ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book addresses several major questions that describe important features of the US military's future. What important international and domestic trends will influence the military in the late twentieth century? How will public attitudes, youth attitudes, and attitudes on college campuses affect the recruitment of enlisted and officer personnel? It shows that a very significant problem facing the US military in the future will be the inability to attract sufficient numbers of qualified personnel. The military has discarded almost all of its social ritual of the 1930s. American social values, norms, and dress have penetrated the once separate life-style of the army post. The book describes the problems of individuals when they deal with a faceless, large bureaucracy, such as the military. It suggests that perhaps the primary cause of attrition in the academy student bodies is growth in size with concomitant bureaucratization.
