Irving Smith’s research while affiliated with United States Military Academy and other places

The impact of military service on the status attainment of World War II veterans has been studied since the 1950s; however, the research has failed to come to any consensus with regard to their level of attainment. Analyses have focused on cross-sectional or longitudinal data without considering the effects of service over the life course. The authors argue that World War II veterans, regardless of race, have greater attainment, measured in terms of education, income, and occupational prestige, over their lifetimes than nonveterans. They use census data from the 1950 through 2000 Public Use Microdata Sample. The authors find that military service afforded white veterans significant advantages through their early and middle working years; however, their nonveteran peers eventually caught up. They also find that black veterans receive more of a social status advantage relative to black nonveterans, and military service helps to close the socioeconomic gap between blacks and whites.

The authors investigate a gap in attitudes toward homosexuals in the U.S. military among a select group of people—American civilian undergraduates, Reserve Officer Training Corp (ROTC) cadets, and cadets at military academies. Using a subsample (N = 3057) of data from the Biannual Attitude Survey of Students (BASS), being a military academy cadet is associated with the strongest agreement for barring homosexuals from serving in the military, followed by ROTC cadets and civilians. These trends continue when controlling for respondents' sex and political affiliation—the two most significant predictors of agreeing to bar homosexuals from military service. A small reduction in agreement for barring was found among academy cadets over time.

Sociology and the Sociology Program at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, are described. Grounded in the academy's mission of educating and inspiring future leaders of character, this article focuses on the history of the Sociology Program, alignment with American Sociological Association standards, sociodemographics of cadet sociology majors, recent graduates, the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and the sociology faculty and their productivity. The Sociology Program has made significant progress in multiple areas while concomitantly being handicapped in other areas. The conclusion addresses the significance of social science in military officer education.