CDR Sal, continued gratitude towards those who like you who have been shining sunlight on this anti-American indoctrination for, well, a long time. And doing so at personal reputation risk as pointing this garbage out evoked a vigorous response against you. Now for the hard part: When you roll over a rock, you better be prepared to deal with what you find beneath it. The immediate obvious cottonmouth lunging at you is easy to see. The offspring who have moved into the system and who have been spreading the "gospel of DEI and CRT"for decades are still influencing the system from top to bottom. Creating a new "incentive structure" that no longer rewards supporting that "gospel" is a difficult and essential step in restoring lethal competence to the USN and DoD in general. THAT task is going to be very difficult and will take years. To think otherwise is...foolish. Fingers crossed that SECDEF truly understands the rock he has rolled over.
#6. "Does the candidate bring diversity to the USNA?" That qualifier says it all. Is the diversity desired the class of ship in which they served, i.e. Subs, CRUDES, CVN, other? or their skin color. Given current USNA leadership I'm afraid it's likely the latter.
Sal, I’m going to side with you on this one. About 2 years ago I submitted an application for an Ocean Engineering instructor position. In addition to my CV, I had to submit three one-page essays. One on my technical expertise and experience, one on leadership, and one on my approach to diversity. In my case, I had documented evidence of all three, having graduated with merit from USNA as an Ocean Engineer, served 30 years as a nuclear engineer, won several leadership awards, and written/spoken extensively on diversity topics. I did not get an interview. I do agree with taking a broader look at qualified candidates, but I was surprised that the diversity attribute seemed equally weighted. (Spoiler alert: I did not get an interview).
Care to include any of those extensive speeches/writings on diversity you produced back in the day? I'd like to see what "good" diversity looks like...
Here are a few. Many of the articles about me and some of the presentations I gave have already been “erased” from the DOD websites, which I would submit is a form of “cancellation” but that’s a topic for another day. My DEI focus was on policies that disadvantaged one group or another, never tried to be divisive or derogatory of any particular group. I also based my arguments on extensive research and personal interviews.
No matter what. He demonstrated he cared about this country.
And, he was a staunch Constitutionalist.
Also...no matter what you may say... he served his nation, and after, he did much to support the morale of servicemen... Unlike the Marxist (who hated the Navy), and the pedophile above.
In 1955 LTJG Harvey Milk resigned from the Navy with an OTH administrative discharge rather than be court-martialed because of his homosexuality. By the time I was in the Navy on active duty in the early 80's frequently CO's were reluctant to have men discharged for being homosexual because many were 4.0 sailors (but homosexual activity on duty, still Article 134). However, one of my daughters was in the Navy at the Defense Language Institute around 2003 finishing the Mandarin course. She told me about individuals right at the end of the 18 month course claiming to command to be gay and obtaining a discharge so that they could use their Mandarin skills to obtain a good civilian job. Called it coming down with a case of the gays.
Dad was Navigator aboard the USS Curtiss in the early 50's, homeported in Pearl.
One day while standing OOD, Raymond Burr, then a rising actor out there on USO tour, came aboard to see another officer. Dad said that as soon as he shook his hand, he knew Burr was 'queer' (the word in use at the time). When he me told that story, Burr was out. So, I had to ask, who was Raymond wanting to see. Dad demurred, and never did say.
Harvey Milk was no lone ranger. I'm sure you saw the same in your era as I did.
So a guy's gay. As long as he comported himself appropriately, it didn't matter.
When Clinton codified Don't Ask Don't Tell is when things started to become....sticky.
Don't have time now, but recently got a book about the Essex which related how an orgy got broken up aboard...
In 1944.
I'm sure none of that happens today. Right!?
Point is, it's not that Milk was gay, but he had a preference for having relations with underage boys. Even during his political years.
My understanding is that the pedophile allegations were made by people that had political reason to bring doen Milk and the allegations were never really substantiated other than I had a friend who was told by some un-named person who was there and knew all about it. Different version of the same problem with men and women on ships. On a destroyer there is very little space to carry on casual sex or a relationship. However, on a carrior with several thousand personnel and a host of cubby holes, it is much more difficult to enforce prohibition of sexual activity-heterosexual or homosexual.
Now, take that experience and externalize it to a young man of European extraction born in 2006 and raised, and raised in Hawaii where he was an ethnic minority…who in spite of having much higher than average objective qualifications than the average student admitted to USNA, and they are denied an opportunity because he hurt their DEI metrics.
Or take my 2 brothers-in-law with degrees in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, both "fresh off the boat" immigrants from the Philippines who I had sponsored. They both wanted to enlist in the Navy but were told the Navy was full up on their Filipino quotas and were told to go away. I told them to go to another recruiting office in San Diego and present themselves as "Hispanic". 400 years of Spanish rule in P.I., there had to be some Spanish blood in them. Both enlisted with no problem. One served 4 years and got out a BT3. The other served 31 years and retired a CWO4. Quotas... Harrumph! Hated to play the system, but what do you do?
Or my son-in-law, a Navy Recruiter who had to turn away 6 White males with STEM degrees who wanted in to the Navy Nuke Officer pipeline. He had to recruit 2 qualifying Hispanic females first, he was told.
Our force numbers are hurting for motivated and qualified operators/engineers today because of said policies . . . time for a change. Fill those ranks and may the MOST QUALIFIED WIN.
It looks like the time may have arrived where the US taxpayer needs to ask a basic question about the Service Academies: are they a waste of money? A cheaper path (for the taxpayer) is clearly ROTC and OCS. There is no measurable difference in the product (Ensign/Second Lieutenant) -- this has already been studied. Well, at least the latter group doesn't have to climb some greased-up monument as a rite of passage...
My proposal: cease new admissions to the USNA this year. When the last Midshipman is commissioned, close it down and repurpose the building and grounds to something more useful to today's military. Perhaps a VA hospital.
Keep the academies but shorten the course. Something like Sandhurst or the Britannia Royal Naval College, a bit short of a year for warfare officers. OCS is too short to socialize to the military, ROTC too slack.
The USA does not have GCSE or A Levels, you could consider whether to still have to require a degree for entry. Maybe some Achievement tests could waive that.
This seems a good compromise. Have the candidate go through college like normal, with ROTC, and then spend a year at a military academy going through an intensive OCS.
Of course, it's not like the university system is any better, and is in fact far, far worse.
Either that, or redesign the curriculum at the military academies to eliminate all of this nonsense, and have them *truly* focus on producing professional warfighting officers. Have William Lind help write the curriculum.
William Lind I don't know, but I do know (indirectly) an Army O-5(R) named Tom Kratman. If you get Kratman on board and give him say in the hiring or the curriculum (or both, please!), even the naval warfare courses will feel a sea-change.
If Kratman and Lind were to agree on a curriculum, I'd definitely sign off on it, not that my signature is worth anything in this respect. (Hey, I can at least be honest about my armchair quarterbacking...)
