Attached Army Research Institute Report and findings from the Fall 2000 Sample Survey of Military Personnel (F'00SSMP) provide officer and enlisted data on:  access and use of the Internet and personal computers as well as the capabilities of home and work computers

Findings include:

Access to Internet.  Almost all officers (98.7%) and five-sixths (84.6%) of enlisted personnel have access to the Internet.  (A PC is not needed to access the Internet.)   Since the spring of 1999, the percentage of soldiers with Internet access increased from 87.6% for officers and from 60.6% for enlisted personnel.

Of those officers who have access to the Internet, 85.0% have access at home and 82.6% at work.  Of enlisted personnel who have access to the Internet, 67.3% have access at home and 52.7% have access at work.

Access to a PC. Almost all officers (98.4%) and over three-fourths (76.7%) of enlisted personnel have access to a PC.

Of those officers who have access to a PC, 93.3% have access at home and 81.1% have access at work.  Of enlisted personnel with access to a PC, 79.2% have access at home and 49.8% have access at work.

Of those who have access to a PC in their household/personal quarters: 94.4% of officers and 83.0% of enlisted personnel use the PC themselves; 89.9% of these officers' spouses and 76.9% of enlisted personnel's spouses also use the PC; and 72.5% of these officers' child(ren) and 55.9% of enlisted personnel's child(ren) also use the PC.

Capability. PCs at home for both officers and enlisted personnel tended to be more advanced than PCs at work in terms of processor speed, hard drive capacity, RAM, CD-ROM drive speed, sound card with speakers, text/image scanner, and modem.