Military Families

Military Families

Since World War II, armed forces officials have become ever more aware of the fact and the importance of family life for military personnel. This was due in part to the marriage boom in the larger society that had begun during that war. Officers, who as a group were older than enlisted personnel, were far more likely to be married. In 1953, 81.1 percent of officers were married, as compared to only 33.3 percent of enlisted personnel. By 1960, the percentage of married officers had grown to 84.9 percent, while 47.5 percent of enlisted personnel were married. Although the relative percentage of married personnel (officers and enlisted) dropped during the 1960s, overall the trend has been an increase in the percentage of married enlisted personnel. The rise during the last quarter of the twentieth century was attributed to the advent of the all-volunteer force in 1973, and to the increasing age of service members. By 2000, nearly 53 percent of active duty personnel were married. Nearly 6 percent of couples were in "joint-service" marriages, with one active duty employee married to another service member either on active duty or in the reserves. In 2000, more than 600,000 active duty personnel had 1.23 million children.

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