Let's do the harder one - promotions. We've been using promotion floors based on racial makeup of candidates since the 1960's. But only when the Order Of Merit results came up short, and I sat on boards in the 80's and 90's where we DIDN'T need them. Hence I'm unsure there will be any impact at all.
I was privy to an E-9 selection board in the late 1980's. A good friend of mine who had promoted to E-8 in 11 years was up for E-9. The board picked him and 5 others and forwarded his name to Washington for approval. The review board kicked the list back because all the selectees were White. They needed 1 Black. My friend was the junior man on the list so he got booted and the best qualified Black E-8 in his small rating replaced him. But I am not here to toss rocks at glass houses. In 1973 there was a one time poll on the Aircraft Carrier I was stationed aboard wherein we were to state our race. We had just attended an Upward Seminar and gotten our attitudes adjusted, way before "woke" hit the streets. Because of that Upward Seminar I declared myself Black in that poll. I did it in a fit of petulance...I was 25 and hung over. Sorry. I made Chief Petty Officer, #2 on the list of 72 people the next year, first time up with 8 years in. To this day I do not know if I was an AA pick. Don't care...got 5 more promotions jumping 8 paygrades over the next 18 years. I cannot say for sure that I was ever inauthentically Black because my heart sure was when I answered that poll and that stain remains.
Sal, you state your belief that the racial makeup of our service academies will never be revealed without a congressional hearing. I will go a step beyond that and state that if such a demand were made of the services, the current president would order them to not appear on Capital Hill. Let the truth telling begin.
And if the Left continues to be really stupid about this discrimination injustice, then I suggest we all quietly but firmly agree with them and solemnly declare that we are all members of every legally advantaged group this country has ever defined. Let them see what passive aggression really looks like.
Let's do the harder one - promotions. We've been using promotion floors based on racial makeup of candidates since the 1960's. But only when the Order Of Merit results came up short, and I sat on boards in the 80's and 90's where we DIDN'T need them. Hence I'm unsure there will be any impact at all.
I was privy to an E-9 selection board in the late 1980's. A good friend of mine who had promoted to E-8 in 11 years was up for E-9. The board picked him and 5 others and forwarded his name to Washington for approval. The review board kicked the list back because all the selectees were White. They needed 1 Black. My friend was the junior man on the list so he got booted and the best qualified Black E-8 in his small rating replaced him. But I am not here to toss rocks at glass houses. In 1973 there was a one time poll on the Aircraft Carrier I was stationed aboard wherein we were to state our race. We had just attended an Upward Seminar and gotten our attitudes adjusted, way before "woke" hit the streets. Because of that Upward Seminar I declared myself Black in that poll. I did it in a fit of petulance...I was 25 and hung over. Sorry. I made Chief Petty Officer, #2 on the list of 72 people the next year, first time up with 8 years in. To this day I do not know if I was an AA pick. Don't care...got 5 more promotions jumping 8 paygrades over the next 18 years. I cannot say for sure that I was ever inauthentically Black because my heart sure was when I answered that poll and that stain remains.
Sal, you state your belief that the racial makeup of our service academies will never be revealed without a congressional hearing. I will go a step beyond that and state that if such a demand were made of the services, the current president would order them to not appear on Capital Hill. Let the truth telling begin.
And if the Left continues to be really stupid about this discrimination injustice, then I suggest we all quietly but firmly agree with them and solemnly declare that we are all members of every legally advantaged group this country has ever defined. Let them see what passive aggression really looks like.