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Navies in the age of sail required artisans familiar with the working of a sailing vessel as well as a warship's operations. The years 1797 to 1812 were formative for the body of skilled petty officers on whom commissioned and warrant officers relied to turn their armed ships into effective instruments of warfare. This essay provides an overview of the early U.S. Navy's process of recruiting and training petty officers, how the character of subordination and discipline was negotiated between commissioned and lesser officers, and the petty officers' life aboard ship in the era of the War of 1812. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author recounts the story of a 17-year-old boy named Hiram who enlisted at the U.S. Navy at a very young age to go to the war. Topics include the refusal of his family to allow him to join the force but later signed the Navy permission form, his assignment to the USS Northampton heavy cruiser, and an official account of the Battle of Tassafaronga on Novemeber 30, 1942 wherein the USS Northampton had been sunk.

The article discusses the origins of maritime labor reform in the U.S. in relation to the notion of flexible capacity of merchant ships as a reserve for naval warfare. Topics include the activism of the Sailors' Union of the Pacific (SUP) in relation to Chinese exclusion legislation and racial prejudice, recruitment of sailors into the U.S. Navy during the Spanish-American War, and the origins of the U.S. Seaman's Act of 1915, sponsored by U.S. Senator Robert La Follette.

Aims: To examine relationships between childhood maltreatment and alcohol-related problems among U.S. Navy recruits. Methods: An anonymous sample of 5697 Navy recruits completed a survey regarding their alcohol consumption, alcohol problems (binge drinking, drinking until drunk, alcohol dependence, alcohol-related arrests), and experiences of childhood physical and sexual abuse. Results: Most of the recruits used alcohol, and a substantial proportion reported histories of childhood maltreatment. Recruits who had been victimized as children were more likely to use alcohol. Furthermore, among drinkers, those who had been abused were more likely to exhibit alcohol problems than were non-abused drinkers. Conclusion: Substantial numbers of personnel with alcohol-related problems may be using alcohol to self-medicate due to a history of childhood abuse. Attention to the association between alcohol abuse and childhood maltreatment might help improve the efficacy of military alcohol reduction programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this prospective study was to investigate the effects of the Boot Camp Survival Training for Navy Recruits -- A Prescription (BOOT STRAP) intervention on stress, depression, situational events, interpersonal factors, and recruit training performance. Divisions of Navy recruits were randomly selected and 801 recruits participated for the 9 weeks of their training. Recruits "at risk" for depression were randomly assigned to the intervention or nonintervention groups, and the remaining recruits served as the comparison group. The at-risk recruits who received the BOOT STRAP intervention significantly increased their sense of belonging, experienced less loneliness, used more problem-solving coping skills, and decreased insecure attachment by the end of recruit training. Percentages of recruits in the study successfully completing basic training were 84% of the comparison group, 86% of the intervention group, and only 74% of the nonintervention group. Results suggest that the BOOT STRAP intervention improves recruit functioning, strengthens training performance, helps reduce attrition, and may have important implications for stress and depression interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the issue of what recruit characteristics have been associated with "successful" adaptation to the military in the era of the all-volunteer force and male recruits in the U.S. Navy. Early attrition behavior is strongly associated with recruit characteristics observed at the time of enlistment and appearing on personnel records established at that time. By far the most important indicator of attrition propensity is whether or not the recruit is a high school diploma graduate. Early attrition rates for those without such diplomas, including those with some type of equivalency diploma (certificate) are typically twice as large as those for diploma graduates. Differences in attrition propensity between diploma graduates and either certificate holders or nongraduates remain even when comparisons are made within narrowly defined entry test score categories. Because the result is independent of measured aptitude, the traditional diploma is believed to measure an individuals adaptability, or ability to cope with discipline, rather than knowledge.

Presents a household decision model on the role of family economic and non-economic factors, especially spouse employment status and spouse support on re-enlistment, in the re-enlistment intentions of United States army personnel. Economic theory of occupational choice; Components of the family factors and retention model; Significant impact on re-enlistment intentions on the propensity of spouse to be unemployed.

Discusses the effect of changes implemented for the delayed-entry program (DEP) of the United States Navy on its recruiting costs. Description of the Navy's DEP; Objectives of a research study on the Navy DEP; Available Navy recruiting data used for the study; Description of the econometric model applied to the data.

Since the abolishment of the mandatory draft the U.S. Navy, along with the other services, has engaged in aggressive marketing strategies in order to attract a sufficient number of qualified individuals to volunteer enlistment. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of these efforts, primarily advertising and personal selling, within the general framework of the recruiting environment. The study uses insights into the recruiting process, provided by the Navy Recruiting Command, along with principles of economics and marketing to develop an econometric model of recruiting performance. The parameters of the model are then estimated on a monthly data base for the 43 Navy Recruiting Districts, from January 1976 to December 1978. The objective of the model is descriptive, i.e., it quantifies the effects of various environmental and marketing variables on three measures of recruiting performance: nationally generated leads, contracts for the delayed-entry program and direct-shipment contracts. The enlistment contracts refer to nonprior service males between 17 and 21 years old. The environmental variables in the models include economic factors such as unemployment rate and civilian income, sociodemographic variables such as urbanization, the proportion of blacks and high-school seniors in the target market, and local youth attitudes toward the Navy, and time-related factors such as seasonality and the GI Bill. The marketing efforts are national advertising expenditures in seven media, local advertising expenditures, recruiter strength and recruiter aid expenditures. The econometric models reveal that both environmental and marketing variables had significant impact on variations in recruiting performance over time and across recruiting districts. The specific response effects for leads and contracts are reported in the "discussion of results" section. The "conclusions" section integrates several of these results along three dimensions: (1) the relative influence of environmental versus marketing variables on recruiting performance, (2) differences in the response structures for leads, delayed-entry and direct-shipment contracts, (3) the relative effectiveness of media advertising and personal selling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the results of the Navy HRM survey which was administered to a sample of U.S. Navy enlisted personnel. It states that this survey was conducted in order to provide further data on the attitudes of women in the Navy compared to their male counterparts. The author examined in depth the presence of a less positive outlook in women who reached higher ranking. The author proposes that the inability of the U.S. Navy to fully integrate women because of the ban on women in combat may be the underlying cause for this dissatisfaction.

