Older recruits, as a group, score higher on Army qualification tests and are more likely to reenlist and to be promoted. RAND researchers examined the potential for recruiting individuals older than 21 and derived actionable recommendations.

The U.S. Army is introducing a new fitness test for the first time in more than 40 years. In this report, the authors conduct a review of the Army Combat Fitness Test and provide recommendations to support the Army's implementation decisions.

The U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) is an integral part of the U.S. Army and the country's national defense. Its mission is to provide trained Individuals who can serve as active duty soldiers when the mission calls for it. Well-trained service members are central to the USAR mission, and personnel and career management are critical to building a well-trained force. End Strength forecasts are an important input to recruiting and retention policy decisions, as well as resourcing and planning discussions with other Army components. However, generating these forecasts is a complex task due to the many paths into and out of USAR. Currently, no single model is capable of providing such estimates. The authors examined available modeling capability and identified a set of modeling tools that can estimate portions of the personnel flows into and out of USAR. Most of these tools were designed to support policy analysis, not forecast end strength. Nevertheless, with the appropriate care and caution, the estimates generated by these tools can be combined to construct the desired 24-month end strength forecasts. A detailed plan for doing so-the Integrated Modeling Concept-is the primary product of this study. Book jacket.

Soldiers in the U.S. Army Reserve (USAR) have traditionally been required to attend 39 days of training per year: one weekend per month (24 days, equivalent to 48 periods of inactive duty training [IDT]) and 15 days (about two full weeks) of annual training (AT). However, across the readiness cycle, some units may have increased training requirements, while others may have their requirements changed with minimal notice. The authors examine how changes in training requirements affect soldiers' interest in staying in the USAR and how their civilian employment and family situations influence that decision. The authors examined administrative data on USAR soldiers and units to identify past changes in unit-level training requirements and whether they affected soldier retention or transfers to other units. The authors also surveyed currently serving Troop Program Unit soldiers to gather information on the effects of changes in training requirements on their retention intentions and their preferences for different training options. In their analysis of the survey, the authors found that, on average, soldiers prefer a slight increase in the number of AT days (2.5-3 weeks, or 18-21 days) and prefer the status quo of 48 IDT periods. In addition, most soldiers prefer a weekend IDT schedule to shifting some training to weeknights and one continuous period of AT rather than splitting it into multiple periods. However, these averages obscure important differences in preferences across the sample, prompting the authors to review how demographic and service-related characteristics affect intentions to stay in the USAR.

This brief summarizes work that examined the Army’s ability to regenerate its active component end strength to meet the demands of large-scale, protracted contingency operations of about the same scale as those in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

The authors analyze characteristics and duty limitations of service members who transfer between active and reserve components and make recommendations to reduce the number of personnel who transfer with medical conditions that limit deployability.

"The Army Medical Corps comprises the physicians of the U.S. Army. In recent years, the Medical Corps' rate of recruitment has not been able to keep up with the pace of separations. Retention is down. A larger-than-expected proportion of Army physicians who have fulfilled their active-duty service obligation are separating rather than extending their careers and, possibly, serving until they are eligible for military retirement. This trend results in positions at military treatment facilities and other units being unfilled, compromising the Medical Corps' ability to fulfill its missions, whether in deployed operations or in caring for service members and other beneficiaries at home. In this report, the authors examine alternative strategies for the Army Medical Corps to ensure that it has access to the personnel it needs to support operational requirements. The authors consulted with subject-matter experts and gathered and analyzed data to help identify five courses of action (COAs) that could increase retention, increase accessions, or reduce the requirement for uniformed physicians."--

This study informs the development of career models for the Department of Defense security cooperation workforce. It assesses potential requirements for competencies and experience and identifies potential job families within the workforce.

"The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a citizenship and leadership educational program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in more than 3,000 secondary schools across the United States and around the world. Cadets who join JROTC take classes taught by former service members in addition to their regular studies and participate in out-of-school-time activities similar to a club or sport. The U.S. Army operates about one-half of all JROTC units and has units in all 50 states, several U.S. territories, and around the world. Like the other services, the Army's JROTC units are disproportionately located in the South, in urban areas, and in larger schools; this has been noted in congressional legislation and in a recent Army memo focused on modernizing the JROTC program. Changing this distribution is challenging, however, because of historical geographic patterns, funding constraints, and the need for schools and districts to apply to host a JROTC unit. The Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower & Reserve Affairs asked RAND Arroyo Center to inform the Army about where it might locate new, sustainable sites and how to grow the program's instructor cadre. The research team used a mixed-methods approach: a review of literature on JROTC, post-service careers, and teacher pathways; analysis of public data on school and community characteristics in conjunction with service data on JROTC site locations; analysis of instructors' prior Army careers compared with non-instructor careers; and use of counterfactual simulations to understand potential implications of recent proposed or passed legislation."--

This report documents efforts to implement a capability for the U.S. Department of Defense to assess alternative policies to enhance officer retention provides source code and foundations of a spreadsheet version of the model.