America's Military Population

Concern about the economic and political consequences of having such a large "non-American" force led to the passage of a law in 1894 that limited new enlistments to American Indians, citizens, and men who indicated that they intended to become citizens and could read, write, and speak English. By the time the United States went to war with Spain in 1898, the Army was "only" 25 percent foreign-born. About 15 percent of the total U.S. population was foreignborn in 1890.22

The mobilization for World War I provided a polyglot army through a conscription law that made all aliens who declared an intention to become citizens, other than those from Germany and the Central Powers, subject to the draft. For example, the commander of the 77th Infantry Division, manned by draftees from the New York area, claimed that 43 languages and dialects were used in his unit. Large numbers of draftees could not speak English, and initially they were assigned to units that performed menial labor. The Army also became an English-language training institution, and thousands of immigrants learned English through military service. For the most part, European ethnic group members were integrated throughout the army, with occasional exceptions. The 99th Infantry Battalion in World War II, for example, was all Norwegian American and was trained for an invasion of German-occupied Norway. Also in World War II, two primarily Spanish-speaking New Mexico National Guard units-the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery battalions-were stationed in the Philippines before the war, captured on the Bataan Peninsula, and had to endure the 85-mile "death march" to Japanese prison camps. Other largely Spanish-speaking units from the Arizona and Texas National Guard saw extensive combat in the Pacific and in Europe. After the Spanish-American War, with a great interest in the annexation of Puerto Rico, Congress authorized the formation of a battalion of Puerto Rican troops. This unit evolved into the 65th Infantry, which guarded the Panama Canal for most of the two World Wars.

The descendants of European ethnic groups that arrived in earlier immigration waves have been integrated into the military and are no longer monitored. About the time the United States adopted an all-volunteer military, however, the U.S. Census Bureau began to monitor the rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic population-an amalgam of several ethnic groups of Spanish or Latin American descent, dominated numerically by Hispanics of Mexican origin. The military recognized that this rapidly growing segment of the youth population was an important part of the recruiting pool. In 1995, 15 percent of the civilian youth population was Hispanic, although this group accounted for only 9 percent of military personnel.24 The percentage of 18-year-old civilians who are Hispanic is projected to reach at least 22 percent by 2020.25

Hispanic representation increased in the enlisted ranks of the military in the era of the volunteer force, from about 2 percent in 1975, when the Hispanic category was first used, to 10 percent in 2001. But the Hispanic share is still below that of African Americans, who have twice as many enlisted men and more than three times as many enlisted women. Hispanic representation has been greatest among the Marine Corps, where it reached almost 15 percent among enlisted personnel in 2001; the Hispanic share is lowest among Air Force personnel, where it hovered at about 4 percent until the late 1990s (see Figure 8).