When Danny Edwards, 26, enlisted in the Army in April 2001, he expected to stay for a career. He changed his mind while serving in Iraq in 2003, a war fought for reasons he said he still doesn’t understand.
Edwards, who is black, has for several years advised black youth in his neighborhood in Savannah, Ga., to avoid the Army and “the hell” of Iraq.
Black youth across the country appear to be heeding similar advice from parents, teaches, ministers, coaches and other black veterans. There have been changes in the racial composition of U.S. forces, particularly among first-term enlistees of ground forces heavily involved in Iraq.
Racial data on enlistees, compiled for Military Update by the Defense Manpower Data Center, show that in fiscal 2002, the year before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Army had 43,400 blacks among its first-term soldiers, representing 21 percent of the total. By 2006, the number of blacks on their first hitch had fallen to 30,000, down to 14.5 percent.
That’s a drop of 30 percent in black representation over four years.
Over that same period, while the number of black first-term soldiers fell by 13,400, the Army’s overall first-term enlisted population rose by 2,700. The number of white soldiers rose while the proportion of Hispanics serving first enlistments didn’t shift significantly.
Two years ago, we reported here that Army recruiting of black youth had fallen by 40 percent from 2000 through early 2005. The new Defense Manpower data show the ripple effect of that decline. The most likely cause is deep disapproval of the Iraq war among black communities across the country.
The Marine Corps, another ground force under enormous strain from the war, likely has seen a decline in black enlistees proportional to the Army.
All services saw declines in the proportion of blacks in their enlisted forces from 2002 through 2006. The overall proportion fell in the Army from 27 percent to 22 percent, in the Air Force from 18 percent to about 17; in the Marine Corps from 15 to 11 and in the Navy from 21 percent to 19.
One officer who finds the data disturbing is retired Brig. Gen. Robert Cocroft, executive director of National Association for Black Veterans Inc. Cocroft said blacks for decades have viewed the military as a path out of poverty and as a “meritocracy” where race doesn’t matter.
A downshift in enlistments “is a telling indication that something is amiss about the military experience” for African Americans, he said.
The black community, at its roots, is more conservative than portrayed in the media or in popular culture, Cocroft said. Black churches reinforce Judeo-Christian values and one of those values is that “actions be predicated on truth,” Cocroft said. “Too many active component soldiers view current wars, especially the war in Iraq, as being ‘Bush’s war’ and that it was not predicated on the truth.”
An Army recruiting command spokesman said blacks represent 15 percent of recruits, down from 21 percent in 2002, before the invasion of Iraq. While black representation is down, it remains slightly higher than the percentage of blacks (14.3 percent) among all of those qualified for service.
Edwards said while at war his superiors “gassed us up” about how proud people back home were of their service in Iraq. But Edwards said he didn’t feel that pride when he returned to Savannah.
“People here in America don’t care about that war, man. If you wasn’t a victim or family of a victim most people really don’t give a care.”
To comment, e-mail milupdate@aol.com or go to www.militaryupdate.com.
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