Meredith Kleykamp

The authors of this report analyze data from the American Community Survey, providing valuable context for understanding the social and economic resource environment of veterans and their families and identifying potential gaps and needs.

To help improve military-to-civilian transition outcomes for U. S. service members and veterans, the authors of this report seek to map the current landscape of employment-focused transition programs by summarizing their benefits, target populations, and goals; investigating their costs; identifying the most-expensive programs; and examining how program effectiveness is evaluated.

Trends of declining U. S. military recruitment and weakening public confidence in the military institution raise important and pressing questions about public perceptions of the military and uniformed service. This report details public perceptions of veterans and the military and public willingness to encourage a young person to join the military as identified in American Life Panel surveys administered in February and June 2022.

Airmen, their families, and Air Force civilian employees face a range of personal and work-related challenges. To assist Air Force leaders and service providers in identifying the needs of their communities and prioritizing efforts to address them, the Air Force sponsored the 2017 Air Force Community Feedback Tool--a self-reported needs assessment of Air Force community members. This report synthesizes results and draws lessons from the findings.

Although polls of Hispanic youth show a strong propensity to serve in the military, Hispanics are nonetheless underrepresented among military recruits. The authors discuss the major characteristics that disproportionately disqualify Hispanic youth and explore actions that could be taken to increase Hispanic enlistments.