As the military faces one of the toughest recruiting environments in decades, most Americans would encourage a friend or relative to serve in the military as an officer, but they would discourage that young person from enlisting, a recent Rand Corp. report found.

“It is one thing to hold military members in high esteem in the abstract, but it is something altogether different to recommend military service as a career path,” the report found. “A majority of Americans … would discourage a young person close to them from enlisting in the military, but a majority of Americans … would encourage a young person to join the military via Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) or a service academy.”

The report analyzed data from two 2022 American Life Panel surveys, which include over 6,000 respondents and are nationally representative, to better understand Americans’ perceptions about the U.S. military and veterans.

Just over one-third of respondents who discouraged enlisting would still encourage joining via ROTC or a service academy, according to the report. The report called this career path distinction “critically important,” but survey data “did not … further illuminate why the officer path was preferred.”

The distinction between enlisting or commissioning “is not always made in other surveys,” and it “might be obscured depending on how the question is asked,” the report found.

Other reports cited in the Rand survey ask whether respondents would advise someone close to them “to join the military” or “would recommend joining a military service” but do not distinguish between the enlisted or officer paths.

Future research could help to gauge Americans’ understanding of military career paths.

“The views held by the American people about veterans and the military have the potential to shape the policy arena for years to come,” the report found. “More research is needed to understand these distinctions between career pathways, as well as the distinctions among different service branches and the implications for how to sustain recruitment.”

Read the report here.