No military officer would attempt to create a force to defend his nation by creating a "diversity" structure within the force to "improve" its fighting effectiveness. Why? Because military officers are generally (er, mostly) not mentally deficient (stupid). However, if you are deliberately trying to reduce combat effectiveness and mission accomplishment, degrading the quality of personnel, leadership, morale and cohesion would be a desired end result. So creating this "diversity structure" then makes total sense. A logical follow-on question has to be what sort of incentive structure exists in our military at the senior level (officer and NCO) that incentivizes this type of behavior? People don't do "stupid" things more than once unless they are rewarded for doing so (Human behavior 101). The world wonders...
The only "Diverse" structures I can think of that work are regionally recruited British-style regiments, where there is a stronger bond of a common civil culture within the unit. Even so, those have often gone away.
A diverse work force can grow organically and be very effective IF they share a common belief to obtain the same goals and ethics. diverse teams work when they place the goal above ones physical traits and instead focus on unity upon on skill and merit. The problem is it may never truly reflect the demographics of the country at large.
Some do. And, that's part of the problem. If a squared-away black guy gets promoted to Chief, rumors of "didn't earn it" follow him even if he was far and away the best in his flight.
Mr. T, you just need to accept the fact that what you want is liberalism. Good, old-fashioned, egalitarian "equal opportunity."
Only if you believe the partisan propaganda shoveled out. Aside from a few doddering professors, there are no Marxists in public life. Everybody shouts "Marxist" but nobody reads Karl, nobody knows what a "Marxist" is. You clearly don't.
Simply put, Marxism is communism. A Marxist is working for a classless society where the means of production and Capital are held collectively.
Joe Biden is a conservative. That's why he gets such heat from the Democratic left. Look at his legislation, law-and-order, "tough" on crime with minimum mandatories galore. Kamala is a cop! She's further to the right than Biden. That's why the idiot left-wingers are voting for Jill Stein and tossing the election to Trump. Moving the Overton Window to the point where you can call pro-business conservatives "Marxists" is a tool of the fascists.
With all the respect that is due, you are simply misinformed. Look at Joe Biden's actual legislation. Read the bills. The man has a 40 year voting record. He is an intuitionalist; a conservative intuitionalist. Read what the left is saying about him. They are accurately castigating him because of his conservative policy positions. The idiots are voting for Stein because Biden and Harris are "conservative."
Kamala most definably was a cop; a badge-carrying line prosecutor in a big city prosecutor's office. Liberals don't advance in prosecutor's offices. The lady was career law enforcement. Look at her drug policy: conservative. Far too conservative to my taste. "Facts," as John Adams said, "are stubborn things." Kamala is a cop.
Personally, I have no problem putting a cop in the White House. I work with some pretty right-wing cop-types on a daily basis. The ones I know may have some pretty wacky right-wing ideas, but they also have impeccable character and an acute sense of propriety; virtues The Donald is missing. Kamala's opponent lacks the moral fitness to do the job.
"Bill Ayers was once known for setting off bombs during his time with the revolutionary communist group, the Weather Underground, in protest against the U.S. government."
And its no secret he facilitated launching Obama's career.
"Barack Obama’s first run for the Illinois state Senate was launched at a famous fundraiser and kickoff for the campaign at a 1995 gathering at the house of Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn..."
If I may, gentlemen... The current rhetoric regarding Marxism and Fascism ignores the fact that both are extreme forms of socialism, and both seek to control the people as well as their wealth. Both represent slavery without visible chains. What matters is how people were trained, and what they do with the power they obtain.
Socialism: If you have two cows, the Government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Communism: If you have two cows, Government takes both and then gives you some milk.
Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep the cows and give the milk to the Government; then the government sells you some milk.
New Dealism: If you have two cows, you shoot one and milk the other; then you pour the milk down the drain.
Nazism: If you have two cows, the Government shoots you and keeps the cows.
Capitalism: If you have two cows, you sell one and buy a bull.
I went & read the 1960 Democratic Party platform, sounds pretty MAGA to me. And today’s R’s are to the left of the D’s. Michael Berry on his fb page had clips of Barbara Jordan (D), from the early 90s, talking about how illegals need to be stopped from coming in.
Nothing to add, eh, Mr. T? Just a simple, solid post. T'was like tossing chum in the china shop and red-flagging the bull, kind of like a mixican metaphor. But it sure brought out the big guns. Nicely done, T. Bandersnatch, boojums and snark...O my!
