MILITARY UPDATE
Satisfaction on the rise, survey says
Military Update focuses on issues affecting pay, benefits and lifestyle of active and retired servicepeople. Its author, Tom Philpott, is a Virginia-based syndicated columnist and freelance writer. He has covered military issues for almost 25 years, including six years as editor of Navy Times. For 17 years he worked as a writer and senior editor for Army Times Publishing Co. Philpott, 50, enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in 1973 and served as an information officer from 1974-77.
By Tom Philpott
Ten months into the global war on terrorism, which kicked U.S. military operations into a higher gear, service members expressed greater satisfaction with almost all aspects of service life than three years earlier.
Results of the 2002 Status of Forces Survey are based on responses from more than 12,000 active-duty members to an online survey last summer.
Some 38,000 members had been asked via postcards as well as e-mail to visit a Web site and answer anonymously a variety of questions on military life. Thirty-two percent responded.
The results show overall improvement in attitudes toward service life when compared to a mailed survey in 1999. But the attitude of enlisted soldiers toward Army life appears to have soured in a number of ways.
Also, the survey was done before the massive deployment of forces to the Persian Gulf.
As of summer 2002, however, 57 percent of respondents said they enjoyed their work, up 13 percent from 1999. Fifty-four percent were satisfied with training and professional development, up 4 points. Satisfaction with educational opportunities, work hours, job security and promotions also was higher.
Only 40 percent of respondents reported satisfaction with unit morale, up from 33 percent in 1999. Sixty-eight percent of respondents were satisfied with military lifestyles, values and traditions, up from 49 percent.
Only the Army's enlisted force reported nearly an across-the-board drop in satisfaction with service life, most sharply with unit morale, training and professional development, off-duty education and military values, lifestyle and traditions.
Air Force personnel consistently expressed the highest amount of satisfaction.
In areas except for training and unit morale, Marines were least satisfied, even less so than soldiers. But unlike soldiers, Marine satisfaction levels overall had not dropped since 1999.
The 2002 results show a significant gain in satisfaction over compensation. Thirty eight percent of active-duty respondents, up from 22 percent in 1999, were satisfied with basic pay. Thirty-five percent were satisfied with Basic Allowance for Housing, a 12 percent increase.
Survey results reflect recent slow progress on base housing improvements. Only 29 percent of respondents assigned to such housing were satisfied, a decline from 1999. Fifty-six percent of Army respondents were dissatisfied, highest among the services.
In almost every category of pay and benefits, from family medical care to overseas housing allowances, soldiers were more dissatisfied than others. Army members were even less satisfied with future retirement benefits though they will be identical, by pay grade and length of service, across all services.
Respondents perceived less progress in quality of life and family support programs in recent years. Spouse employment opportunities were perceived as unchanged — a disappointing 32 percent of respondents were satisfied. Members satisfied with family time rose from 31 percent overall in 1999 to 39 percent last summer.
With any military personnel survey, it is difficult to get a representative sample of responses from those forward deployed in areas such as Afghanistan. To adjust for that, both the 2002 and the 1999 survey "over sampled" those in occupations that deploy frequently.
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