The U.S. military is the finest in the world because of the outstanding quality of its service members. Its highly skilled and motivated force is the result of a strong and sustained commitment to robust recruiting, training, compensation, and quality of life programs.

Each Service must recruit and commission enough people each year to sustain the force and to ensure seasoned and capable leaders for the future. As a whole, the Department of Defense must annually recruit about 200,000 youth for the active duty armed forces, along with approximately 150,000 for the Selected Reserve. Across the Department, recruiting requirements for FY 1998 are slightly lower than those from FY 1997.

Recruits with a high school diploma are especially valued. Years of research and experience show that about 80 percent of recruits who hold a high school diploma will complete their initial three years of service. Fewer than 50 percent of those who failed to complete high school will do that. Those holding an alternative credential, such as the General Educational Development certificate, fall between those extremes. Over the past five years, more than 95 percent of all active duty recruits have held a high school diploma, compared to 77 percent of American youth ages 18 to 23.

Aptitude also is important. All recruits take a written enlistment test called the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT), which measures math and verbal skills. Again, research and experience show that those who score at or above the 50th percentile on the AFQT demonstrate greater achievement in training and job performance compared to those below the 50th percentile. Roughly 70 percent of recent recruits scored above the 50th percentile of a nationally representative sample of 18-23 year olds.

Since 1975, the Department of Defense annually has conducted the Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS), a computer-assisted telephone interview of a nationally representative sample of 10,000 young men and women. This survey provides information on the propensity, attitudes, and motivations of young people toward military service.

Enlistment propensity is the percentage of youth who state they definitely or probably plan to be serving on active duty in one of the Services in the next few years. Research has shown that the expressed intentions of young men and women are strong predictors of enlistment behavior.

Results from the 1997 YATS show that, overall, the propensity of young men for military service has not changed significantly in the last three years. In 1997, 26 percent of 16-21 year-old men expressed interest in at least one active duty Service, about the same as in 1996 (27 percent) and 1995 (28 percent). The propensity of 16-21 year-old women, however, declined significantly, from 14 percent in 1996 to 12 percent in 1997. In the previous 5-year period, as career opportunities in the Services opened to women and more women enlisted, women’s propensity increased gradually, from 12 percent in 1992 to 14 percent in 1996. The 1997 drop returned women’s propensity to 1992 levels.

During the early 1990s, enlistment propensity declined as the Services experienced serious cuts in recruiting resources. In 1995, 1996, and 1997, recruiting advertising increased, and the 1995 and 1996 YATS results suggested that the decline in propensity might have stabilized. Nevertheless, in considering enlistment propensity from 1995 to 1997, there was a downward trend; this is troubling given the low levels of national unemployment. Thus, recruiting in 1998 will remain challenging. Continued investment in recruiting and advertising resources is required to assure that the pool of young men and women interested in the military will be available to meet Service personnel requirements in the future. Appendix G contains additional detail on 1997 YATS results by gender and race/ethnicity.

The Department has looked at the potential impact of National Service on military recruiting, and believes that both programs can coexist successfully since the National Service program is smaller and the value of its benefits is of lower monetary value than military enlistment benefits.

With the increased reliance on the Reserve components, the Department must continue to focus on signing up high quality prior service and non-prior service recruits. During recent years, the Department has experienced considerable success in recruiting for the Reserve forces. However, the approaching completion of the active force drawdown will mean fewer members entering the prior service pool for Selected Reserve membership. This will increase the need for non-prior service recruiting. To meet this challenge, DoD will require increased advertising budgets and more non-prior service recruiters, especially after the downsizing of the Reserve component slows and the Department’s personnel needs increase.

In order to attract, motivate, and retain quality people, the armed forces must provide a standard of living for its members that can compete with the private sector. The Administration requested and Congress approved a 2.8 percent pay raise for FY 1998, and the Administration has pledged support for full current law pay raises through the end of the decade.