Thomas. 10 weeks of bootcamp socializes Enlisted Men very well. What Officer needs 208 weeks? Bootcamp was 8 weeks when I joined in 1965. OCS was 4 days before I socialized myself back to the Fleet. I dodged CWO/LDO bootcamp by "networking", the OCS debacle fresh in my mind.
I agree. Either make it the most hard core school solely about military/naval tactics or engineering or be rid of it. When I was on my 1rst class NROTC summer training on board AD-44, 1991, I found two of the Academy guys having a vigorous debate about who made the better career Naval officer, the striper or the squad leader. At this point in our cruise, I had been all over the ship and any others ships we cross decked on talking to any sailor that I could about their job. These guys spent all their time on the bridge, CIC, or the wardroom. With that said, listening to these two for 10 minutes (they had apparently been arguing their points far longer before I entered) was hilarious. I asked them about ROTC and OCS to which they dismissed that track as the Navy had invested so much more money in them. I pointed out to them that Bancroft Hall is not the Navy and that they should have been spending their time among the crew and not hiding out in the blue tile areas. I also added, in NROTC we do not have discipline tools for demerits and such and we certainly could not confine someone to campus, room inspections, or walking lines like they could. We actually had to have more creative ways to lead and motivate. I closed stating that commissioning source does not make one better that the other and that this kind of DIVERSITY could be better in the long run.
I had similar experiences with newly minted USNA Ensigns across all types of surface platforms -- CRUDES and Amphib.. They seemed to take longer to break into the real navy -- and I always wondered what navy they had been taught at the USNA. I found the OCS and ROTC Ensigns to be much more flexible and adaptive -- a generalization, of course. Trimming the USNA curriculum with an improved focus on the real navy might be a good start. Maybe deep six the beloved football scam as well.
If the main appeal of the USNA is a "free degree", then maybe it might be appropriate to address that as well. I'd include ROTC scholarships in that mix as well. The most altruistic group may, in the end, be OCS grads...
I realize that I'm an outlier, and possibly even outing myself as downright Unamerican (TM) with this sentiment, but I think college football is an absurd entity. If the American People want a JNFL, then just *start* one. But don't waste effort attempting to meld academics with the gridiron. It's a disservice to both activities.
NCAA football is an out of control money 'Enterprise', and the academies should be divorced from it.
Full disclosure: My biological father was a high school football player of some renown in Lima Ohio who scored the first touch -down at the then new Lima Central football field (my bio mother went to school with RAdm. Tom Lynch's sister in law-small town then). He was black....and got my bio mother pregnant at the same time he had a black girl from church also pregnant. As Lima is a small town ...which produced a slate of 20th century Admirals btw, Thomas Lynch, Whitey Fieghtner, Thomas Sprague... That was a bit of scandal which resulted in my mother sent off to the Catholic hospital in Cincinnati and me adopted. They say my father was destined for Ohio State, but instead had to marry the black girl (who finished school and was the first black RN at the local hospital BTW), and go to work at the Ford engine plant (he was killed in an accident there, sad to say).
Anyway, one thing I did NOT inherit was the football gene. When I reconnected with my (other) mother a few years ago, she asked what I thought about football (she was a life long avid Bengals fan). After hearing my take, she wasn't sure I was hers!!!
On deployments to the Med, when we would get the middies on their summer cruise, I (as OI Div LPO) would trade off the ones who acted like jerks with my BT1 buddy...
These same chuckle heads convinced all the other mids except 1 to put in for a week of leave, the last of a four week cruise, when we docked in Naples for an extended visit. They justified it by arguing their good grades got them the ship going to the Med. I let them know I was a B-/C+ GPA student and I was on the same cruise. Their leave was denied, and the XO had a great time setting them straight. I tried to warn them.
As for the broader current push of restoring a warrior ethos across all the Services, I highly recommend checking out the surprising take that RAdm James D. Ramage had on the Academy, during his years there and later.
"""Q: Do you recall any instruction or even discussion of combat leadership at Annapolis? Was that subject ever addressed?
Admiral Ramage: None. I don't recall at any time where anybody got up and told us, "You know, the main thing you are here for is that some day we'll probably have a war you're expected to be in it." That was not part of the program.
Q: I suppose that leads in large part to what you were saying about [Stansfield] Turner and others, the mind set, the different mentalities between warriors and managers. How do you think the Naval Academy and the Navy generally can produce more warriors?
Admiral Ramage: Well, this has been a subject of discussion between Jim Stockdale and me and various other people that I have a lot of respect for. Jim at the present time [1996] is on a board which is supposed to take a look at the curriculum at the Naval Academy and how that applies to the future. I get quite unhappy with the various things come out in our magazine called Shipmate, pointing out the scholastic ability of the classes as they come in. As a matter of fact, the last plebe class is supposed to have the highest SAT scores of any freshman class in the country. They're elated with that, but I'm not sure that's good.
I would ask two questions. The first is, will they fight [see his remarks that a big percentage of USNA grads found a way to stay in CONUS during WWII and Korea pp 178-179]. And secondly, will they stay in the Navy? That is will they make it a career?
[....]
I just don't know what can be done, but I don't think we've been successful in the past."""
Now is a great time for a root and branch overhaul of the USNA.
Something must be done. My initial response is that the only degrees possible should be military history or some sort of engineering--but not social engineering.
The Holocaust and slavery histories have been pulled from the shelves of the academies, as have the books on anti-discrimination laws and the civil rights struggle.
The books are not just being pulled from the academies - they're being pulled from MWR base libraries too. You're off-duty. a dependent, a retiree and want to read anything about black people, women, or the gays? Fuck your First Amendment right to read! Can you say zampolit again?
No more recruiting at the annual conventions of the National Society of Black Engineers, either. Surely, they only want to recruit on "merit."
We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday, trolling the president of South Africa at the behest of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. I have sympathy with the white people of South Africa same as anyone, but surely these conversations can be held in private, diplomatically.
Look to see the PLA Navy setting up in Durban soon. But excellent trolling Mr. President!
It's time to retire this weekly feature. You're just complaining about the past and looking to purge people.
Diversity's been homogenized, Equity has been unbalanced, and Inclusion has been excluded.
> We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday, trolling the president of South Africa at the behest of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. I have sympathy with the white people of South Africa same as anyone, but surely these conversations can be held in private, diplomatically.
You mean like South Africa had Israel hauled into the ICC "in private, diplomatically"? SA is a shithole that's conducting a communist pogrom against its population of "Kulaks" in the form of white people. They absolutely deserve to be called out about it. Yes, *publicly*.
I don't give a shit about South Africa taking Israel to court. I'm an American. Does the USA have to fight every country that doesn't like the killing Israel is doing? That will be a long list of friendly countries, including Spain, France, Ireland, Norway, and Malaysia.
I'm a US citizen, I want to preserve US security.
As I said, don't be surprised when S. Africa aligns even more with China after this.
In your case it’s true. Weren’t you thrilled about the two young Israeli embassy officials who were gunned down in DC? Can’t wait till you are your ilk expire.
