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Description
Latina/o accessions, or the successful acquisition of new Latina/o military recruits, grew by 25 percent from 2001 to 2005. Additionally, during those years Latinas/os had the highest propensity, or desire to serve, of any racial group. This trend is surprising as this increase in Latina/o military participation occurred during the beginning of the Iraq War. This recent growth in Latina/o military participation may be understood within the contexts of race and citizenship. Citizenship and racial hierarchies have historically been entwined in the United States, a fact that can specifically be witnessed within the military as service was initially linked to citizenship. Yet despite histories of exclusion from society in general and the military specifically, minority groups have continuously utilized service in times of war in an attempt to garner first-class citizenship. This strategy may be thought of as minority military utilization and might have potentially been behind the increase in Latina/o military participation that occurred during the Iraq War. To discover whether or not minority military utilization had anything to do with the recent growth in Latina/o military participation, Latina/o veterans of the Iraq War were interviewed for their narratives and perspectives. The interviews revealed that it is quite possible that a permutation of minority military utilization was responsible for the growth in Latina/o military involvement during the Iraq War, one that encompasses cultural and structural assimilation. Additionally, two of the participants used service to achieve literal U.S. citizenship, a fact that harkens back to the original minority military utilization.
