% of senior members that are former and/or current military?

Started by Woodsy, August 30, 2011, 10:37:37 PM

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Woodsy

I was asked this by a perspective member today, and had no answer.  After a little research on NHQ's website, looking at the current fact sheet, etc, I've coming up with nothing.  Does anyone have any statistics for senior member demographics?  Average age, % former military, gender, etc? 

lordmonar

Simply from an personal experince point of view....I would say that the abourn 50% of SM are former military.

This may be situational....my squadrons have all been on or very near military bases......
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

SarDragon

Total guesses here.

Former/current military: 15%; down from 25%, 20 years ago; down from 35%, 20 years before that. The numbers started going down when the draft ended.

Average age: 50, on the rise. If you break it up into units with cadets, and units without, 38, and 62 respectively.

Gender: 85% male, probably pretty constant over the years.

I don't think I've ever seen any real numbers out there at any time during my membership. The info can be tracked from membership apps, but I'm not sure anybody actually does that.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

RiverAux

My guess would be 20%. 

I've often thought that veteran status should be tracked in eservices.  I think having some hard numbers would probably be helpful in increasing credibility.  Even if it isn't a majority, which it isn't, it is certainly much higher than the percentage of vets in the US population in general. 

Extremepredjudice

I'd be more interested in which service is the majority?

I'd put my money on navy...
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Hanlon's Razor
Occam's Razor
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SamFranklin

This is an interesting question, but you're not likely to find an empirically-based answer. Why? CAP is not tasked with inviting veterans (per se) to continue to serve through CAP membership. If there is no mission, there will be no data collected to answer your question. As soon as you start tracking the number of Zulus who are aircrew-rated, for example, you'll beg the question, Why don't we have more Zulus rated? And with that, you're spending time and resources on a tangential, non-mission issue.

RiverAux

Well, CAP does specifically attempt to encourage membership by veterans by giving them credit for some professional development program and for some more advanced rank is available.  I'm not aware of any similar programs to benefit specific ethnic groups. 

SarDragon

Quote from: Extremepredjudice on August 30, 2011, 11:12:36 PM
I'd be more interested in which service is the majority?

I'd put my money on navy...

Nah. AF or Army.
Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

ol'fido

Didn't we have a poll about this a while back? Or was that just ex-mil on CT? ???
Lt. Col. Randy L. Mitchell
Historian, Group 1, IL-006

SarDragon

Dave Bowles
Maj, CAP
AT1, USN Retired
50 Year Member
Mitchell Award (unnumbered)
C/WO, CAP, Ret

Stonewall

If it helps, here are 2 polls I did at Veterans Day here on CAP Talk.

Poll 1 and Poll 2.

In my 20+ years of CAP experience, I'd say military veterans made up more than 50% of senior members.  Of course I was in a squadron in Florida that had 3 (now 2) large Navy bases within 30 miles of the squadron and then in our Nation's Capital.  So yeah, it may be different in the back woods of West [by God] Virginia or Podunk, Mississippi.
Serving since 1987.

GroundHawg

In my squadron 5 out of 21 SM's are vets. 1 Navy, 3 Army and 1 Army/Navy/Air Force.

Pump Scout

I'm thinking our squadron is about 40%-ish former military for seniors. Maybe a little more, there's a handful of folks who don't talk much about their pasts...

ol'fido

Well, as I remember, the last poll had slightly more former Army types than AF ones????
Lt. Col. Randy L. Mitchell
Historian, Group 1, IL-006

Walkman

In my unit we have 13 SMs, of those, 8 are current or former military.

jeders

I finally went through and counted, and out of 28 SMs in my squadron, 16 (57%) are current or former AD/Guard/Reserve, plus one cadet at the academy.  Of those 17 people, 16 (94%) are/were/will be AF. We meet on an AF base in a heavily military town with lots of retirees, and so the numbers are probably skewed a little bit. My guess would be that throughout the organization, the numbers are around a third to half of all SMs have military experience. Also, I would guess that the Army holds the highest percentage, followed by AF, then Navy/Marines, then coasties.
If you are confident in you abilities and experience, whether someone else is impressed is irrelevant. - Eclipse

Camas

Quote from: RiverAux on August 30, 2011, 11:02:05 PM
My guess would be 20%. I've often thought that veteran status should be tracked in eservices.  I think having some hard numbers would probably be helpful in increasing credibility.  Even if it isn't a majority, which it isn't, it is certainly much higher than the percentage of vets in the US population in general.

I'm with you on both counts. Some years ago a national commander told me it was about 20% and I have no reason to believe that's changed much.

MSG Mac

The CAP application does have a line asking about military service and highest grade held. If needed I am sure that can answer that question.
Michael P. McEleney
Lt Col CAP
MSG USA (Retired)
50 Year Member

RiverAux

Well, only if there is some giant file of original application forms sitting around somewhere.  And then you'd need to send someone in to pick out the 30,000 of those that are current members....  It COULD be put in the database, but hasn't. 

RADIOMAN015

#19
Quote from: Camas on August 31, 2011, 05:44:03 PM
Quote from: RiverAux on August 30, 2011, 11:02:05 PM
My guess would be 20%. I've often thought that veteran status should be tracked in eservices.  I think having some hard numbers would probably be helpful in increasing credibility.  Even if it isn't a majority, which it isn't, it is certainly much higher than the percentage of vets in the US population in general.

I'm with you on both counts. Some years ago a national commander told me it was about 20% and I have no reason to believe that's changed much.
So based upon the above military veterans stats,  I guess it would be safe to say that Civil Air Patrol is the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force ??? :angel:
RM