The article presents the results of a study of 50 years of midshipmen recruitment to the U.S. Naval Academy which was conducted in order to empirically investigate the merits of the theory presented by Morris Janowitz in "The Professional Soldier." This theory posits the existence of new trends in social recruitment since World War II, including: are an increase in recruits from working-class families paralleled by a decline in those from business and professional class families; a shift from traditional Protestant affiliated recruits to Roman Catholic and "pietistic" churches; and an increase in sons of non-commissioned officers and members of minority groups.

This paper examines the influence of economic factors on re-enlistment decisions in the U.S. Navy. The effect of civilian wage opportunities on re-enlistment behavior is of particular interest. The study employs a unique longitudinal data base to track the actual civilian employment experiences of Navy personnel who enlisted between 1973-77. The data base was created by merging the records of the Defense Military Data Center and the U.S. Social Security Administration. This data base is used to estimate the opportunity costs of re-enlisting and these estimates are then used in the two-step regression procedure to predict re-enlistment behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates measures which are taken to detect and eliminate those naval recruits who are not fit for service because of mental deficiency in the United States. Psychological and psychiatric tests given to recruits suspected of mental deficiency are discussed. The problem of mental deficiency is analyzed. Various syndromes which may superficially resemble mental deficiency are described.

This article discusses the results of a study of the use of the Herring Revision of the Binet-Simon Tests in the examination of subnormal naval recruits. The Binet-Simon Tests is composed of 38 tests with five overlapping groups of individual tests. The study showed that the Herring Revision is a valuable psychometric tool. In conclusion, the author recommends the use of the tests in examining subnormal patients in situations where the conservation of time is essential.

First-term reenlistment rates were not recorded in the Navy prior to 1953 However, it has been found possible to estimate retention rates for yearly or quarterly entry groups of recruits back to 1936 These rates approximate the reenlistment rates at the end of the first term and vary from a high of 80 8 per cent for 1936 to 1 6 per cent for 1944 However, the number reenlisting each year remains remarkably constant Thus the reenlistment rate is very heavily influenced by the size of the entry group, since increasing the size of the entry group increases the denominator of the rate much faster than it increases the numerator A method is as developed for removing the effect of the entry-group size, making it possible to extrapolate from one period to another with considerable accuracy Simple linear projection is subject to very large errors as the uncorrected rate can change tremendously from one year to the next The corrected reenlistment rate has been remarkably constant for twenty years It has varied between 12 and 19 per cent except during periods of no Selective Service when it has been as high as 35 1 per cent The early flood of volunteers after Korea temporarily dropped the rate to as low as 7 9 per cent for the group enlisted during the third quarter of 1950 In years of small quotas, waiting lists are long and there is little active recruiting Thus, the recruits are largely those strongly enough motivated to come in on their own and wait some time to he accepted Consequently, the group as a whole will have a high degree of career motivation and a high reenlistment rate In years when quotas are large, active selling and many extrinsic incentives are required to meet quotas, and the additional recruits do not have as much career motivation as those easier to recruit [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Navy men typically enlist for four years; then leave the Navy. Those who remain mostly stay until retirement. A low first-term reenlistment rate (FTRR) dissipates human capital--a training investment per man of six to twelve months. The U.S. Navy felt it had a shortage of trained career enlisted men, especially in occupations which require extensive technical training, principally electronics maintenance and repair men. One obvious focal point of any attempt to alleviate such a shortage is the first-term reenlistment decision. Accordingly, the study began by estimating the several effects on the FTRR of a large number of possible incentives. These fell into six general classes: active duty pay; retirement pay; educational benefits; assignment, housing, and other policies; other fringe benefits; promotion opportunities. The present incentive system was also analyzed. The authors estimated the effects of each incentive on the FTRR by survey data, calibrated to estimate actual FTRR's from statements of reenlistment intentions, assuming the institution of the incentives. Except for the FTRR, conditional survival rates have been nearly constant for some time.

The article focuses on a multivariate study of enlisted retention (MUSTER) conducted to ascertain to ascertain what characteristics typify men who reenlist in the Navy and distinguish them from men who do not reenlist even though eligible to do so. These analyses were aimed at helping the Navy increase reenlistment and can be used to draw implications for a theory of career choice. The research in muster used two analytical approaches. First, contingency counts were made which allowed the calculation of reenlistment rates as a function of one or more of the variables being analyzed. Second, regression analysis techniques were used to determine the variables most significantly related to reenlistment and to develop reenlistment prediction equations.

Objective: To assess whether the United States Navy is disproportionately attracting and recruiting female smokers from the civilian sector.Methods: Standardised comparisons of cigarette use among Navy women recruits and civilian women were conducted with data from a 1996-97 Department of Defense study and the 1994 National Health Interview Survey.Results: Young Navy women recruits (18-22 years) had significantly higher rates of current and heavy smoking than their civilian counterparts after adjusting for differences in sociodemographic characteristics. Smoking rates among older recruits and civilian women (23-30 years) were not significantly different.Conclusions: It seems that the Navy attracts young civilian women who already smoke, many of whom smoke heavily. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]