Research for Recruits

A primary tasking for this study was to build a permanent database integrating Navy recruiting, training, and manpower/personnel data which would follow recruits from street to fleet and use variables designed to capture the kinds of information needed by decision-makers. This paper summarizes our analyses and briefly describes the database. It begins with the different analyses we did of the bootcamp period, goes on to a discussion of rating attainment, and finishes with our analyses of trained sailors in the fleet. Findings and recommendations include coding separation reasons more consistently, revising the CNET monthly bootcamp attrition report, more careful screening of sailors with nonacademic course failures who are sent to the fleet, and supporting initiatives to provide a second chance at school for sailors who fail an A-school course.

This study looks at the potential of outsourcing courses for active duty sailors to community colleges using their facilities and significant parts of their curricula. This project investigated the potential for outsourcing three courses, focusing the analysis on two community colleges and two other types of training institutions. The analysis addressed if it is possible or even necessary, to move Navy training equipment to a community college site and how transferable the subject matter is. The analysis also examines the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing the training. The analysis shows that community colleges have distinct advantages that enable them to provide training that is similar to the Navy but at a lower cost. The findings indicate significant overlap with current community college curricula and that the colleges were willing and eager to modify current programs to accommodate the Navy's training requirements.

The attitudes of the population at large and the expectations of young men and women about appropriate gender roles have undergone a major transformation over the past three decades. Reflecting this transformation, public opinion about the propriety of women serving in the armed forces has also shifted over time. In this paper, we review traditions that have fostered the exclusion of women from military service and explore how technological change and the nature of modern warfare will affect that tradition of exclusion. We consider some of the advantages and disadvantage of enlarging the proportion of women in the Navy. We also consider the implications of these changes on the traditional division of labor in the society at large.

The armed services use the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) to select and classify enlisted personnel. The Marine Corps uses its Electronics (EL) composite of four ASVAB subtests to classify recruits into electronics-related field. This memorandum investigates whether the Marine Corps' EL composite is a valid predictor of performance in electronics courses, and whether the current EL standard of 115 is supported by analysis of training grade data.