This report describes the professional experiences and other characteristics general and flag officers in the military services tend to share due to each service's approach to personnel management, and potential implications of those approaches.

With the rise of "big data," there is an increasing demand to learn the skills needed to undertake sound quantitative analysis without requiring students to spend too much time on high-level math and proofs. This book provides an efficient alternative approach, with more time devoted to the practical aspects of regression analysis and how to recognize the most common pitfalls. By doing so, the book will better prepare readers for conducting, interpreting, and assessing regression analyses, while simultaneously making the material simpler and more enjoyable to learn. Logical and practical in approach, Regression Analysis teaches: (1) the tools for conducting regressions; (2) the concepts needed to design optimal regression models (based on avoiding the pitfalls); and (3) the proper interpretations of regressions. Furthermore, this book emphasizes honesty in research, with a prevalent lesson being that statistical significance is not the goal of research. This book is an ideal introduction to regression analysis for anyone learning quantitative methods in the social sciences, business, medicine, and data analytics. It will also appeal to researchers and academics looking to better understand what regressions do, what their limitations are, and what they can tell us. This will be the most engaging book on regression analysis (or Econometrics) you will ever read! A collection of author-created supplementary videos are available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCenm3BWqQyXA2JRKB_QXGyw

This thesis analyzes the effects of commissioning sources on the retention and promotion of U.S. Army officers. The data in this thesis were taken from the Active Duty Military Master File, with separate data sets for cohorts commissioned from 1981 through 2001. We describe three logistic regression models: Retention to the Grade of O-4, Promotion to O-4, and Promotion to 0-5. We conclude that Academy graduates have the lowest retention rates, whereas OCS graduates have the highest retention rates. Among male officers, retention rates are higher for ROTC graduates than for those with Direct Appointments; among female officers retention rates are higher for Direct Appointments than ROTC graduates. The Promotion to 0-4 Model indicates that the effect of commissioning source is different within gender, race and marital status groups. The results of the promotion to 0-5 model contrasts with those of the 0-4 models. Academy graduates are more likely to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel than those from other sources, followed by ROTC graduates and then Direct Appointments. The effects of the Army's reduction in force ("drawdown") between 1989 and 1996 are not accounted for in this thesis as they cannot be modeled with the data at hand.

"In the U.S. Army as elsewhere, transmission of digitized packets on Internet-protocol and space-based networks is rapidly supplanting the use of old technology (e.g., dedicated analog channels) when it comes to information sharing and media broadcasting. As the Army moves forward with these changes, it will be important to identify the implications and potential boundaries of cyberspace operations. An examination of network operations, information operations, and the more focused areas of electronic warfare, signals intelligence, electromagnetic spectrum operations, public affairs, and psychological operations in the U.S. military found significant overlap that could inform the development of future Army doctrine in these areas. In clarifying the prevailing boundaries between these areas of interest, it is possible to predict the progression of these boundaries in the near future. The investigation also entailed developing new definitions that better capture this overlap for such concepts as information warfare. This is important because the Army is now studying ways to apply its cyber power and is reconsidering doctrinally defined areas that are integral to operations in cyberspace. It will also be critical for the Army to approach information operations with a plan to organize and, if possible, consolidate its operations in two realms: the psychological, which is focused on message content and people, and the technological, which is focused on content delivery and machines."--Page 4 of cover.