They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
One of the scourges of our public debate is the reduction of issues so that they have overly simple solutions. Problems, like the problem of retention, are often caused by multiple factors, and focusing on one aspect ignores factors that may be contributing to the problem more than the solution at hand. DEI is not why we can’t retain sailors and removing DEI is not going to result in a surge of re-enlistments.
The Commander is spot on with his focus on family. More important than a DEI problem is are the issues of housing and shore duty. There was a time in the history of the United States when an Officer or Petty Officer would get orders to a ship or station, and he and his family would move to a house on the base. Sailors would serve at sea, then at shore and back to sea again. Often, they had comfortable on-base housing.
Over the decades, our nation did not focus on maintaining our stock of on-base housing. We let it fall into ruins as we “privatized” military housing by giving sailors allotments to engage in private housing outside the base. Given a choice between run-down, rat-infested crumbling housing or the private market, families fled the bases.
Sea duty is punishing; it always has been. Sailors with families need to know that their families are safe and secure. Putting families in safe, secure, beautiful housing lets sailors go to see knowing their family is in good hands. Meaningful shore duty allows sailors to be with their families.
That is not to say that DEI is not detrimental, an egalitarian force is far more effective that one where connections and family determine the order of battle. But, a 26 year-old kid with a wife he loves are going to be looking for a nest. As a nation we should recognize family housing is as essential to our nation's defense as bullets.
"peer-reviewed" means not what it used to, perhaps truly naught, outside the most physical of sciences, and even there entrenched dogma inhibits scientific exploration.
In the social "sciences" is is completely useless and meaningless.
I’m looking at the critical 1st Class Petty Officer group, which is where the subject matter experts reside. If E-5, and E-6 are happy and thriving retention for the lower ranks is easy.
"There was a time in the history of the United States when an Officer or Petty Officer would get orders to a ship or station, and he and his family would move to a house on the base. Sailors would serve at sea, then at shore and back to sea again. Often, they had comfortable on-base housing. ". That did not happen on my watch, which was 30 years. Housing was always scant and hardly comfortable--except for senior officers.
Clinton's "peace dividend" was not the only time we neglected our military bases. We had so many after WWII that we let them all rot; even the ones we were using.
We still have Naval Stations and Bases with land a'plenty to build good housing. We can't have a 600 ship navy without crews.
We used to laugh about it in the 90's. I had a friend, USAFA grad, married, 1st Lt, living in base housing, detached two story house, 5 or 6 rooms, no kids.
I had a shipmate, senior Lt, 3rd kid on the way, hoping to get into base housing once the third was extant.
Intentional. This is intentional. When the left accuses us of totalitarianism, I believe that what they accuse us of, they are guilty of just that.
They want to poison the military, weaken it, because they don’t believe in America. The evidence is open borders. They truly don’t believe in the greatest country in the world who has saved tens of millions of lives through the sacrifice of military members.
They have successfully poisoned the larger military, but haven’t succeeded with the Navy Seals.
I believe the ongoing battle with CAPT Geary and the death of Kyle Mullins is the attempt to destroy the independence of the Naval Special Warfare Community.
NCIS found PEDS in Mullins vehicle but the autopsy never tested for it.
The DOD (Biden’s DOD) tried to plant a DEI bureaucrat in Little Creek (NSW) in 2001? Or something like that.
My E6 Quartmaster just reenlisted because she likes navigating ships, likes her job.
But she’s heard on the waterfront how short they are of QM’s and said they are so short (in general) recruiting, they have pushed through Sailors in boot camp who would be dropped from the Navy at any other time.
As I said, the left has intentionally made it untenable for conservatives to join or families to support it.
I’m thrilled that my kid is so freaking tough and talented and stands up for herself that no one dares take her on. And she’s very good at her job.
She proudly voted with me last week (on leave) for President Trump.
I saw a clip of Capt. Geary talking about that incident, and also that they had an entire class ring the bell during Hell week , less than two weeks after the whole class was forced to take the mRNA COVID therapy. Big Navy wanted to know what changed in training that caused everyone to drop out. I don't use this term loosely: retards.
The way to fix this problem is to put more bright and smiling, "diverse-looking" models in recruitment commercials. This seems to work great for every single corporate advertiser in Amerika.
The first flag to go has to be the Chair of the Joint Chiefs. That guy has openly stated and supported DEI initiatives. I have zero faith in him as a warfighter.
I’m extremely confident he was chosen because of him being the second coming of Obama. Yes, I believe he’s that bad.
