Interim Report on Deployee Attitudes and Perceptions During the 28th Sinai Deployment

This report documents the during-deployment status of soldiers serving in the 28th deployment to the Sinai, a peacekeeping operation that comprised troops from the Reserve Component (RC) as well as the Active Component (AC). During deployment, 412 soldiers completed survey developed by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences that contained demographic and attitudinal variables similar to ones in surveys administered before the deployment. Means for all soldiers and for all subgroups dropped on most variables from before the deployment to during the deployment, indicating less positive attitudes at the latter point in time. We found substantial declines during this period on the variables of willingness to volunteer for future similar missions, benefit to military career, improvement in physical health, and willingness to stay in the Army. The steepest decline occurred in how soldiers felt about being in the Sinai. We also found that the actual taking of courses for credit fell far below the level soldiers had expected before they deployed.