Race/Ethnicity of AC Commissioned Officers

Race/Ethnicity. The percentages of minorities among newly commissioned officers and the Active Component officer corps are shown in Table 4.5. In FY 1998, almost 21 percent of entering officers were minorities—Black, Hispanic, and "Other" (e.g., Native Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders)—and 16 percent of all commissioned officers on active duty were members of minority groups. The Air Force had the smallest proportion of minority officer accessions at 18 percent and the Army had the largest proportion at 23 percent. The most populous minority group, Blacks, were represented at 9 percent of officer accessions and 8 percent of all active duty officers.

Table 4.5. FY 1998 Active Component Minority Officer Accessions and Officer Corps, by Service (Percent)
Minority	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	Air Force	DoD
ACTIVE COMPONENT OFFICER ACCESSIONS
Black	10.7	7.7	9.4	6.6	8.5
Hispanic	4.9	6.1	7.1	1.1	4.3
Other	7.6	6.5	5.7	10.3	7.9
Total Minority Officer Accessions	23.2	20.3	22.2	18.0	20.7
ACTIVE COMPONENT OFFICER CORPS
Black	11.1	6.1	6.3	6.1	7.7
Hispanic	3.6	4.0	4.5	2.1	3.3
Other	5.1	4.3	3.1	4.9	4.7
Total Minority Officers	19.8	14.4	13.9	13.1	15.7
Columns may not add to total due to rounding.c "Other" includes Native Americans, Asians, and Pacific Islanders. Also see Appendix Table B-34 (Race/Ethnicity by Service).

Over the last few years the focus on minority representation within the officer corps has increased. Concern stems from the appearance of underrepresentation among officers in stark contrast to the trends for the enlisted ranks. A number of factors contribute to the seeming underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics (though not "Other" minorities) in the officer corps. For reasons too complicated to dissect within this report, minorities disproportionately suffer from poverty and disorderly learning environments.(6) These risk factors take their toll in the form of lower college enrollment and graduation rates, and, on average, lower achievement than other population groups. Although test score trends have improved for minorities over the past two decades, large average differences compared to Whites remain. For example, the mean verbal Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores for college-bound seniors in 1997 were 526 for Whites and 434 for Blacks; mean math scores were 526 for Whites and 423 for Blacks.(7) In light of these and other factors (e.g., fierce labor market competition for college-educated minorities),(8) minority representation among officer accessions appears rather equitable when compared to the 21- to 35-year-old civilian population of college graduates which stands at 7.8 percent Black, 5.5 percent Hispanic, and 8.3 percent "Other." Blacks are proportionately represented and Hispanics and "Other" minorities are slightly underrepresented.

Academic achievement differences factor into the divergent racial/ethnic distributions across the commissioning sources as shown in Tables 4.6 and 4.7. In FY 1998, White and "Other" minority officer accessions were more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to be commissioned via one of the academies, but were less likely to have attended OCS/OTS than other groups. "Other" racial/ethnic officer accessions were more likely than other groups to have direct appointments, but were the least likely to attend OCS/OTS. For the overall Active Component officer corps in FY 1998, Black officers were less likely to have attended a Service academy, but more likely to have graduated from a non-scholarship ROTC program. Among the FY 1998 officer corps, "Other" minorities were more likely than other groups to be given a direct appointment.

Table 4.6 FY 1998 Source of Commission of Active Component Officer Accessions, by Race/Ethnicity and Gender (Percent)
Source of Commission	White	Black	Hispanic	Other	Male	Female
Academy	18.7	10.7	14.1	18.0	18.9	13.1
ROTC–Scholarship	29.1	28.1	24.6	29.1	28.0	32.3
ROTC–No Scholarship	10.1	17.4	17.1	11.4	11.5	9.3
OCS/OTS	16.6	17.3	30.5	12.1	18.5	10.1
Direct Appointment*	20.0	19.6	10.0	25.4	17.1	32.2
Other**	5.3	6.8	3.8	3.9	5.8	2.9
Unknown	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.3	0.2
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. * Females accessed through direct appointment are primarily health care professionals. ** Includes officers trained in one Service and accessed into another (primarily Marine Corps). Also see Appendix Table B-42 (Source of Commission by Service and Race/Ethnicity) and B-40 (Source of Commission by Service and Gender).