> I don't give a shit about South Africa taking Israel to court.
Nor do you apparently care about SA committing a communist pogrom against white people.
I mean, that's fine, but it does mean I don't have to take your opinion very seriously.
> I'm an American. Does the USA have to fight every country that doesn't like the killing Israel is doing?
Nope!
But it does mean that you'd be a hypocrite if you opposed SA hauling the US to the ICC for fighting back if the Native Americans boiled off the Rez and raped your daughters (or sons) to death.
To reverse your position, am I supposed to care if SA sells itself to China? Let the Kaffir decide from experience whether they preferred living under Western Civilization or Eastern Civ.
You're supposed to care because SA have tremendous resources, are a regional power, and control a maritime choke point. If there was a Pacific War, the Indian Ocean would also be a battle, as was discussed on this substack previously.
The choice of "the kaffir" is not obvious. Chinese infrastructure development vs US infrastructure decay. Rising power vs apparently declining power. That's also a frequent subject of this substack.
The US has "partners" who are doing deplorable things. The forementioned Israel, the UAE (in Sudan for example), Saudi Arabia, Egypt. Attacks on white farmers in South Africa are "communist pogroms" but attacks on Palestinian olive farmers and shepherds on the West Bank are not pogroms and are ok, amirite?
Right now, the Trump administration are softpedaling abuses by other countries like Russia and China.
Would Trump have the balls to call out Xi in the Oval Office and play a video about the Uighurs? Of course not. "Human Rights" was always a selective and hypocritical pose of the USA, but now it's totally abandoned except in this one case of South Africa.
Looks to me like Major Donor Elon Musk wanted him to put on this circus and attempt to publicly shame a foreign president. What was the point of that? How would the USA or indeed the whites of South Africa gain from that shitshow instead of private diplomacy and targeted policy?
"A decent respect for the opinions of mankind." It's in the Declaration of Independence.
Since taking office, this moron has managed to alienate Canada and Denmark, now South Africa. He's working on ruining any good will for the USA in the world.
"Holocaust and slavery histories have been pulled from the shelves of the academies, as have the books on anti-discrimination laws and the civil rights struggle."
Malicious compliance by your ilk Thomas.
"You're off-duty. a dependent, a retiree and want to read anything..."
There is this thing called Amazon. Ever hear of it?
"No more recruiting at the annual conventions of the National Society of Black Engineers"
Thanks for showing us all your Orwellian mindset.
"We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday,"
TDS needs to be included in the DSM-5.
"Look to see the PLA Navy setting up in Durban soon."
All the more reason to keep a hard light on the USNA. At present, its a waste of time and resources when it comes to building a robust NAVY.
"Diversity's been homogenized"
Into a corrupt talking point.
"Equity has been unbalanced"
Equity is an unbalanced form of discrimination. FIFY.
"Inclusion has been excluded"
In reality, folded Into your one way only 'Progressiveism'
Any views other than yours are excluded?
Good! This odious tower of babel will implode all the more quickly.
Interestingly enough six years ago a USN accessions canvasser implied that he could bring my son in as an O-2. Not because he had a Math degree, but because he is black. My son turned it down.
Equity? Equity is the code word used to admit the tacit failure by Progressives and their sycophant teacher's unions that they have failed to educate a significant portion of the population to seamlessly enjoy inclusion into society as equals.
Spare us your sanctimonious false hypocrisy about access to literature.
Nonetheless the idea was floated. Fortunately, I am able to afford books and as a rule want to keep what I read. Additionally I keep a portion of my library inventory online and available for authors to borrow.
That "oh no its gone from the library" argument really is a 20th century one not valid today. Anyone can go online, including in the USNA library, look up books on DEI, racism, etc, and order them at pennies on the dollar with even same-day delivery if needed. Used books are really cheap. Many books are just archived on line and can be read online, or on a Kindle-like device for...free. There is also no prohibition of having those books on the USNA campus, or in a Mid's room at Bancroft. So not having books in a physical library really does not matter. Most public libraries seem more public computer sites and community center rather than scholarly research location.
Sounds like someone who doesn't use libraries much. The value and pleasure of browsing the stacks and picking up books of interest and sitting down in a nice place to read them. You can even take them home!
How does a hiring comittee determine if unconcious bias occurs? If you don't know it's happening, how can you tell it happened? How do you then defend against the determination of unconious bias? How then does a determination of unconcious bias not then draw a counter determination of unconcious bias against the origional unconciously biased decision? Who's unconcious bias is less or more biased? Is concious bias better than unconcious? How many times can I write concious in a single comment? Deep thoughts...
Certes, Nick, if you are seriously conscientious, your conscience will tell you subconsciously how many times you can (but maybe shouldn't) consciously scribble "conscious" in a screed done in stream-of-consciousness. Always never go all alliterative, alright? It reeks of assonance. ☺
Crap like this is why I stopped having anything to do with ANUS, uh, I mean USNA. And make no mistake, USNA started down this path in the 90's. I was a B&G Officer then, quit when I got the memo saying the minimum qualifying SAT for minorities was now 500-500/1000; down from the standard 600-600/1200. I called the Admissions Office to confirm, and was told yes indeed, that's the new policy. I replied, either you have a standard or you don't, and resigned. (Sadly, I was surprised at the number of alumni who were onboard with this racist policy.)
If I was in Congress, I'd be looking to save the US taxpayer some money by shutting down this racist, sexist, leftist cesspool. Our future officers can get their leftist indoctrination at any Mk1 Mod0 US college or university for a lower cost.
So, after posting the faculty page of the USNA English Department a few months ago, it was scrubbed of the publications and areas of interest of the Instructors and Professors...
Anyway, you can still check out what they bring to your future Naval leaders in Google (for now anyway) in the way of grist for the stated goal of :
Read closely. Think critically. Write clearly.
Lemme know if you find one of them pursuing anything related to the, "Lore of the Sea" ...which you would think... would be a primary focus at a "Naval" Academy.
Gabriel Bloomfield, Assistant Professor, English, United States Naval Academy
Topic: Lyric Reading: Interpretive Poetics in the Age of Donne
He has published articles on John Donne’s homiletics in Studies in Philology, George Herbert’s typography in English Literary History, and Hamlet’s psalmody in Shakespeare Quarterly. New work, incongruously concerning queer reading in the cult film Clue, is forthcoming in Camera Obscura.
And the band plays on.
Not sure how many links will fit in a substack post, so will pause here. Suffice to say, it doesn't get any better.
Delve into the USNA English Department's focus for yourselves, and see how DEI is alive and well on the Severn.
