No link, as this was posted on my employer's intranet site which is not accessable to non-employees, and the cited source CQ magazine is subscriber only.
Congressional Quarterly magazine looked at the demographics of the current 109th Congress and came up with the following: The average age of senators is the highest ever, and the average House member is older than at any time in at least a century. But it is the accelerating decline in military service among members that may be the most eye-catching statistic, given the prominent issues of war and security that this Congress faces. In 1969, as Richard M. Nixon took office at the height of the Vietnam War, three of four members of Congress had been in the military. In 1991, when Congress authorized President George H. W. Bush to wage war to end Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, just more than half the members - 52 percent - were veterans. But the 109th Congress, which will legislate on the nation's current military campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terrorism, includes just 140 veterans - 109 in the House and 31 in the Senate - barely one-quarter of the membership. That is a nine percent decline just since the 108th Congress and a 49 percent drop since the Gulf War 14 years ago. The dwindling number of veterans in Congress is largely the result of the institution of an all-volunteer army in 1973 and the aging of the World War II generation. | Just wait a few years, when the men and women currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan start running for office. They will be fantastic leaders! |
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