Current racial composition of U.S. military forces

Factual Questions
1

A recent news report said that African-American leaders are disturbed that a disproportionately large percentage of AA troops are being deployed for possible combat in an upcoming Persian Gulf War II campaign.

What is the current racial composition of U.S. military forces, with a focus on expected combatants?

(Yes, we all know that “race” doesn’t exist. Let’s pretend anyway.)

2
3

Did something funny happen in 1976? I’m looking at Figure 3.

4

WAGs

  1. Many of the last two-year drafees left?
  2. The definition of “Hispanic” was changed.*
  3. Statistical error.
  • I was under the impression until around 1980 the word “Hispanic” was not used by the government and Hispanic people were defined as “Whites”, “Blacks”, or “other”; and therefore most figures from before 1980 use other means to retroactively figure out who is “Hispanic” like evaluating surnames - which can be tricky because Filipinos can have Spanish names and be non-Hispanic, but quite a few Hispanic people have a surname like…say “Smits” or “Carew”.

I say this because my dad is Mexican-American, and all his military papers, documents, and so on said “white”, and there is no mention of “Hispanic” on anything.

5

Nearest accurate cite I can give that’s available:
Jan 4, 1997 Wall Street Journal, Front Page:

Blacks are slightlyunderrepresented in actual combat positions. Most AA’s in the Service are in tech positions and the like…