This past year, the Department of Defense implemented a number of new compensation initiatives providing significant benefits to a broad range of service members. The new initiatives include the Variable Housing Allowance (VHA) Floor, increased Dislocation Allowance, Basic Allowance for Quarters for E-5s on sea duty without dependents, round-trip travel to pick-up or drop off a privately owned vehicle, and government storage of vehicles when they cannot be shipped or when the member is deployed in excess of 30 days.

Additionally, the Department proposed a number of initiatives that were included in the FY 1998 National Defense Authorization Act. The most significant were reform of the Housing Allowance and Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS).

Housing allowance reform is the first step in stabilizing, and then reducing, the percentage of housing costs absorbed by the individual service member. It will eliminate the complicated VHA formulas and cumbersome survey of service members, and replace them with a single housing allowance based on commercially provided housing cost data. This will result in an allowance for every pay grade and every location where military members are assigned. It will help ensure the allowances are sufficient to provide each member with the ability to obtain housing that meets a minimum adequacy standard. This reform will also decouple housing allowances from pay raises and get the right amount of money to the right people, limiting the housing cost burden on service members. Phased in over a multiyear period, implementation will be cost neutral.

Reform of BAS will correct long-standing pay inequities between enlisted service members. It will also delink increases in BAS from pay raises and link increases in the subsistence allowance to an appropriate food cost index. The BAS reform efforts, again phased in over a multiyear period, will result in an increase in the level of subsistence allowances for over 400,000 junior enlisted personnel and ensure that the allowance adequately covers the food costs of enlisted military members.

Other legislative initiatives in the FY 1998 National Defense Authorization Act include:

These initiatives all work to improve the quality of life of service members and their families, while preserving high levels of personnel readiness.

President Clinton chartered the 8th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation (QRMC) in 1995, as required by Title 37 U.S.C. He directed that this review look to the future and identify the components of a military compensation system that will attract, retain, and motivate the diverse work force of the 21st century.

The 8th QRMC report, completed in 1997, describes how the Department of Defense and the Services can organize, manage, and reward their people by aligning all elements of the human resource management system to support organizational leaders throughout DoD. This strategic approach to human resource management will contribute to the Department’s revolution in business affairs. The QRMC affords an opportunity for DoD to change strategic direction, to make its leaders even more effective, and to further enhance its overall organizational performance.

The Services have worked hard to provide reasonably consistent promotion opportunities in order to meet requirements, ensure a balanced personnel force structure, and provide a meaningful opportunity for all service members. There is a common misconception that promotions have been frozen because of the drawdown, but that is simply not the case. Promotions have remained generally steady during the drawdown. For FY 1997, the Services promoted 112,038 soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines into the top five enlisted pay grades (E-5 to E-9). Officer promotion opportunity also has held steady, generally remaining within 5 percent of pre-drawdown levels. For the future, the Department expects promotion opportunity will remain steady.

The Department of Defense is taking steps to return a sense of stability to the armed forces following the unavoidable turbulence of the drawdown. Improvements in compensation, housing, and family support are central to creating this sense of stability. Less quantifiable factors also contribute to a stable environment for service members, including challenging career opportunities, healthy military communities, and the availability of a military career for those who perform well.

Personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO), the amount of time service members spend away from their home base, is an important component of force stability. PERSTEMPO has increased as DoD has reduced forces stationed overseas since the end of the Cold War. While there are certain units and military specialties which have been deployed repeatedly, DoD officials believe the current PERSTEMPO of the force as a whole is sustainable and that overall morale and readiness remain at acceptable levels. Nevertheless, the Department has made PERSTEMPO a focus of its quality of life effort in order to avoid future problems.

