![]() The “wounded-to-killed ratio,” which compares the number of service members wounded in action to the number who died, currently stands at 7.4 to 1 for the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. For example, advances in emergency medicine and quick access to state-of-the-art medical facilities have dramatically increased the chances that a soldier will survive a battlefield wound. If today’s military is different, so, too, are some of the key battlefield experiences. And deployments for all forces-regular duty, National Guard and reservists-have become frequent and of longer duration. With the ranks of the modern military so small by historic standards, members of the National Guard and Reserves have been called upon to play an increasing role in the post-9/11 conflicts. Not since the peacetime years between World War I and World War II has a smaller share of Americans served in the armed forces. Yet during this period the military participation rate fell below 0.5%. The 9/11 attacks ushered in the longest period of sustained conflict in the nation’s history. 26Īt the same time, America’s wars are being fought by a dwindling share of its population. Since the military draft was abolished in 1973, more of America’s fighting forces are husbands or wives-and a growing proportion is married to someone else who serves in the military. Proportionately fewer high school dropouts and more college graduates fill the enlisted ranks. A larger proportion of minorities and women serve as officers and enlisted personnel. Today’s military is smaller, older, more diverse and more likely to be married than the force that served a generation or two ago.
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