Yup. As I’ve said, the USNA DEI chick Supe is ALL about diversity. This DEI cancer has metastasized. FULLY entrenched. You’ll also need to cut out the many years of JO’s who’ve been indoctrinated by USNA. They’re fully onboard with this sorry mess…and BarryO smiles. The “fundamental transformation” is on track.
"Three years into a recruiting crisis, however, the Pentagon hasn’t specifically surveyed this core constituency to determine what’s going wrong." They don't want to find out. They despised that core constituency. They are happy they drove all that "white rage" out of the military ranks. Add in also that experimental "vaccine" they forced people to get even defying the freedom of religious principles of the military personnel.... 4 generations of military service are over with in the large Bravo clan. Every branch involved. And it's not so much about "losing wars" (the South is big on finding value even in the biggest loss on our own soil). It's being FORCED to lose by people who kept a war going on so toddlers could grow up to still fight the war their fathers were sent over to stalemate 2 decades before. Ridiculous. Will be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, a President Trump 2.0 can fix this.
"Will be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, a President Trump 2.0 can fix this."
I am hoping that it does get fixed as well. There are two ways to remove leaf litter, limbs and debris from a forest - periodic controlled burns or wildfire/replant. The latter approach, while effective, destroys the valuable along with the valueless. I also hope that when the Herculean task is initiated that there is both a good enough plan and the right people to execute on it. "Right people" being those with zero/zip/nada interest in the swamp or its denizens.
Look ok on the "bright" side: likely future generations will be able to serve honorably in the community militia fending off roving gangs of thieves and worse, after the DEI folks get determinative control of the power grid and it goes away for a few months or years.
Here's a basic problem...the % of caucasians in the USA, for instance, is 54%. About 15% of the Army is female. Yet, there have been in recent years a Brigadier list exclusively of white men.
Well gee dude, I'll let you guess. Young black male with a Bachelor STEM degree in cyber/compsci/math is looking at $300K+ per annum to go to Wallstreet as a cyber whitehat or $60K or so as O-1 working 100 plus hours a week at sea. Ask me how I know.
My son just might take a reserve commission as an O-4. That ain't bad for a 27 year old math phd.
Hey Mikey, in one of the first comment here, Aviation Sceptic asks some important questions. Why don’t you answer them instead of regurgitating leftist bullshit?
I would not say that NBA owners are racist. I’ve been in wonder how black men dominate the NBA. I can only believe that the physiology of black men are superior to white men.
Which is fine and should be lifted up and celebrated.
My problem is the continued meme of systemic racism when clearly a majority of white fans welcome celebrating superior athletes which happens to be professional black athletes. College football too.
I get a kick out of the, "generals and admirals...blah, blah...statements." I wonder if that is new to this era? Nah...I expect not.
What is unique to this era is to have an active political movement call military members, especially those who sacrificed limbs, sight, scars, and life, losers. Indeed...the military is still the most respected national entity, but its popularity decreased by over 25% since "My Generals" became "losers and suckers." Google it.
Well Admiral, shall we point to the material condition/FMC rates, the 9-14K gapped type two billets, the inability of the Navy after FORTY(!) years to reload VLS at sea, the loss of the BHR pierside, optimum manning that killed 17 sailors......would you like me to go on?
And while you ran for the senate as a Democrat? I expect you to be biased. But you were large and in charge for how many years?
TBF to the right honourable admiral, he served on ABs four times and once as CO of DESRON 28 according to Wiki. That is only five tours. In CDR Sal's time 2 World Wars is not nearly enough time to solve the ball of tangled yarn that is VLS reloading at sea. The hinterlands do not appreciate how Byzantine the Potomas has become.
Nonetheless as a Flag he owns the current state of the USN which began its decline on his watch. His party owns the SecNav who stated his number one priority was climate change. Not readiness, not retention, climate change.
What is unique to this era is a class of Generals and Admirals who openly attempted to "Queeg" the Commander in Chief...
Adm McRaven speaking in uniform and all but openly advocating for the removal of the CinC
Gen. Milley openly stating that he would warn the Chinese if the CinC made, what was in his opinion a rash decision.
Gen. Kelley, who instead of immediately resigning when the CinC purportedly made the "suckers and losers" statement, stayed on, and only made these things public years later.
What does have credibility, that the CinC made the lament that he wished he had 'loyal Generals...", because he sure didn't.
