Military Occupational Specialties

U.S. military personnel are required to adhere to standards of body composition, fitness, and appearance to achieve and maintain readinessâ€"that is, the maintenance of optimum health and performance so they are ready for deployment at any moment. In 1992, the Committee on Military Nutrition Research reviewed the existing standards and found, among other things, that the standards for body composition required for women to achieve an appearance goal seemed to conflict with those necessary to ensure the ability to perform many types of military tasks. This report addresses that conflict, and reviews and makes recommendations about current policies governing body composition and fitness, as well as postpartum return-to-duty standards, Military Recommended Dietary Allowances, and physical activity and nutritional practices of military women to determine their individual and collective impact on the health, fitness, and readiness of active-duty women.

Over the past several years, the military Services have reduced their forces substantially. Military skill groups have been consolidated before and during that reduction. Such consolidations can benefit organizations. As a result of visits to military units and anecdotal reports from the field, some members of Congress became concerned that the skill consolidations were eroding readiness and expressed a particular concern about maintenance skills in two Services. The Office of the Secretary of Defense asked RAND to determine the extent of the consolidations and their effects on readiness. On the basis of the indicators selected from our framework, we found no evidence of deleterious effect of consolidation on readiness after a two year period of transition. The experience and availability of personnel in consolidated MOCs are comparable with those for other maintenance MOCs. The data for qualification are less clear. However, the Services' procedures for these consolidations are clearly understood, and these procedures very likely help smooth the transitions.

Army Could Do More To Reduce Imbalances in Military Occupational Specialties