Let's pull the camera back for a wider angle view of this, because the same flags who hired DEI commissars are now happily purging service libraries of offending literature like the Spanish Inquisition. We like to use the old Soviet Union as an example, and the HBO miniseries Chernobyl would be one I would use to make my point. It's not about ideology. It's never about ideology. It's about cultures that reward and value careerism above all else, and in such cultures truth-telling becomes impossible. We're winning in Vietnam during my tour--promote me. We're winning in Afghanistan during my tour--promote me. I have the metrics to prove it and make sure all the rocks are painted and everyone's wearing a reflective belt until that unfortunate day when the reactor blows up, and please God let me make 0-7 before then and let it happen on some other poor schmuck's watch. List anything you care to: Fat Leonard, rust, amphibs, DEI, texting classified on unclas networks...it all comes down to the same thing. Everyone knows the truth, and if you're dumb enough to speak it you'd better get out as an 0-2.
Why hasn’t Hegseth fired the five service academy superintendents.? They are all Biden DEI hires. Nothing will be accomplished while they continue to linger on.
Hmm, so I applied for a USNA History Department teaching position just last year. Two books, multiple articles, regular presenter at McMullen, etc. I too did not get an interview. I thought they were looking for a more junior person. The position seems to have not been filled but is still open on the USNA website.
In Nella Larsen’s day, the theme of passing had been an obsession of American popular literature, of American culture and politics, since the mid-19th century. In most of the fiction by white men about passing, a black girl of tragic birth is compelled by circumstances to pretend to be white. Her beauty always makes an aristocratic white youth fall in love with her.
Having a Dutch surname I've often wished I could trace ancestry through the Boers. But alas, not. Though perhaps I shall get to live vicariously through some recent immigrants.
And also pertinent:
My son's best friend put down "Black" on the demographics of the SAT*. He got more than one scholarship offer. Until guidance outed him. Apparently you can put down what you feel, unless you're a white male. (Though, to be fair this was 13 or 14 years ago and before the LGBTQRSTUV+ and DEI nonsense was at full speed. So there was effort to ensure demographics were real.)
*I suppose I should mention that he was about as white a ginger kid as you can get.
Full disclosure: I was offered (and declined) a nomination to the USCG Academy, class of 1976. My son is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, class of 2000.
The military academies (all of them) are an unneeded anachronism in America today. They duplicate, at great expense, education that is available from any number of other, some might say even better universities. The Military and Naval academies were created because there was a need for military engineers, and standardized naval education that was simply not available in the US at the time.
Today, we have those required classes offered. At less expensive universities. Want to learn civil engingeering? Naval architecture? We got you covered. Degrees in Literature, history, diversity? Go to the community college down the street.
Further, since graduates from all the academies are objectively unqualified to fulfill any military profession or specialty (since they still have to attend basic branch level courses after graduation, and are not qualified to conn a ship or fly an airplane or whatever, the only thing they learn in the military colleges is how to dress themselves (with various degrees of success, if my experiences are common).
The ROTC graduates are not any better off. While ROTC does not cost the US as much as the service academies do, they are still expensive.
The most economical officer accession route is clearly OTS/OCS/PLC, whatever. Three months or so, learn to dress and salute, then off to a course to actually teach them to be useful. OTS also offers the most flexible path in terms of filling demand: The service academies and ROTC take 4 years, not 4 months or less.
The Brits manage to train adequate junior officers at Sandhurst, Dartmouth and Cranwell in under a year. The French did the same at St. Cyr. Neither the Brits or French require a college degree to start, they require all candidates to pass comprehensive and objective tests.
Time to pull the plug on the academies...Especially with their demonstrated failures such as Spenser Rapone among others.
CDR Sal, that is something Pete and Stu must take care off, the Cultural Marxists that dominate the cadre, especially the PhD civilians at the Military Academies. And another big issue, that is ignored is the bulk of the officer corps comes from ROTC programs at our colleges, many that are breeding grounds for Cultural Marxism.
CDR Sal, continued gratitude towards those who like you who have been shining sunlight on this anti-American indoctrination for, well, a long time. And doing so at personal reputation risk as pointing this garbage out evoked a vigorous response against you. Now for the hard part: When you roll over a rock, you better be prepared to deal with what you find beneath it. The immediate obvious cottonmouth lunging at you is easy to see. The offspring who have moved into the system and who have been spreading the "gospel of DEI and CRT"for decades are still influencing the system from top to bottom. Creating a new "incentive structure" that no longer rewards supporting that "gospel" is a difficult and essential step in restoring lethal competence to the USN and DoD in general. THAT task is going to be very difficult and will take years. To think otherwise is...foolish. Fingers crossed that SECDEF truly understands the rock he has rolled over.
#6. "Does the candidate bring diversity to the USNA?" That qualifier says it all. Is the diversity desired the class of ship in which they served, i.e. Subs, CRUDES, CVN, other? or their skin color. Given current USNA leadership I'm afraid it's likely the latter.
Given current leadership, the emphasis might be on gender, with preference for those that challenge binary paradigms.
Sal, I’m going to side with you on this one. About 2 years ago I submitted an application for an Ocean Engineering instructor position. In addition to my CV, I had to submit three one-page essays. One on my technical expertise and experience, one on leadership, and one on my approach to diversity. In my case, I had documented evidence of all three, having graduated with merit from USNA as an Ocean Engineer, served 30 years as a nuclear engineer, won several leadership awards, and written/spoken extensively on diversity topics. I did not get an interview. I do agree with taking a broader look at qualified candidates, but I was surprised that the diversity attribute seemed equally weighted. (Spoiler alert: I did not get an interview).
Care to include any of those extensive speeches/writings on diversity you produced back in the day? I'd like to see what "good" diversity looks like...
Here are a few. Many of the articles about me and some of the presentations I gave have already been “erased” from the DOD websites, which I would submit is a form of “cancellation” but that’s a topic for another day. My DEI focus was on policies that disadvantaged one group or another, never tried to be divisive or derogatory of any particular group. I also based my arguments on extensive research and personal interviews.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2024/august/tragedy-lost-generation
https://blog.usni.org/posts/2021/07/22/revisiting-the-navys-beard-guidance-with-an-eye-toward-inclusion
Ihttps://cimsec.org/the-defense-departments-unfinished-dei-business/
https://cimsec.org/the-defense-departments-unfinished-dei-business/
I've reviewed your cited writings (and others). I believe they speak for themselves. Thank you for your service.
Captain Cordle...
Have looked into getting the name of the USNS Harvey Milk changed yet?
Or are you, in reality, content with a US Naval auxiliary honoring a known pedophile?
So, you've picked who you will let "pass" and who you won't.
That's all I need to hear from you.
And no, your engineering credentials don't mean squat in this discussion.
"If I knew who you really are, I’d respond."
No you wouldn't. You have your agenda, and are secure in your supposed intellectual superiority.
Folks here on the Porch have broken bread with me. Not sure the experience would've been as pleasant with you there.
I see what you do...and don't...care about.
How about restoring all the CSA names too? And the peace monument in Arlington
I am surprised that all evidence of the boomers with Confederate names hasn't been "disappeared".
If Kamala had been elected all confederate graves would have been destroyed.
I don't think we have a ship named after Matt Gaetz?
Gaetz is from an Air Force town... (Niceville Fl.)... And never served.
Since the USNS Ceser Chavez, and USNS Harvey Milk, I have long advocated naming one after this solid citizen...
