The all-volunteer U.S. army – like the United States itself – is

The all-volunteer U.S. army – like the United States itself – is an ethnic mix. But Asian Americans have typically volunteered less than other ethnic groups. Recently, though, they have been enlisting at a remarkable rate.

Asian Americans make up just 10 percent of New York City’s population, but they comprise 14 percent of army recruits. The numbers are even more striking in California cities. In the San Francisco Bay area, 42 percent of recruits so far this year have been Asian American – way over their local population.

At the Bay Area’s Richmond Hilltop Mall recruiting station, army officers teach incoming soldiers to march. The 15 recruits, still in high school, will start basic training after they graduate. Seven of them are Asian: Chinese, Vietnamese, Pacific-Islander and Filipino.

Asian-American parents’ traditional emphasis on education has run into the stumbling U.S. economy and skyrocketing college costs. So the military’s education benefits have become particularly appealing. That’s one reason Asian Americans are increasingly joining the army.

via Filipino Express