Is Military Service the Path to the American Dream?

Joy Damiani had always wanted to be a journalist but knew she couldn’t afford to go to college. Then a military recruiter contacted Damiani shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks and told her exactly what she wanted to hear — he could get her a job as a journalist. On top of that, Joy would receive training, money for her education, and a chance to “take a little bit of agency over [her] own life,” Damiani recalls being told.

So Damiani joined the United States Army. She was 19 years old.

Damiani’s story is common. In 2021, the United States Armed Forces included approximately 1.3 million active duty members and an additional 800,000 reserve members. For many who enlist, the military offers a pathway to the American dream — a college education, a career, and a house — especially for those who have limited alternatives.

One of the major benefits of military service has been the pay. Over the years, military service has compared well to the general job market. For the first two decades of the 21st century, median military pay outpaced the median civilian salary, and that’s without factoring in the health care and housing allowance the military provides. The military also offers a pension after 20 years of service, which means someone could conceivably leave the military at age 38 and draw a pension while pursuing a new career. All of these benefits are increasingly rare in the United States, where 28 million people are uninsured and 25% of the population has no retirement savings.

The Military as a Path to Prosperity for Black Americans and Immigrants

A stable salary, strong benefits, and a clear career pathway are cited as reasons why military service benefits Black Americans in particular. The August 2023 unemployment number for Black veterans was 2.9% compared to 5.6% for non-veterans. According to the article “Army Service in the All-Volunteer Era” written by Kyle Greenberg, Matthew Gudgeon, Adam Isen, Corbin Miller, and Richard Patterson in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Army service nearly eliminated the Black-White earnings gap. In addition, the researchers found that the longer Black Americans were enlisted, the more likely they were to own a home and be married.

Herbert Brandon, who served in the Air Force from 1982 to 2002, discovered that opportunities for advancement were more equitable. In an article entitled “For many Black families, military service is a chance at upward mobility,” Brandon told NBC news, “In the military, it was simple. If you study and you pass the test and you have [a] good performance eval, you’re going to get promoted. But here, in the civilian sector, there’s a lot of politics and a lot of the process is subjective.”

The military is also often touted as a path to the American dream for immigrants. However, that path has gotten shakier in recent years. According to FWD.us, a bipartisan immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy organization, approximately 700,000 foreign-born veterans, many of whom are now U.S. citizens, live in the U.S. today, and about 45,000 immigrants are actively serving. In 2022, the United States naturalized 967,500 new citizens. Approximately 1.1% of them earned naturalization via military service. However, as FWD.us explains in “5 Things to Know About Immigrants in the Military,” “naturalizations of service members have decreased significantly in recent years, dropping by more than 70% from 2016 to 2020; only 2,588 service members naturalized in 2019, compared with 8,885 in 2016.” The data would suggest that, as time goes on, fewer people are seeing the military as a path to the American dream.

Declining Interest in Military Enlistment

This decline in service is not limited to immigrants. For a number of reasons, the military has struggled to recruit young people in recent years. A primary reason is that fewer young people qualify because of factors like obesity or mental health diagnoses. However, the problem is not just a shrinking number of eligible recruits. Unemployment hit an all-time low in 2023, making it easier to find other jobs. In addition, a growing number of young people are concerned about the toll of military service on mental health. According to a U.S. Department of Defense Survey of young Americans eligible to serve, about 57% thought they would have emotional or psychological problems after serving in the military. In other words, young people today are concerned about the psychological impact of serving in the military and see more alternative pathways to the American dream.

The Psychological Toll of Enlistment

More than two decades after enlisting, Damiani understands the mental health consequences well. In the military, she saw her role as more of a propagandist than a journalist. Damiani served in the military from 2001 to 2007, during the U.S. led invasion and occupation of Iraq (2003-2011). She routinely felt her morals were violated whenever she was expected to portray all military operations in a positive light, regardless of the harm caused to Iraqi civilians. Damiani was eager to leave after five years of service in Iraq, but she was kept from leaving under the Army’s stop loss policy. Damiani felt angry and betrayed when forced to serve another year. Since leaving the military, Damiani has experienced mental health issues. She was traumatized by her role as a military journalist and the violence she witnessed while reporting.

She now speaks to soldiers through an organization called We Are Not Your Soldiers, which aims to prevent high school students from joining the military. Damiani works alongside Miles Megaciph, another veteran who speaks candidly about his own traumatic experiences as a member of the Marine Corps from 1992 to 1996. Megaciph talks to students about the abuse against fellow Marines that he witnessed, as well as memories of watching Haitian refugees navigate minefields in order to seek asylum at the Guantanamo Bay base in Cuba, where he was stationed.

