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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Jan 1.
Published in final edited form as: Educ Econ. 2015 May 1;24(4):393–410. doi: 10.1080/09645292.2015.1032891

Table 1. Sample characteristics, 2003 Survey of Retired Military.

All males over 40 Officers Enlisted men No VA disability Some VA disability
Average age 56.5 59.1 55.2 55.9 57.0
Average years on active duty 22.8 24.0 22.1 22.3 23.1
Average age at retirement 43.1 45.6 41.7 42.4 43.5
Average age at enlistment 20.3 21.7 19.6 20.1 20.4
Average years of education:
 At entering military 12.8 14.6 11.9 12.9 12.8
 At retirement 15.2 18.0 13.7 15.2 15.2
 At survey 15.8 18.4 14.5 15.8 15.9
 Percent acquiring education during service 77.4 80.8 75.5 74.9 79.0
 Percent acquiring education after retirement 30.2 15.0 38.1 25.9 33.0
Percent officer at retirement 34.4 100.0 0.0 34.8 34.1
Average labor earnings, earners $53,201 $76,021 $41,440 $56,964 $50,296
Percent earners 73.8 72.5 74.4 79.7 69.7
Average household income $91,794 $127,448 $73,115 $96,495 $88,640
Percent who own home 88.1 93.3 85.3 87.5 88.4
Average VA disability percent rating 28.2 26.7 29.0 0.0 47.1
Percent with any VA disability rating 59.8 59.3 60.1 0.0 100.0
Health (Percent reporting):
 Fair or poor self-reported health 27.6 18.9 32.2 11.6 38.3
 Ever had work limitations 45.4 38.7 48.9 18.1 63.7
 Ever left a job for health reasons 11.0 6.4 13.5 3.5 16.1
 Any difficulty seeing 45.9 38.6 49.7 36.0 52.5
 Any difficulty hearing 57.4 56.4 57.9 46.7 64.5
 Any difficulty walking 32.1 26.1 35.2 12.8 45.0
 Any difficulty lifting 10 lbs 27.2 21.3 30.3 9.6 39.0
 Any of these 4 difficulties 75.5 71.2 77.8 62.7 84.1
 Any nights spent in a hospital last year 21.3 17.9 23.1 13.2 26.7
Percent African American 12.9 9.1 15.0 9.0 15.6
Percent Hispanic 3.2 1.8 3.9 2.6 3.6
Percent married 85.7 89.8 83.5 85.2 86.0
Percent never married 1.5 0.9 1.8 1.8 1.3
Sample size 16,155 5,554 10,601 6,487 9,668

Notes: The subsample universe is males over the age of 40 with 20 or more years of active-duty service who answered the questions on demographic characteristics, income, and self-reported health status. It excludes 264 individuals who reported ever losing education. Officers are defined as pay grades W1-W5 and O1-O6 and above. See notes to Figure 1 for a discussion of the age data.