This applies Admiral... but the ones who should take heed think they are too superior to bother with the message:
As far as I am concerned they are all f%^&& liars and traitors, and I rather doubt at this point I'll ever see any evidence to dissuade me of that impression
I have a close family member with serious mental health issues that gave me a more than passing familiarity with the "field". Was advised that often people suffer from the "if you spot it, you got it" syndrome. IOW, if you think someone is a narcissist after you observe them, you are "spotting" you own world view on that person (they are acting just how I would!). The number of high ranking personages I've observed that "spot" a former president's flaws when maybe, just maybe they need to look in the mirror is...large. Pot calling the kettle black, and all that, I guess.
Of my grandparents, parents, and my generation, 12 of 13 men served and 4 of 13 women served. Of my age eligible children (nieces, nephews, and in-laws as well) and grandchildren's generation, 4 of 14 served. My anecdotal data point supports the overall declaration of diminishing numbers from 'military families'
My DEI short tent pole is that the DEI mafia claim that "diverse teams/boards/corporations/businesses/girl scout troops and the military all perform "better" than non-diverse entities. But where are numerical studies to back up the claim? I've seen no corporate annual meeting showing how DEI improved the return to shareholders, no retention stats showing "we recruit diversity and ALL stay", and no sports entity that has EVAH said "we win cuz we be diverse".
This past Christmas season I was in a place I rarely go - Walmart - and 7 black guys came in behind me all carrying a Food Lion paper bag. They went to the men's room and 3 min later emerged in their USAF flight suits with WINGED name tags with a SH call sign. I asked what unit they were with and they said USAF academy. Ohhh, what year? Sophomore or Three Degree. So I asked why their names tags all had USAF pilot wings. "To impress girls". I reminded them of the USAF C-17 base literally a mile down the road and weren't they concerned about commissioned officer spotting them. And their ringleader said and I quote "look at us, we're black, they ain't gonna nothing to us". Off they went.
I told my good friend (black, retired USAF O-5, USAF academy grad and a helluva pickleball player) the story and he said "DEI is the paint on the Air Force Potemkin village - looks good until it takes a hit and then SHTF".
Sadly, in the past twenty years, they've become every day wear. Nobody at Mayport wore a flight suit to the Fleet Exchange in the 1990s. I'd remember, as I sold popcorn there as a Cub Scout. Now, air crew wear them all the time.
If I got to be a Base CMC, or higher, my first rule would be "No wear of flight suits off the flight line outside of 1100-1300." If that was resisted, I'd get a dress poopy suit (clean blue coveralls with patches) and wear that and sneakers around base HQ until someone wigged out.
"Nobody at Mayport wore a flight suit to the Fleet Exchange in the 1990s"
So, back in summer of '89 I was in a school on Coronado, and one of my guys asked "Sir, I need to go to the bank at lunch; can I" and since there was an NFCU branch on base I said "Sure, Perry Officer Smithers."
At end of training day, I find myself in wet and sandy greens in front of a displeased O-5 XO asking if I truly gave Petty Officer Smithers permission to go out into town to the Bank of America in his dirty, unwashed greens during lunch. I sadly admitted that I had in fact, unwittingly, done so.
I was asked politely to visit the beautiful waters of the Pacific, frolic in the sand for a bit, and do 250 8-count body builders for my sins, which was a less than pleasant experience 12 hours into the training day, LOL.
The minute God crapped out the third caveman, a conspiracy was hatched against one of 'em!
Lest I give a false impression, I was also asked to leave said school after a few months due to a bit of claustrophobia that was at the time insurmountable, but it was a great experience.
I started to see the pre-curser to DEI in the early 2K's when an admin officer reported to us and immediately (insidiously) began dividing the staff under the guise of 'mentoring' the female Sailors. Until that point I, (as CSO/CO-acting) had everyone on the same team and focused on our mission, but discovered she was selectively excluding some of our female officers who weren't buying her BS (and all the male staff) thereby dividing the staff into DEI-like groups of favored and not-on-her-team. I stopped this disruptive practice at the time, but when a new CO reported, he and his wife were privately 'courted' by this person and my objections were silenced. It was disruptive to our mission and harmful to those not on the diversity team. Our Flag next door rescued me by transferring me to his staff.
1. The only kind of diversity that should matter is that we draw personnel from all 50 states of the Union in approximate proportion to population. We ought to have representation for all of the country. Being Virginia's Navy or Texas's Army does us no favors.
