Emerging Issues in USMC Recruiting: Assessing the Success of Cat. 4 Recruits in the Marine Corps
Abstract
Given increasingly difficult recruiting conditions, we examine the feasibility of raising the Marine Corps' self-imposed cap of 1 percent on Category IV accessions. We limit our analysis to top Category IVAs (Cat IVAs)-those scoring between 26 and 31 on the AFQT who are high school degree graduates. We use the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 to analyze the national population of Cat. IVAs. We find that the population of top Cat. IVAs is large enough to support an increase in the accession cap. Then, using CNA accession cohort data, we compare the attrition rates of top Cat. IVAs to bottom Cat. IIIB (AFQT between 31 and 41 and high school degree graduates) and Adult Education/ 1 Semester college recruits. Top Cat. IVAs have attrition rates, both from bootcamp and from the first term of service, similar to those of bottom Cat. IIIBs. We also find that Top Cat. IVA Marines have lower attrition than Adult Education/ 1 Semester College Marines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADB320786
Entities
People
- Anita U. Hattiangadi
- Catherine M. Hiatt
- Dana L. Brookshire
Organizations
- Center for Naval Analyses