Volunteered -underage- to serve in both the Army...
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FD7egRnVICQdQfh?format=jpg&name=small
And the Navy...Middle pic. Aboard the Enterprise. Gent is in the back row, far right, standing...
https://www.navysite.de/cruisebooks/cvn65-63/213.htm
No matter what. He demonstrated he cared about this country.
And, he was a staunch Constitutionalist.
Also...no matter what you may say... he served his nation, and after, he did much to support the morale of servicemen... Unlike the Marxist (who hated the Navy), and the pedophile above.
Recognize him?
https://newmobility.com/larry-flynt/
https://www.familyphile.com/celebrity-veterans/2018/9/2/larry-flynt-jr-us-army-1958us-navy-1960-1964
In 1955 LTJG Harvey Milk resigned from the Navy with an OTH administrative discharge rather than be court-martialed because of his homosexuality. By the time I was in the Navy on active duty in the early 80's frequently CO's were reluctant to have men discharged for being homosexual because many were 4.0 sailors (but homosexual activity on duty, still Article 134). However, one of my daughters was in the Navy at the Defense Language Institute around 2003 finishing the Mandarin course. She told me about individuals right at the end of the 18 month course claiming to command to be gay and obtaining a discharge so that they could use their Mandarin skills to obtain a good civilian job. Called it coming down with a case of the gays.
Dad was Navigator aboard the USS Curtiss in the early 50's, homeported in Pearl.
One day while standing OOD, Raymond Burr, then a rising actor out there on USO tour, came aboard to see another officer. Dad said that as soon as he shook his hand, he knew Burr was 'queer' (the word in use at the time). When he me told that story, Burr was out. So, I had to ask, who was Raymond wanting to see. Dad demurred, and never did say.
Harvey Milk was no lone ranger. I'm sure you saw the same in your era as I did.
So a guy's gay. As long as he comported himself appropriately, it didn't matter.
When Clinton codified Don't Ask Don't Tell is when things started to become....sticky.
Don't have time now, but recently got a book about the Essex which related how an orgy got broken up aboard...
In 1944.
I'm sure none of that happens today. Right!?
Point is, it's not that Milk was gay, but he had a preference for having relations with underage boys. Even during his political years.
Why does the Navy have a ship honoring a pedo?
My understanding is that the pedophile allegations were made by people that had political reason to bring doen Milk and the allegations were never really substantiated other than I had a friend who was told by some un-named person who was there and knew all about it. Different version of the same problem with men and women on ships. On a destroyer there is very little space to carry on casual sex or a relationship. However, on a carrior with several thousand personnel and a host of cubby holes, it is much more difficult to enforce prohibition of sexual activity-heterosexual or homosexual.
Now, take that experience and externalize it to a young man of European extraction born in 2006 and raised, and raised in Hawaii where he was an ethnic minority…who in spite of having much higher than average objective qualifications than the average student admitted to USNA, and they are denied an opportunity because he hurt their DEI metrics.
Or take my 2 brothers-in-law with degrees in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, both "fresh off the boat" immigrants from the Philippines who I had sponsored. They both wanted to enlist in the Navy but were told the Navy was full up on their Filipino quotas and were told to go away. I told them to go to another recruiting office in San Diego and present themselves as "Hispanic". 400 years of Spanish rule in P.I., there had to be some Spanish blood in them. Both enlisted with no problem. One served 4 years and got out a BT3. The other served 31 years and retired a CWO4. Quotas... Harrumph! Hated to play the system, but what do you do?
Or my son-in-law, a Navy Recruiter who had to turn away 6 White males with STEM degrees who wanted in to the Navy Nuke Officer pipeline. He had to recruit 2 qualifying Hispanic females first, he was told.
Our force numbers are hurting for motivated and qualified operators/engineers today because of said policies . . . time for a change. Fill those ranks and may the MOST QUALIFIED WIN.
It looks like the time may have arrived where the US taxpayer needs to ask a basic question about the Service Academies: are they a waste of money? A cheaper path (for the taxpayer) is clearly ROTC and OCS. There is no measurable difference in the product (Ensign/Second Lieutenant) -- this has already been studied. Well, at least the latter group doesn't have to climb some greased-up monument as a rite of passage...
My proposal: cease new admissions to the USNA this year. When the last Midshipman is commissioned, close it down and repurpose the building and grounds to something more useful to today's military. Perhaps a VA hospital.
Keep the academies but shorten the course. Something like Sandhurst or the Britannia Royal Naval College, a bit short of a year for warfare officers. OCS is too short to socialize to the military, ROTC too slack.
The USA does not have GCSE or A Levels, you could consider whether to still have to require a degree for entry. Maybe some Achievement tests could waive that.
That would work.
This seems a good compromise. Have the candidate go through college like normal, with ROTC, and then spend a year at a military academy going through an intensive OCS.
Of course, it's not like the university system is any better, and is in fact far, far worse.
Either that, or redesign the curriculum at the military academies to eliminate all of this nonsense, and have them *truly* focus on producing professional warfighting officers. Have William Lind help write the curriculum.
William Lind I don't know, but I do know (indirectly) an Army O-5(R) named Tom Kratman. If you get Kratman on board and give him say in the hiring or the curriculum (or both, please!), even the naval warfare courses will feel a sea-change.
He’s been known to haunt this place.
If Kratman and Lind were to agree on a curriculum, I'd definitely sign off on it, not that my signature is worth anything in this respect. (Hey, I can at least be honest about my armchair quarterbacking...)
Bingo! Like it.
I think the service academies are well past their sell by date.
Thomas. 10 weeks of bootcamp socializes Enlisted Men very well. What Officer needs 208 weeks? Bootcamp was 8 weeks when I joined in 1965. OCS was 4 days before I socialized myself back to the Fleet. I dodged CWO/LDO bootcamp by "networking", the OCS debacle fresh in my mind.
I think Sandhurst is 13 months.
I agree. Either make it the most hard core school solely about military/naval tactics or engineering or be rid of it. When I was on my 1rst class NROTC summer training on board AD-44, 1991, I found two of the Academy guys having a vigorous debate about who made the better career Naval officer, the striper or the squad leader. At this point in our cruise, I had been all over the ship and any others ships we cross decked on talking to any sailor that I could about their job. These guys spent all their time on the bridge, CIC, or the wardroom. With that said, listening to these two for 10 minutes (they had apparently been arguing their points far longer before I entered) was hilarious. I asked them about ROTC and OCS to which they dismissed that track as the Navy had invested so much more money in them. I pointed out to them that Bancroft Hall is not the Navy and that they should have been spending their time among the crew and not hiding out in the blue tile areas. I also added, in NROTC we do not have discipline tools for demerits and such and we certainly could not confine someone to campus, room inspections, or walking lines like they could. We actually had to have more creative ways to lead and motivate. I closed stating that commissioning source does not make one better that the other and that this kind of DIVERSITY could be better in the long run.
