Basic education and youth socialization in the armed forces.

Abstract

The military establishment has often been successful in giving basic education to young men from deprived backgrounds with whom the public school system failed—dramatically so in its Project 100,000. This paper analyzes some of elements of military life and training, its skill structure, cultural climate, and social context, to determine if there are lessons to be drawn by civilian society.

Veterans' Party Identification, Candidate Affect, and Vote Choice in the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election

“…It takes individuals away from familiar settings and mixes them with others of different geographic origin, race, and ethnicity in a rigid, hierarchically organized war machine. 30 Members' appearance, travel, and even diet are circumscribed. Acculturation using patriotic elements, conformity, tradition, and team-oriented thinking fortifies a sense of membership and group consciousness while suppressing individualism.…”

Power: The appropriate target of community research

“…We can recognize this role in its more virulent forms as when psychologists assist in the writing of police manuals that give directions on how to so disorient a suspect so that he will confess to a crime (in many cases to a crime that he has not done) (Zimbardo, 1971), or when social scientists help to institute an interfamilial spying system as part of a program to pacify the Vietnamese people (Nicholaus, 1966). Apparently less directly noxious (until one recalls the Hitler Youth Corps) is the use of the military as the agency for programs of rehabilitation for youth alienated from our society (Little, 1968;Pilisuk, 1968). The most common abuses, however, are found in the day-to-day activities of good professional persons caught in the streams of bureaucratic mandates for control and experiencing a sense of impotence to change their roles.…”

Prevention/promotion with minorities

“…Within this context, it is worth noting Project 100,000 (Little, 1968}, an effort launched in 1966 to induct men who had been previously rejected for military service. The announced aim was to assist these young men educationally and financially, by providing opportunities for them to learn a trade that they could later use in civilian life.…”