(Blackamericaweb.com) – In the five years since the United States launched the Iraq war with a predawn strike on Baghdad on March 20, 2003, black enlistment in the armed services has dropped significantly, according to Department of Defense statistics. That decrease impacts the military and the black community, both observers and veterans say.
“There has been a 50 percent drop in recent years in the number of blacks enlisting in the Army and Marines,” said retired Navy Commander Gregory Black, founder of the website BlackMilitaryWorld.com.
“The problem for the military — and for us as a people — is this is where many of us got education and values, and we would bring those back to the community,” Black told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Since we have seen the reduction, there has been an increase in those going into jail and prison. We’re losing them.”
BlackMilitaryWorld.com is planning an expo in the fall where they will bring in military and community experts to discuss military heritage and ways that veterans can make their voices heard.
A story published in the Boston Globe said that “the decrease in enlistment also comes amid high dropout rates among African-American youths and a 7.7 percent unemployment rate in the black community, almost twice that of whites.” Other statistics show that a positive trend in college enrollment for blacks may be affecting the number of blacks enlisting in the military, according to the Boston Globe report. Others reports suggests that the unpopularity of the war among blacks is also affecting enlistment.
Department of Defense statistics show that there has been at least a 50 percent drop in the number of black enlistees between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2005. The U.S. Army, which has been a longtime popular force for blacks, was hit hardest.
A BlackAmericaWeb.com analysis of the most recent military demographics shows that overall, blacks make up 17.3 percent of armed services. In 2000, they accounted for 19.9 percent. The U.S. Army had a large drop in blacks over the same period, going from 26.3 percent of the Army in 2000 to 21.1 percent in 2006.
Carl Doby, a Maryland man who was in the military police in Iraq after being deployed through the National Guard, attributes the drop in Army numbers to the length of duty tours in Iraq. “As the National Guard and the Army as a whole, we are the only ones to stay over there for 12 to 18 months,” Doby told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
Michael O’Hanlon, a military analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, said the military will see a long-term impact from the decrease in black enlistment.
“It’s clear that in years past, many in the African-American community felt that the military service was noble and offered promising careers. This was good for the military, and it was good for families,” O’Hanlon told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
“Over the long term, if African-Americans are less inclined to see the military as an employer and teachers, preachers and family members recommend it less often, you’ll see people losing that enthusiasm,” he said. “I am not surprised by the collective effect. It’s just a fact that we have to deal with.”
Down through the years, blacks have been an integral part of America’s military.
Blacks have fought and died in every war in this country since the birth of America — including the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Spanish American War, according the U.S. Department of Defense.
Vernice Armour, a Marine fighter pilot who is black, said that long tradition was part of her attraction to military service. She was deployed twice to the Iraq and left the service not long after her last return in February 2005.
“I’m a third generation Marine,” Armour told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “My grandfather was a Marine, father was in the Army, and my stepfather was a Marine.”
Military service helped prepare her for a job she always wanted, Armour said. She wanted to be a police officer. “I could not become a police officer until I was 21, but I could join the military at 18,” she said.
She didn’t join the military to go to Iraq, but accepted the assignment as a job she had to do. Though her aircraft was struck by hostile fire, she was never injured. She did return, however, with memories and a mission.
“I have a couple of missions that stand out. Those 40 days and 40 nights in the desert were spiritual. You are in the middle of the desert where there are no freeways and no highways. I was able to envision my life and what I needed to do and the positive steps I needed to take,” she said. “Now through my company, I am sharing those principals with people who have not had that opportunity for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert.”
Her first step was the Reserve Officers Training Corp at Middle Tennessee State University. After seeing a poster with a woman in a flight suit, she knew she wanted to soar.
“But the military is not for everyone,” she said. As a Marine diversity officer, she sat in on meetings to discuss strategy for recruitment.
“Relationships rule the world,” she said. “We have to do something to connect. If not, people will not see the value in military service for them and their families. And they will not enlist.”