I had similar experiences with newly minted USNA Ensigns across all types of surface platforms -- CRUDES and Amphib.. They seemed to take longer to break into the real navy -- and I always wondered what navy they had been taught at the USNA. I found the OCS and ROTC Ensigns to be much more flexible and adaptive -- a generalization, of course. Trimming the USNA curriculum with an improved focus on the real navy might be a good start. Maybe deep six the beloved football scam as well.
If the main appeal of the USNA is a "free degree", then maybe it might be appropriate to address that as well. I'd include ROTC scholarships in that mix as well. The most altruistic group may, in the end, be OCS grads...
I realize that I'm an outlier, and possibly even outing myself as downright Unamerican (TM) with this sentiment, but I think college football is an absurd entity. If the American People want a JNFL, then just *start* one. But don't waste effort attempting to meld academics with the gridiron. It's a disservice to both activities.
Football: Men in tights playing a child's game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59JnM4JKNQ
NCAA football is an out of control money 'Enterprise', and the academies should be divorced from it.
Full disclosure: My biological father was a high school football player of some renown in Lima Ohio who scored the first touch -down at the then new Lima Central football field (my bio mother went to school with RAdm. Tom Lynch's sister in law-small town then). He was black....and got my bio mother pregnant at the same time he had a black girl from church also pregnant. As Lima is a small town ...which produced a slate of 20th century Admirals btw, Thomas Lynch, Whitey Fieghtner, Thomas Sprague... That was a bit of scandal which resulted in my mother sent off to the Catholic hospital in Cincinnati and me adopted. They say my father was destined for Ohio State, but instead had to marry the black girl (who finished school and was the first black RN at the local hospital BTW), and go to work at the Ford engine plant (he was killed in an accident there, sad to say).
Anyway, one thing I did NOT inherit was the football gene. When I reconnected with my (other) mother a few years ago, she asked what I thought about football (she was a life long avid Bengals fan). After hearing my take, she wasn't sure I was hers!!!
I have always been fond of--"Football is a game of gentlemen played by animals, whereas Rugby is a game of animals played by gentlemen".
On deployments to the Med, when we would get the middies on their summer cruise, I (as OI Div LPO) would trade off the ones who acted like jerks with my BT1 buddy...
"Give 'em the grease gun treatment!"
These same chuckle heads convinced all the other mids except 1 to put in for a week of leave, the last of a four week cruise, when we docked in Naples for an extended visit. They justified it by arguing their good grades got them the ship going to the Med. I let them know I was a B-/C+ GPA student and I was on the same cruise. Their leave was denied, and the XO had a great time setting them straight. I tried to warn them.
I spent a year homeported in Naples on Courtney. I was thrilled to get away from Naples.
"See Naples And Die"
As for the broader current push of restoring a warrior ethos across all the Services, I highly recommend checking out the surprising take that RAdm James D. Ramage had on the Academy, during his years there and later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mnVvxg_LWw
https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Rear-Adm-James-Ramage/dp/1682699528/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S7WVCJMWSY8A&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Sdbhu-VWb2pcmNJK8gObog.zv4PugGXtwkPeKq2DrdLmalATfi2jP6m9fPS1pVnbcQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=9781682699522&qid=1710167241&sprefix=9781682699522%2Caps%2C60&sr=8-1
pp375-376
"""Q: Do you recall any instruction or even discussion of combat leadership at Annapolis? Was that subject ever addressed?
Admiral Ramage: None. I don't recall at any time where anybody got up and told us, "You know, the main thing you are here for is that some day we'll probably have a war you're expected to be in it." That was not part of the program.
Q: I suppose that leads in large part to what you were saying about [Stansfield] Turner and others, the mind set, the different mentalities between warriors and managers. How do you think the Naval Academy and the Navy generally can produce more warriors?
Admiral Ramage: Well, this has been a subject of discussion between Jim Stockdale and me and various other people that I have a lot of respect for. Jim at the present time [1996] is on a board which is supposed to take a look at the curriculum at the Naval Academy and how that applies to the future. I get quite unhappy with the various things come out in our magazine called Shipmate, pointing out the scholastic ability of the classes as they come in. As a matter of fact, the last plebe class is supposed to have the highest SAT scores of any freshman class in the country. They're elated with that, but I'm not sure that's good.
I would ask two questions. The first is, will they fight [see his remarks that a big percentage of USNA grads found a way to stay in CONUS during WWII and Korea pp 178-179]. And secondly, will they stay in the Navy? That is will they make it a career?
[....]
I just don't know what can be done, but I don't think we've been successful in the past."""
Now is a great time for a root and branch overhaul of the USNA.
It would be much better to follow the BRNC...
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/locations-and-operations/bases-and-stations/brnc-dartmouth
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2018/march/comparison-us-navy-and-royal-navy-officer-training
Something must be done. My initial response is that the only degrees possible should be military history or some sort of engineering--but not social engineering.
The Holocaust and slavery histories have been pulled from the shelves of the academies, as have the books on anti-discrimination laws and the civil rights struggle.
The books are not just being pulled from the academies - they're being pulled from MWR base libraries too. You're off-duty. a dependent, a retiree and want to read anything about black people, women, or the gays? Fuck your First Amendment right to read! Can you say zampolit again?
No more recruiting at the annual conventions of the National Society of Black Engineers, either. Surely, they only want to recruit on "merit."
We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday, trolling the president of South Africa at the behest of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. I have sympathy with the white people of South Africa same as anyone, but surely these conversations can be held in private, diplomatically.
Look to see the PLA Navy setting up in Durban soon. But excellent trolling Mr. President!
It's time to retire this weekly feature. You're just complaining about the past and looking to purge people.
Diversity's been homogenized, Equity has been unbalanced, and Inclusion has been excluded.
> We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday, trolling the president of South Africa at the behest of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. I have sympathy with the white people of South Africa same as anyone, but surely these conversations can be held in private, diplomatically.
You mean like South Africa had Israel hauled into the ICC "in private, diplomatically"? SA is a shithole that's conducting a communist pogrom against its population of "Kulaks" in the form of white people. They absolutely deserve to be called out about it. Yes, *publicly*.
I don't give a shit about South Africa taking Israel to court. I'm an American. Does the USA have to fight every country that doesn't like the killing Israel is doing? That will be a long list of friendly countries, including Spain, France, Ireland, Norway, and Malaysia.
I'm a US citizen, I want to preserve US security.
As I said, don't be surprised when S. Africa aligns even more with China after this.
You are only a liar but an anti Semite as well. Go back to your HAMAs chat room.
"Everyone who isn't a cuck for Israel is an antisemite."
Sorry, that shit expired years ago.
In your case it’s true. Weren’t you thrilled about the two young Israeli embassy officials who were gunned down in DC? Can’t wait till you are your ilk expire.
Dear Hamas,
Don't start a war you can't finish.
Best regards,
Hideki
Gaza should look like Tokyo in June 1945.
Being a cuck for Nazis is *so* much better.
