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38 Armed Forces & Soc'y 5 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/amdfcsad38 and id is 1 raw text is: Articles Armed Forces & Society 38(1) 5-26 The orl W a 11© The Author(s) 2012 The World War II Rpn n e so Reprints sand permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Veteran Advantage? DOI: 10.11 77/0095327X 10390463 http://afs.sagepub.com A Lifetime *SAGE Cross-Sectional Study of Social Status Attainment Irving Smith III', Kris Marsh2, and David R. Segal2 Abstract 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 con- sensus 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 pres- tige, 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. Keywords race, World War II, education, occupation, income 'U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, USA 2University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD, USA Corresponding Author: Kris Marsh, University of Maryland, Department of Sociology, 21 12 Art-Sociology Building, College Park, MD 20742-13 15, USA Email: kmarsh@socy.umd.edu