{"id":97689,"date":"2016-07-09T09:01:51","date_gmt":"2016-07-09T09:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/07\/09\/the-pentagon-keeps-data-on-millennials-this-is-what-it-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:13:18","slug":"the-pentagon-keeps-data-on-millennials-this-is-what-it-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2016\/07\/09\/the-pentagon-keeps-data-on-millennials-this-is-what-it-says\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pentagon keeps data on millennials. This is what it says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Young Americans Today\u2019s military recruiting market remains strong and young people show<\/span> continue to show steady\u00a0interest in military service serving in the rank-and-file military force <\/span>despite the improved a steadily improving <\/span>economy and the <\/span>fading sense of patriotic duty that can be traced directly to\u00a0accompanied the\u00a0the “<\/span>9\/11 generation<\/span>,“<\/span> according to an analysis of Defense Department data conducted by Military Times shows<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, internal Pentagon\u00a0polls that routinely <\/span>tracks<\/span> public opinion among the military\u2019s target demographics \u2014 young men, in particular \u2014 show that today\u2019s so-called millennial generation is are <\/span>not much that <\/span>different than its their <\/span>predecessors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What attracts even the millennials to military service are still largely the same reasons that attracted Generation X and the Baby Boomers to military service as well<\/span>,” said <\/span>Stephanie Miller, the Pentagon\u2019s director of accessions policy, said in an interview earlier this year.\u00a0“It is things like education, the opportunity to travel, the opportunity to be part of a team, and meaningful work. It is those attractive points that are still relevant today as they were 50 years ago.,<\/span>” Miller said in an interview earlier this year. .<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A key indicator of interest in military service comes from the Pentagon\u2019s “propensity” poll surveys<\/span>, in which officials pollsters <\/span>ask young people ages 16 to 21 a basic question: “How likely is it that you will be serving in the military in the next few years?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The percent who respond “probably” or “definitely” was recently pegged at 19 percent in the poll conducted last in <\/span>fall 2015<\/span>, the most recent data\u00a0one survey <\/span>available.\u00a0That\u2019s not far from the peak of 23 percent in late 2003, when amid a <\/span>patriotic fervor surged following the Bush administration’s decision to invade\u00a0the invasion of<\/span> Iraq, and. And recent results are<\/span>\u00a0yet it’s far removed the historic low of 12 percent, experienced in late 2007, when pessimism about the war and high casualties there in Iraq <\/span>dragged down public perception of military service.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When we look at this data, we are saying it is relatively stable,” said Katherine Helland, the director of the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies, or JAMRS, the Defense Department office that conducts these\u00a0polls several times a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n