Dykman also considered a spread on the military. There were a number of angles he could explore:

1. Pay . On October 3, soon after Dykman had embarked on his project, Congress had passed a 2.2 percent pay raise for members of the armed services. ^[24] He knew that even with the raise, a soldier’s starting pay was roughly the same as that of a full-time barista at Starbucks. “The Starbucks barista is not risking his/her life for the low pay,” Dykman emphasizes, “but a soldier very certainly is. That takes uncommon dedication. I don’t think most Americans have the slightest clue how very little soldiers are paid.” ^[25]

2. Demographics . He also knew that the military published its own census, called “ Population Representation in the Armed Services ,” which reported the composition of the armed services based on ethnicity, income, geography, and a number of other factors. He was interested in the geographic distribution of soldiers and Marines, as well as their economic background. Since women comprised an ever-larger proportion of the armed services, he considered examining their role and their numbers in different segments of the military.

3. Chain of Command . The military, furthermore, had drawn its members from a shrinking proportion of society since the end of the Vietnam War-era draft. Dykman wondered if he could produce a variation on a graphic he’d done for Time in June 2006, which had produced considerable response from readers pleased to have learned something. ^[26] His June chart had detailed the hierarchy of the armed forces, including the size of subunits such as platoons, companies, and battalions. “It’s… stuff everybody knew in my father’s generation,” says Dykman. But the average American no longer knew much about the structure of the military. Perhaps he could explore this subject in greater depth for the “300 Million” story.