2. I've been souring on getting new people in, despite the barrage of posters at the NRC to have every Sailor a recruiter. I know a couple of Canvasser/Recruiters (SELRES on active orders), and if I know someone interested, I'll send them that way. At this point, the black marks of the political decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the preference for DEI over basic operations, discourages me from encouraging enlistment. I'll stay for retirement, just to say that I could, but if I wasn't at closing in on that point, like many experienced sailors I know, I'd be separating.
No military officer would attempt to create a force to defend his nation by creating a "diversity" structure within the force to "improve" its fighting effectiveness. Why? Because military officers are generally (er, mostly) not mentally deficient (stupid). However, if you are deliberately trying to reduce combat effectiveness and mission accomplishment, degrading the quality of personnel, leadership, morale and cohesion would be a desired end result. So creating this "diversity structure" then makes total sense. A logical follow-on question has to be what sort of incentive structure exists in our military at the senior level (officer and NCO) that incentivizes this type of behavior? People don't do "stupid" things more than once unless they are rewarded for doing so (Human behavior 101). The world wonders...
The only "Diverse" structures I can think of that work are regionally recruited British-style regiments, where there is a stronger bond of a common civil culture within the unit. Even so, those have often gone away.
A diverse work force can grow organically and be very effective IF they share a common belief to obtain the same goals and ethics. diverse teams work when they place the goal above ones physical traits and instead focus on unity upon on skill and merit. The problem is it may never truly reflect the demographics of the country at large.
"when they place the goal above ones physical traits and instead focus on unity upon on skill and merit"
Every implementation of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" I have seen ignores merit in favor of quotas.
Nothing to add. Everyone knows the problems. I won’t recommend service under this leadership, under these policies, under these flag officers.
DEI = DIDN’T. EARN. IT.
Some do. And, that's part of the problem. If a squared-away black guy gets promoted to Chief, rumors of "didn't earn it" follow him even if he was far and away the best in his flight.
Mr. T, you just need to accept the fact that what you want is liberalism. Good, old-fashioned, egalitarian "equal opportunity."
There is a big difference between the liberalism of Harry Truman, JFK and Hubert Humphrey and the Marxist radicalism of Obama, Biden and Harris.
Huge difference
Only if you believe the partisan propaganda shoveled out. Aside from a few doddering professors, there are no Marxists in public life. Everybody shouts "Marxist" but nobody reads Karl, nobody knows what a "Marxist" is. You clearly don't.
Simply put, Marxism is communism. A Marxist is working for a classless society where the means of production and Capital are held collectively.
Joe Biden is a conservative. That's why he gets such heat from the Democratic left. Look at his legislation, law-and-order, "tough" on crime with minimum mandatories galore. Kamala is a cop! She's further to the right than Biden. That's why the idiot left-wingers are voting for Jill Stein and tossing the election to Trump. Moving the Overton Window to the point where you can call pro-business conservatives "Marxists" is a tool of the fascists.
"Joe Biden is a conservative."
"Kamala is a cop!"
and
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Either you are stupid or insane or you think we are.
With all the respect that is due, you are simply misinformed. Look at Joe Biden's actual legislation. Read the bills. The man has a 40 year voting record. He is an intuitionalist; a conservative intuitionalist. Read what the left is saying about him. They are accurately castigating him because of his conservative policy positions. The idiots are voting for Stein because Biden and Harris are "conservative."
Kamala most definably was a cop; a badge-carrying line prosecutor in a big city prosecutor's office. Liberals don't advance in prosecutor's offices. The lady was career law enforcement. Look at her drug policy: conservative. Far too conservative to my taste. "Facts," as John Adams said, "are stubborn things." Kamala is a cop.
Personally, I have no problem putting a cop in the White House. I work with some pretty right-wing cop-types on a daily basis. The ones I know may have some pretty wacky right-wing ideas, but they also have impeccable character and an acute sense of propriety; virtues The Donald is missing. Kamala's opponent lacks the moral fitness to do the job.
What are you smoking?
You also have lost your mind
"nobody knows what a "Marxist" is. You clearly don't."
Really Tom?
Here is Bill Ayres, Obama's mentor...
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/09/25/126765/
"Bill Ayers was once known for setting off bombs during his time with the revolutionary communist group, the Weather Underground, in protest against the U.S. government."
And its no secret he facilitated launching Obama's career.
https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/presidential-campaign/28339-obama-and-bill-ayers-together-from-the-beginning/
"Barack Obama’s first run for the Illinois state Senate was launched at a famous fundraiser and kickoff for the campaign at a 1995 gathering at the house of Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn..."