I mean, I suppose if you truly *enjoy* the taste of smegma... Not my kink, but I'm not going to shame...
Who are the Nazis now? If we're talking about the volume of mass killing and genocidal statements . . .
I'm glad it was done publicly. It makes it more difficult to report dishonestly about the events.
Dear Hamas,
Don't start a war you can't win.
Best regards,
Hideki Tojo
> I don't give a shit about South Africa taking Israel to court.
Nor do you apparently care about SA committing a communist pogrom against white people.
I mean, that's fine, but it does mean I don't have to take your opinion very seriously.
> I'm an American. Does the USA have to fight every country that doesn't like the killing Israel is doing?
Nope!
But it does mean that you'd be a hypocrite if you opposed SA hauling the US to the ICC for fighting back if the Native Americans boiled off the Rez and raped your daughters (or sons) to death.
To reverse your position, am I supposed to care if SA sells itself to China? Let the Kaffir decide from experience whether they preferred living under Western Civilization or Eastern Civ.
You're supposed to care because SA have tremendous resources, are a regional power, and control a maritime choke point. If there was a Pacific War, the Indian Ocean would also be a battle, as was discussed on this substack previously.
The choice of "the kaffir" is not obvious. Chinese infrastructure development vs US infrastructure decay. Rising power vs apparently declining power. That's also a frequent subject of this substack.
The US has "partners" who are doing deplorable things. The forementioned Israel, the UAE (in Sudan for example), Saudi Arabia, Egypt. Attacks on white farmers in South Africa are "communist pogroms" but attacks on Palestinian olive farmers and shepherds on the West Bank are not pogroms and are ok, amirite?
Right now, the Trump administration are softpedaling abuses by other countries like Russia and China.
Would Trump have the balls to call out Xi in the Oval Office and play a video about the Uighurs? Of course not. "Human Rights" was always a selective and hypocritical pose of the USA, but now it's totally abandoned except in this one case of South Africa.
Looks to me like Major Donor Elon Musk wanted him to put on this circus and attempt to publicly shame a foreign president. What was the point of that? How would the USA or indeed the whites of South Africa gain from that shitshow instead of private diplomacy and targeted policy?
"A decent respect for the opinions of mankind." It's in the Declaration of Independence.
Since taking office, this moron has managed to alienate Canada and Denmark, now South Africa. He's working on ruining any good will for the USA in the world.
Liar. You have no sympathy for white people when they are victims of terror.
Liar. You have no sympathy for white people when they are victims of terror.
"Holocaust and slavery histories have been pulled from the shelves of the academies, as have the books on anti-discrimination laws and the civil rights struggle."
Malicious compliance by your ilk Thomas.
"You're off-duty. a dependent, a retiree and want to read anything..."
There is this thing called Amazon. Ever hear of it?
"No more recruiting at the annual conventions of the National Society of Black Engineers"
Thanks for showing us all your Orwellian mindset.
"We had an insane spectacle in the Oval Office yesterday,"
TDS needs to be included in the DSM-5.
"Look to see the PLA Navy setting up in Durban soon."
All the more reason to keep a hard light on the USNA. At present, its a waste of time and resources when it comes to building a robust NAVY.
"Diversity's been homogenized"
Into a corrupt talking point.
"Equity has been unbalanced"
Equity is an unbalanced form of discrimination. FIFY.
"Inclusion has been excluded"
In reality, folded Into your one way only 'Progressiveism'
Any views other than yours are excluded?
Good! This odious tower of babel will implode all the more quickly.
I guess you missed this story
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/02/10/military-drops-recruiting-efforts-prestigious-black-engineering-awards-event.html
I did not...and do not....miss this example of overt racism.
I'd bet more minorities attend these. And I'd bet it's more inclusive and diverse.
https://www.sae.org/students
Interestingly enough six years ago a USN accessions canvasser implied that he could bring my son in as an O-2. Not because he had a Math degree, but because he is black. My son turned it down.
Equity? Equity is the code word used to admit the tacit failure by Progressives and their sycophant teacher's unions that they have failed to educate a significant portion of the population to seamlessly enjoy inclusion into society as equals.
Spare us your sanctimonious false hypocrisy about access to literature.
https://news.usni.org/2021/09/22/navy-plans-to-cut-1000-civilian-jobs-close-u-s-base-libraries-in-280m-cost-savings-drive
Ain't been to a base library in a while have you?
I was at a base library ast week,and at another one last month.
After being a reader here, don't you know that "Navy plans" and "Navy did" are two wildly different thing?
Nonetheless the idea was floated. Fortunately, I am able to afford books and as a rule want to keep what I read. Additionally I keep a portion of my library inventory online and available for authors to borrow.
That "oh no its gone from the library" argument really is a 20th century one not valid today. Anyone can go online, including in the USNA library, look up books on DEI, racism, etc, and order them at pennies on the dollar with even same-day delivery if needed. Used books are really cheap. Many books are just archived on line and can be read online, or on a Kindle-like device for...free. There is also no prohibition of having those books on the USNA campus, or in a Mid's room at Bancroft. So not having books in a physical library really does not matter. Most public libraries seem more public computer sites and community center rather than scholarly research location.
Sounds like someone who doesn't use libraries much. The value and pleasure of browsing the stacks and picking up books of interest and sitting down in a nice place to read them. You can even take them home!
For example;
https://archive.org/about/
"Today our archive contains:
835 billion web pages
44 million books and texts
15 million audio recordings (including 255,000 live concerts)
10.6 million videos (including 2.6 million Television News programs)
4.8 million images
1 million software programs"
Wow, creepy. It really *is* a Zampolit.
See John Gentry's article, Critique of the US Intelligence Community's Diversity Claims, Sep 2024, at Https://econjwatch.org/articles/critique-of-the-us-intelligence-community-s-diversity-claims.
Article analysis's the damage caused by DEI policies on the Intelligence Community and is relevant to the examination of damage to the US military.
How does a hiring comittee determine if unconcious bias occurs? If you don't know it's happening, how can you tell it happened? How do you then defend against the determination of unconious bias? How then does a determination of unconcious bias not then draw a counter determination of unconcious bias against the origional unconciously biased decision? Who's unconcious bias is less or more biased? Is concious bias better than unconcious? How many times can I write concious in a single comment? Deep thoughts...
Certes, Nick, if you are seriously conscientious, your conscience will tell you subconsciously how many times you can (but maybe shouldn't) consciously scribble "conscious" in a screed done in stream-of-consciousness. Always never go all alliterative, alright? It reeks of assonance. ☺
Crap like this is why I stopped having anything to do with ANUS, uh, I mean USNA. And make no mistake, USNA started down this path in the 90's. I was a B&G Officer then, quit when I got the memo saying the minimum qualifying SAT for minorities was now 500-500/1000; down from the standard 600-600/1200. I called the Admissions Office to confirm, and was told yes indeed, that's the new policy. I replied, either you have a standard or you don't, and resigned. (Sadly, I was surprised at the number of alumni who were onboard with this racist policy.)