Damiani and Megaciph’s concerns are borne out by larger data. As their stories suggest, mental health is a major challenge for military veterans. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 15.7% of veterans who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan screened positive for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is more than double the National Institute for Mental Health's estimate of the prevalence of PTSD in adults (6.8%).

Depression and PTSD can often have cascading effects. Researchers from the VA New England MIRECC and the Yale School of Medicine found a link between veterans who sought treatment for anxiety or PTSD and those who experienced homelessness within five years. According to the most recent statistics, there are 67,495 homeless veterans, roughly 10% of all unhoused people in the U.S. Veterans are twice as likely to become homeless compared to those who didn’t serve. Another major concern is suicide. In 2020, 16.8 veterans died from suicide each day. The rate for veterans was 57.3% higher than that of non-veteran adults. Another report from the Council on Criminal Justice found that one in three veterans had been arrested compared to one-fifth of the general population. According to an NBC News report on the research, the study “identified multiple risk factors that contribute to incarceration for veterans, including combat-related trauma and posttraumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, substance abuse, adverse childhood experiences, and sexual trauma while in the military.”

Military Service and College Education

Another major benefit of military service since 1944 has been the GI Bill, which helps cover the cost of college education for military veterans. The GI Bill has benefited 25 million people since its creation. Starting in 2008, family members of veterans have also been able to use the GI Bill to pay for their education. As of 2023, the GI Bill covers all tuition and fees for an in-state public college, and up to $26,381.37 per academic year for a private or foreign college. With all that the GI Bill offers, it would be safe to assume that the military is a pathway towards education, which has long been considered a way to get ahead.

However, there are those who would disagree. The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) is a network of organizations that oppose military presence and recruitment in schools. They helped produce a video called “Before You Enlist” that counters many of the points military recruiters use to encourage young people to enlist. In addition to describing the physical and emotional toll of military service, the video challenges the military’s claims about education benefits. Chantelle Bateman, a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War featured in the video, describes how unrealistic it is to pursue a college degree in between deployments. The video also characterizes many recruiters as disingenuous in their efforts to portray the upsides of military service while downplaying or omitting the risks.

What is the Overall Status of the American Dream?

 Ultimately, when assessing the benefits of military service, it’s worth considering the overall outlook for young Americans at large. Like many young people, Damiani enlisted because college or an alternative career felt out of reach. How has access to the American dream changed since then? Data suggests the American dream is moving increasingly out of reach. When Damiani enlisted in 2001, the average cost of tuition at a four-year college was about $20,000 a year. In 2021, that number had grown to roughly $29,000. According to researchers at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the average price of tuition, fees, and room and board increased 169% between 1980 and 2020. The rising cost of college has also coincided with a rise in student debt. As of 2022, American borrowers owed $1.5 trillion in student loans, according to the Federal Reserve.

Another way to think about access to the American dream is economic mobility, the ability for a person to rise from one socioeconomic class to another. This is particularly relevant in a country like the United States, where there is extreme income and wealth inequality. According to an analysis by the World Economic Forum, the United States ranked 27th for social mobility behind countries like Germany (11th), France (12th), Canada (14th), Japan (15th), and the United Kingdom (21st).

When it comes to affordable housing and healthcare — two other benefits of military service — the overall numbers for Americans are sobering. In addition to the housing allowance military members receive while serving, veterans have access to low-interest loans and, in some situations, are able to purchase a home without a down payment. At the same time, Habitat for Humanity’s 2023 State of the Nation’s Housing Report found that “In total, 31.8% of all households (40.6 million homeowners and renters) were cost-burdened in 2021. Of these, 20.3 million — nearly 1 in 6, or 15.9% of U.S. households — paid over half of their income on housing. For low-income households, such high cost burdens leave little left over for other necessities like food and healthcare.” Meanwhile, in addition to the 28 million Americans who are uninsured, approximately 41 million people are underinsured, meaning their insurance does not adequately cover the cost of their healthcare.

These various statistics suggest the American dream is difficult to obtain for many poor and middle-class Americans. It’s logical, then, that the challenges of affording college, a home, or healthcare in the United States make military service an appealing option. But perhaps the question isn’t whether military service can provide a path to the American dream, but rather, why is it one of the only paths available? And are the costs of taking that path too high?