Table 4.7. FY 1998 Source of Commission of Active Component Officer Corps, by Race/Ethnicity and Gender (Percent)
Source of Commission	White	Black	Hispanic	Other	Male	Female
Academy	18.6	11.7	17.3	19.4	19.4	10.3
ROTC–Scholarship	20.2	17.5	16.6	21.3	20.2	18.5
ROTC–No Scholarship	19.4	32.6	23.7	19.9	21.4	15.6
OCS/OTS	19.4	16.8	22.1	13.1	19.8	13.9
Direct Appointment*	17.0	16.6	15.1	22.4	13.6	38.5
Other**	4.9	4.7	5.0	3.5	5.2	2.8
Unknown	0.5	0.2	0.2	0.5	0.5	0.4
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. * Females accessed through direct appointment are primarily health care professionals. ** Includes officers trained in one Service and accessed into another (primarily Marine Corps). Also see Appendix Table B-43 (Source of Commission by Service and Race/Ethnicity) and B-41 (Source of Commission by Service and Gender).

The DoD is actively looking into issues affecting minority officer recruitment, performance, promotion, and retention in keeping with its track record of dedication to equal opportunity. The Services have programs designed to increase minority participation in the officer corps. In addition to academy preparatory schools, ROTC programs have a considerable presence at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and there are Army ROTC units placed at predominantly Hispanic institutions. Furthermore, there are incentive and preparation programs aimed at boosting the presence of minorities within ROTC programs and the officer corps.

Targeted recruiting programs, together with a focus on equal opportunity once commissioning takes place, have contributed to increased representation of minorities (especially Blacks) within the officer corps over the years (see Appendix Tables D-22, D-23 , D-27, and D-28). The 8.5 percent of Blacks, for example, among officer accessions in FY 1998 compares favorably with figures from one and two decades ago (1988: 7.5 percent; 1978: 6.3 percent).

These accession trends have been contributing to greater minority strength levels in the total officer corps. For example, Blacks comprised 4 percent of all active duty officers in FY 1978, 7 percent in FY 1988, and 8 percent by the end of this past fiscal year. The lagging long-term minority progress seen through the Active Component officer percentages, relative to the near-term success seen among officer accessions, is mirrored in the pay grade distribution differences by minority status as shown in Table 4.8.

Table 4.8. FY 1998 Pay Grade¹ of Active Component Officers, by Service and Race/Ethnicity (Percent)
Race/Ethnicity and Pay Grade	Army	Navy	Marine Corps	Air Force	DoD
White
O-1 through O-3	58.7	57.4	61.5	57.0	58.0
O-4 through O-6	40.8	42.2	38.0	42.6	41.6
O-7 through O-10	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.5
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Black
O-1 through O-3	61.2	72.2	74.1	59.8	63.8
O-4 through O-6	38.5	27.6	25.6	40.0	35.9
O-7 through O-10	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.3
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Hispanic
O-1 through O-3	69.1	73.7	80.4	54.6	68.5
O-4 through O-6	30.8	26.3	19.3	45.2	31.4
O-7 through O-10	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Other
O-1 through O-3	70.6	73.4	78.2	76.8	73.9
O-4 through O-6	29.3	26.5	21.8	23.1	26.0
O-7 through O-10	0.1	*	0.0	0.1	0.1
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Columns may not add to total due to rounding. * Less than one-tenth of one percent. ¹ Excludes those with unknown rank/pay grade. Also see Appendix Table B-49 (Active Component Officer Corps by Pay Grade, Service, and Race/Ethnicity).

Compared to Whites, higher percentages of minority members are found in the lower grades (O-1 through O-3). More notable differences between Whites and minorities were found in the Navy and Marine Corps, where 57 and 62 percent of Whites, respectively, held the rank of captain or lower but 72 and 74 percent of Blacks and 74 and 80 percent of Hispanics, respectively, were company grade officers. The pay grade distributions were closest in the Air Force, with approximately 3 percentage points separating Whites and Blacks in terms of the percentage in grade O-3 and below. Additionally, the Air Force has a slightly greater proportion of Hispanics than Whites in field grade positions. Factors such as increased college graduation rates and targeted recruiting programs have provided minorities greater access to the officer corps. However, it is also important to monitor progress further along the pipeline.