It is the policy of the Department of Defense to provide an environment for military members and civilian employees that is free from unlawful discrimination and sexual harassment. The year 1998, which marked the 50th anniversary of Executive Order 9981 to racially integrate the armed forces, serves as a milestone to measured progress. In a June 1997 speech on the status of race relations in America, President Clinton said:

The Secretary of Defense has demonstrated the Department’s resolve to employ the talents of America’s diverse population. He established a Department-wide goal to increase employment of people with severe disabilities from 1.2 percent to 2.0 percent of the civilian work force. The Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities, cosponsored by DoD and the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, provided a vital pipeline to help achieve that goal. In the summer of 1997, DoD employed over 120 students through that program at activities nationwide. For the summer of 1998, funds are available to increase the total number of participants, support management of the program government-wide, and purchase adaptive technology and services for individuals employed.

The Department has also sharpened its focus on equal opportunity, sexual harassment, and related human relations issues. The Secretary took several actions to maintain the effectiveness of U.S. military forces with clear and fair policies. The actions include the appointment of an independent panel of private citizens to review gender integrated training and related issues in the Services and the convening of a task force to review policies and practices essential to ensuring respect for the individual while maintaining good order and discipline.

The Department has continued to progress in the area of integrating women into units and positions traditionally closed to them. The number of women assigned to combat aviation squadrons and aboard combatant naval vessels continues to grow. Their presence is also growing in Army and Marine Corps ground units, although women are still excluded from serving in units below brigade with the primary mission of engaging the enemy in direct combat on the ground.

The proportion of women in the Services continues to increase, standing at almost 14 percent today. As a result of the Department’s actions over the past four years, women are competing equally for assignment in some 260,000 additional military positions for which they were previously not allowed to compete. During 1997, the Department achieved several firsts, evidence that women are performing in positions of greater responsibility. For example, the Army promoted its first woman to lieutenant general; the Air Force selected its first woman fighter pilot for Test Pilot School; and the Marine Corps pinned wings on its first female combat pilot.

Today, over 80 percent of the total jobs are open to women. More than 90 percent of the career fields in the armed forces can now be filled with the best qualified and available person, man or woman. This provides DoD greater flexibility in assigning people to fill worldwide positions and enhances readiness in today’s smaller force.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS) was established in 1951 to assist the armed forces in recruiting quality women for military service. The role of DACOWITS has since evolved into advising the Secretary of Defense on all policies relating to the utilization and quality of life of female service members, as well as general quality of life issues.

In 1997, the DACOWITS Executive Committee conducted its annual overseas installation trip in the Western Pacific, visiting bases in Alaska, Korea, Japan, Okinawa, and Guam. Over 2,400 service women and men provided their views to DACOWITS members on issues ranging from operating and personnel tempo to the need for improved gynecological care. Significantly, the primary issues raised by service members were unrelated to gender.

In 1997, the Committee focused on three significant issues:

Managing the work force humanely and efficiently continues to be a primary emphasis of the civilian personnel program. With planned cuts, base closings, and the recommendations of the Quadrennial Defense Review, the Department stands to lose nearly 110,000 additional civilian positions by the end of FY 2003. Nonetheless, regular attrition requires the Department to hire thousands of workers each year. Therefore, DoD remains committed to recruiting and retaining a well-trained and diverse work force ready to meet the challenges of the next century.

To help fulfill the Administration’s pledge to end traditional welfare, DoD also implemented a welfare-to-work program in June 1997. DoD’s components and nonappropriated fund activities have already hired more than 360 former welfare recipients for positions ranging from child development project assistant to cashier to electrician. The program involves special partnerships with private industry concerns, state agencies, local welfare offices, high schools, and nonprofit organizations across the country. These collaborations variously involve recruitment, training, mentoring, and other support to help ensure a successful transition.

The Department continues to use innovative personnel and incentive programs to ease the transition for employees affected by downsizing. These programs have allowed the Department to eliminate 329,000 civilian positions since the end of FY 1989 with minimum work force turbulence. DoD has experienced eight consecutive years of downsizing while maintaining an involuntary separation rate of less than 10 percent.

Since 1993, incentive offerings have helped prevent the need for 105,000 layoffs. During that same time, the Department’s Priority Placement Program has enabled DoD to reabsorb approximately 37,000 other employees who lost their positions. With the use of the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, the Department saved 46,000 employees from involuntary separation, change to lower grade, or directed transfer outside their commuting area. The Defense Outplacement Referral System also helped locate new jobs for nearly 2,000 employees with other private and public sector employers.

