Kerry misspoke and told a group of students that if they don't work hard and go to college, they'll be stuck in Iraq. While a misdelivery, figures on military education levels seem to indicate the same.
The numbers from the Heritage Foundation's "Who Bears the Burden?" article attempt creatively to suggest that representation of social groups (race, income bracket, education level, etc.) are proportional and even within the military when compared to the general public.
http://www.heritage.org/...
Their section on education level seems to be trying to show that soldiers are by and large not high school dropouts. That may as well be, but Kerry was referring to getting a college education. As it turns out, while very few military personnel (new recruits in 1999) did not graduate high school or get a GED (the navy has the most HS dropouts), about the same number of people have ever set foot in a college, much less get a degree.
http://www.heritage.org/...
On average, 90% of recruits across the branches have a high school diploma (or GED, which is not distinguished in the graph), less than 10% ever set foot in a college, with less than about 4% getting a bachelor's. (The graph, annoyingly, has no horizontal gradations at all, but you're welcome to make your own estimates of where those bars come up to on the scale.)
Keep in mind, these numbers are coming straight from a conservative think tank.
The Army does not allow new recruits who do not have high school equivalency (I guess the Navy does). While the number of recruits with a GED are capped at 10% a year, in 2005 the army recently introduced a program to offer free GED courses to new recruits, after which they ship off to boot camp.
http://www.armytimes.com/...