status consideration also influenced the use of specific recruitment themes. We focus here on the period from 1954 through 1990.

Recruitment messages are used to capture the attention of potential recruits and to persuade them to sign on to a new way of life, complete with a new set of symbols (i.e., insignia), rules, and sense of identity. Insignia associated with elite units are concentrated in the combat-oriented branches, considered the most dangerous and difficult of military operations. Thus, these insignia are coveted symbols of status.

Prior to the first World War, Army recruitment was conducted at the state level (e.g., militias, the National Guard). However, as America prepared for combat in World War I, the majority of conscripts were nationally inducted. This study focuses on recruitment following the shift to the national level-specifically, after the Korean conflict, and through the late Cold War period.

DATA AND METHOD

Data for this study consist of U.S. Army recruitment materials that were available in accessible archives. The investigation proceeded as a series of connected socio-historical ethnographies. Examining all the available material (pamphlets, television commercials, films, bill-boards and other sources), however, would have rendered the project overwhelming. Thus, the data were limited to a representative sample of recruitment ads from print media (posters, magazine ads, etc.).2 In the 1980s and since, the electronic media have been important communication media for military recruitment; however, in this study (as in our previous and future analyses), we focus on recruitment ads in print. These did not differ in terms of themes from those displayed electronically (on television or on the WWW). That is, the army did not use different themes in the electronic media than it used in print media.

Both content analysis and sociohistorical analyses were conducted. Content analysis was best suited for examining recruitment materials. Themes were assigned to categories and were then examined both cross-- sectionally and longitudinally. The sociohistorical analyses were both qualitative and quantitative (Stemple and Westley, 1989). As noted in our earlier paper (Padilla and Laner, 2001), data from the first historical period (1915-1918) were examined for themes which were then used as a basis for subsequent comparisons and the development of any additional themes. This method is similar to Glaser and Strauss's (1967) grounded theory approach (see also Strauss and Corbin, 1990; 1997).