In conjunction with the Quadrennial Defense Review, DoD has undertaken an analysis of educational and professional development programs sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, including the defense agencies and field activities, to find alternatives for streamlining and strengthening program management. Development of the civilian work force is receiving increased attention as downsizing expands the performance requirements of continuing employees and DoD seeks to avoid skills imbalances.

The Defense Leadership and Management Program (DLAMP) is a systematic, Department-wide program of joint civilian education and development. Implementing recommendations of the Commission on Roles and Missions of the Armed Forces, DLAMP provides the framework for developing future civilian leaders with a DoD-wide capability. It also fosters an environment that nurtures a shared understanding and sense of mission among civilian employees and military personnel. Inaugurated in 1997, DLAMP incorporates graduate education, rotational assignments, and professional military education to prepare civilians for key leadership positions.

Labor-management partnership has taken hold throughout DoD. The National Partnership Council’s October 1996 Report to the President on Progress on Labor-Management Relations showed that 61 percent of DoD employees represented by unions are covered by partnership arrangements.

Through FY 1997, the Defense Partnership Council has advanced this mandate by including its labor partners in discussions on issues that are key to the future of DoD and its civilian work force. For example, DoD’s labor partners have been included in briefings of the Quadrennial Defense Review and Defense Reform Task Force. The latter actively sought information and ideas from representatives of unions and employee associations.

Through its active labor-management cooperation training and facilitation programs, DoD directly assisted approximately 70 installation-level partnerships during 1997. DoD is recognized as the leader in the federal sector for this effort.

The Department’s efforts to regionalize civilian personnel services and deploy a modern information management system are well under way. By the end of FY 1997, the ratio of personnel specialists to employees served had improved steadily from a 1:61 baseline to nearly 1:72. The ratio will continue to improve as the modern system is deployed and regionalization is completed.

Regionalization capitalizes on economies of scale by consolidating processing operations and program management into 23 regional service centers. Operations providing face-to-face service will remain at over 300 support units at DoD installations worldwide. Through the end of FY 1997, the military departments and defense agencies had established 17 regional service centers and almost 50 percent of the planned customer support units. The remaining regional service centers will be established by early FY 1999.

An ongoing revision of the Civilian Personnel Manual will further streamline the civilian personnel system. Already 23 of the 52 subchapters have been updated and published. The balance will be completed in FY 1998. Overall, this effort will standardize core policies while eliminating over half of the existing regulations.

In 1997, the National Performance Review selected the Field Advisory Service Division of the Defense Human Resources Field Activity to receive Vice President Gore’s Hammer Award for its continuing excellent service. The Field Advisory Service Division is the Department’s principal source of guidance in the areas of benefits and entitlements, pay and compensation, job classification, and labor relations. The organization continues its outstanding support to the DoD personnel community by responding to 93 percent of inquires within one work day and 98 percent within three work days.

The Department has consolidated its injury compensation and unemployment compensation programs, providing an effective and efficient way to manage both programs. Initiatives include proactive claims processing and verification procedures, use of liaison personnel co-located with Department of Labor district offices, and a comprehensive automated data tracking system. Use of the liaison personnel and installation and component access to the data tracking system have directly contributed to a decrease in the Department’s injury compensation costs for three consecutive fiscal years, culminating in an $11 million (1.97 percent) decrease for 1997. This combined program has also been selected to receive a Hammer Award.

The Department continues to be an important participant in developing a telecommuting test program for federal employees. More than 160 employees currently use General Services Administration telecommuting centers.

A country’s national security is only as strong as the people who stand watch over it. The men and women of the U.S. armed forces demonstrate their courage and excellence every day, protecting the lives and interests of the American people. In turn, the nation must continue to provide its military personnel with the finest possible training, support, and quality of life.