The Transformation of the Military

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how the military has transformed over a 30-year period. The paper discusses various world issues that have had an impact on this change. The paper concludes by saying that the U.S. military establishment is still a viable and effective fighting force that serves varied missions and tasking, which do indeed make a difference in today's global environment.

From the Paper:

"The fall of the Soviet Union gave rise to another call for reducing America's military strength to a supposedly reasonable post-Cold War level. Thus from 1989 to 1999, military end strength was cut from 2.1 million to 1.4 million (Donnelly et al., 2007). The 1990s to the 21st century saw the rise of the "all-volunteer" military force and compared to their brethren in the 70s, the modern day force got better perks and pay including family and social services support system. "When the military became an all-volunteer force, the U.S. undertook an implicit contract with those signing up for military service. In exchange for a young man's or woman's commitment to serve and fight for the nation, the country would provide him or her with decent pay and a chance to raise a family in an American middle-class lifestyle. (Donnelly et al., 2007)" Despite the change in pay and benefits, the amount and load of tasking differ from the two generations of soldier. In the 1970s when tasking get more, the government simply conscripts more soldiers to lend "more warm bodies to more jobs." Today's soldiers most of the time are expected to "do more with less." This results to multiple deployments per cycle and/or extended duties in-theater. Economies of scale simply cannot be put in place unlike in the 1970s where it was still cheap to maintain a soldier. Now with the modern soldier, dollar outputs in pay, training, kit outfitting and other necessities are more making deployment of additional soldiers more expensive especially in the light of numerous budgetary cuts."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Donnelly, Tom, Kagan, Frederick & Schmitt, Gary. The Right-Sized Army. 2007. 13 April 2007. <http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/03/2521797>.
• Hermes, Walter G. Global Pressures and the Flexible Response. 27 April 2001. 13 April 2007. <http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/amh/AMH-27.htm
• Stewart, Richard W. (ed.). American Historical Series - American Military History, Volume II: The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2003. 10 July 2006. 13 April 2007. <http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/AMH-V2/AMH%20V2/index.htm#cont>.

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