If I was in Congress, I'd be looking to save the US taxpayer some money by shutting down this racist, sexist, leftist cesspool. Our future officers can get their leftist indoctrination at any Mk1 Mod0 US college or university for a lower cost.
So, after posting the faculty page of the USNA English Department a few months ago, it was scrubbed of the publications and areas of interest of the Instructors and Professors...
https://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/Faculty/index.php
I'm sure that was just a coincidence though.
Anyway, you can still check out what they bring to your future Naval leaders in Google (for now anyway) in the way of grist for the stated goal of :
Read closely. Think critically. Write clearly.
Lemme know if you find one of them pursuing anything related to the, "Lore of the Sea" ...which you would think... would be a primary focus at a "Naval" Academy.
https://www.usna.edu/EnglishDept/Faculty/AllenEmersonMichelle.php
https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlin-j-foster
http://eliotsociety.org/events/a-defense-of-poetry/
https://www.amazon.com/American-Fun-Centuries-Joyous-Revolt/dp/0307908178
https://english.olemiss.edu/monika-r-bhagat-kennedy/
https://www.huntington.org/research/2022-23-awarded-fellowships
Gabriel Bloomfield, Assistant Professor, English, United States Naval Academy
Topic: Lyric Reading: Interpretive Poetics in the Age of Donne
He has published articles on John Donne’s homiletics in Studies in Philology, George Herbert’s typography in English Literary History, and Hamlet’s psalmody in Shakespeare Quarterly. New work, incongruously concerning queer reading in the cult film Clue, is forthcoming in Camera Obscura.
And the band plays on.
Not sure how many links will fit in a substack post, so will pause here. Suffice to say, it doesn't get any better.
Delve into the USNA English Department's focus for yourselves, and see how DEI is alive and well on the Severn.
Let's pull the camera back for a wider angle view of this, because the same flags who hired DEI commissars are now happily purging service libraries of offending literature like the Spanish Inquisition. We like to use the old Soviet Union as an example, and the HBO miniseries Chernobyl would be one I would use to make my point. It's not about ideology. It's never about ideology. It's about cultures that reward and value careerism above all else, and in such cultures truth-telling becomes impossible. We're winning in Vietnam during my tour--promote me. We're winning in Afghanistan during my tour--promote me. I have the metrics to prove it and make sure all the rocks are painted and everyone's wearing a reflective belt until that unfortunate day when the reactor blows up, and please God let me make 0-7 before then and let it happen on some other poor schmuck's watch. List anything you care to: Fat Leonard, rust, amphibs, DEI, texting classified on unclas networks...it all comes down to the same thing. Everyone knows the truth, and if you're dumb enough to speak it you'd better get out as an 0-2.
Great exposure, Sal. This should be one of the first homework assignments for the USNA Board of Visitors. Make good speed, sir.
Why hasn’t Hegseth fired the five service academy superintendents.? They are all Biden DEI hires. Nothing will be accomplished while they continue to linger on.
Pete: Their time will come.
They are a cancer. The sooner they are cut out the better.
Hmm, so I applied for a USNA History Department teaching position just last year. Two books, multiple articles, regular presenter at McMullen, etc. I too did not get an interview. I thought they were looking for a more junior person. The position seems to have not been filled but is still open on the USNA website.
Get a DNA test. You might get lucky and be able to put a minority status on your application./s
I fully endorse that concept!
(have done it to make a mockery of the modern narrative)
Hey, this could be a topic that the USNA English Department should delve into!
Right up their alley....As anything "Naval" or "Nautical" sure are not.
https://lithub.com/passing-for-white-a-literary-history/
In Nella Larsen’s day, the theme of passing had been an obsession of American popular literature, of American culture and politics, since the mid-19th century. In most of the fiction by white men about passing, a black girl of tragic birth is compelled by circumstances to pretend to be white. Her beauty always makes an aristocratic white youth fall in love with her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwGaOXOluC8&t=7s
Having a Dutch surname I've often wished I could trace ancestry through the Boers. But alas, not. Though perhaps I shall get to live vicariously through some recent immigrants.
And also pertinent:
My son's best friend put down "Black" on the demographics of the SAT*. He got more than one scholarship offer. Until guidance outed him. Apparently you can put down what you feel, unless you're a white male. (Though, to be fair this was 13 or 14 years ago and before the LGBTQRSTUV+ and DEI nonsense was at full speed. So there was effort to ensure demographics were real.)
*I suppose I should mention that he was about as white a ginger kid as you can get.
Apparently 1/256th is enough to claim ancestry!
Sure paid off for Big Wumpum Yellow Hair Lady...
https://images.ctfassets.net/lrqh3qmw9nn5/2LSwUa2ftmasKkfQfTC1N9/ec8a83ffcc298292636a8d6b88a068b4/EWLaunchVideoThumb.png?fm=jpg&q=90
(BTW, I am every bit as 'black' as Colin Kaepernick...but I had a better looking 'fro)
LOL that must have been some 'fro. Though larger isn't necessarily better, symmetry is important as is consistent density all around. IMO.
lol...I didn't have to pik mine.
[Donning three layers of Nomex protective gear]
Full disclosure: I was offered (and declined) a nomination to the USCG Academy, class of 1976. My son is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, class of 2000.
The military academies (all of them) are an unneeded anachronism in America today. They duplicate, at great expense, education that is available from any number of other, some might say even better universities. The Military and Naval academies were created because there was a need for military engineers, and standardized naval education that was simply not available in the US at the time.
Today, we have those required classes offered. At less expensive universities. Want to learn civil engingeering? Naval architecture? We got you covered. Degrees in Literature, history, diversity? Go to the community college down the street.
Further, since graduates from all the academies are objectively unqualified to fulfill any military profession or specialty (since they still have to attend basic branch level courses after graduation, and are not qualified to conn a ship or fly an airplane or whatever, the only thing they learn in the military colleges is how to dress themselves (with various degrees of success, if my experiences are common).
The ROTC graduates are not any better off. While ROTC does not cost the US as much as the service academies do, they are still expensive.
The most economical officer accession route is clearly OTS/OCS/PLC, whatever. Three months or so, learn to dress and salute, then off to a course to actually teach them to be useful. OTS also offers the most flexible path in terms of filling demand: The service academies and ROTC take 4 years, not 4 months or less.
The Brits manage to train adequate junior officers at Sandhurst, Dartmouth and Cranwell in under a year. The French did the same at St. Cyr. Neither the Brits or French require a college degree to start, they require all candidates to pass comprehensive and objective tests.
Time to pull the plug on the academies...Especially with their demonstrated failures such as Spenser Rapone among others.
CDR Sal, that is something Pete and Stu must take care off, the Cultural Marxists that dominate the cadre, especially the PhD civilians at the Military Academies. And another big issue, that is ignored is the bulk of the officer corps comes from ROTC programs at our colleges, many that are breeding grounds for Cultural Marxism.
Do not allow cadets and midshipmen to major in the social sciences which are full of communists. STEN only.