A statistical profile of successful hospital corpsmen

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to determine personal and background characteristics that are correlated with succesftil performance of Navy Hospital Corpsmen. Success is operationally defined to include three components: (a) completion of the enlistment; (b)promotion to pefly officer; and (c) reenlistment for a second term. This thesis develops multivariate logit models to evaluate the probability of success in each of these categories and to assess the effect of specific demographic variables of the probabilities. High school graduation with a diploma is the most significant characteristic of successful Hospital Corpsmen. Those Hospital Corpsmen scoring in the upper 35 percentile on the AFQT are also more likely to be successful than those scoring below the 65th percentile. Also recruits over 20 years of age at enlistment have higher probabilities of success than younger recruits. The effects of these variables on success for Hospital Corpsmen are compared to two comparison group: (a) Machinist Mates; and (b)sailors from all the other enlisted ratings. Again, high school diploma graduation was the most important variable in predicting enlistment completion and aptitude was important in predicting promotion and reenlistment.