If I may, gentlemen... The current rhetoric regarding Marxism and Fascism ignores the fact that both are extreme forms of socialism, and both seek to control the people as well as their wealth. Both represent slavery without visible chains. What matters is how people were trained, and what they do with the power they obtain.
Socialism: If you have two cows, the Government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
Communism: If you have two cows, Government takes both and then gives you some milk.
Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep the cows and give the milk to the Government; then the government sells you some milk.
New Dealism: If you have two cows, you shoot one and milk the other; then you pour the milk down the drain.
Nazism: If you have two cows, the Government shoots you and keeps the cows.
Capitalism: If you have two cows, you sell one and buy a bull.
It is amazing how strongly the modern progressives fight against the fact that Fascism in Italy was a child/branch of Socialism.
Facts get in the way of some people’s arguments.
You have lost your mind
"there are no Marxists in public life"
Both Harris and Walz are essentially Marxists.
Well Tom, my son was labeled as the affirmative action PhD student until his peers found out he was only 20 and skipped the Masters.
You'll get little argument on that (good old fashioned Liberalism), Tom. The problem is that JFK would be called a Nazi today (or "garbage").
I went & read the 1960 Democratic Party platform, sounds pretty MAGA to me. And today’s R’s are to the left of the D’s. Michael Berry on his fb page had clips of Barbara Jordan (D), from the early 90s, talking about how illegals need to be stopped from coming in.
You spelled “meritocracy” wrong.
Nothing to add, eh, Mr. T? Just a simple, solid post. T'was like tossing chum in the china shop and red-flagging the bull, kind of like a mixican metaphor. But it sure brought out the big guns. Nicely done, T. Bandersnatch, boojums and snark...O my!
They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
They charmed it with smiles and soap.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2a/Lewis_Carroll_-_Henry_Holiday_-_Hunting_of_the_Snark_-_Plate_6.jpg/381px-Lewis_Carroll_-_Henry_Holiday_-_Hunting_of_the_Snark_-_Plate_6.jpg
Silver tongue devil you.
I may have missed this topic earlier but this book by a group of Boat School graduates(and others) speaks to this issue. https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Give-Up-Ship-Endangering/dp/B0DCJBQXJN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27TURU99JCPT1&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CeD5Tjj8Bq3drNHogDcftg.VZVQQNU6fVMymUIMwYUMIGCfJFmlBsa8v3-wFITvJR8&dib_tag=se&keywords=don%27t+give+up+the+ship+calvert+task+group&qid=1730381355&sprefix=don%27t+give+up+the+ship%2Caps%2C127&sr=8-1
This looks good; thank you.
One of the scourges of our public debate is the reduction of issues so that they have overly simple solutions. Problems, like the problem of retention, are often caused by multiple factors, and focusing on one aspect ignores factors that may be contributing to the problem more than the solution at hand. DEI is not why we can’t retain sailors and removing DEI is not going to result in a surge of re-enlistments.
The Commander is spot on with his focus on family. More important than a DEI problem is are the issues of housing and shore duty. There was a time in the history of the United States when an Officer or Petty Officer would get orders to a ship or station, and he and his family would move to a house on the base. Sailors would serve at sea, then at shore and back to sea again. Often, they had comfortable on-base housing.
Over the decades, our nation did not focus on maintaining our stock of on-base housing. We let it fall into ruins as we “privatized” military housing by giving sailors allotments to engage in private housing outside the base. Given a choice between run-down, rat-infested crumbling housing or the private market, families fled the bases.
Sea duty is punishing; it always has been. Sailors with families need to know that their families are safe and secure. Putting families in safe, secure, beautiful housing lets sailors go to see knowing their family is in good hands. Meaningful shore duty allows sailors to be with their families.
That is not to say that DEI is not detrimental, an egalitarian force is far more effective that one where connections and family determine the order of battle. But, a 26 year-old kid with a wife he loves are going to be looking for a nest. As a nation we should recognize family housing is as essential to our nation's defense as bullets.
DEI is a cancer and has spread into the vital organs of society. It is killing the nation.
Show me a peer-reviewed study that says DEI is inimical to the advancement of society. Just one.
Peer reviewed. All DEI peers agree that DEI is a good thing.
Not a study, perhaps you missed this;
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/06/ucla-woke-medical-school-dei/678606/
And give me one reason why nine year old boys need tampons in their school bathrooms.
Just one.
Dude, have you never run out of straws and wrappers for a quality in-class mayhem melee?
"Show me a peer-reviewed study that says DEI is inimical to the advancement of society. Just one."
Here is some empirical evidence of the corrosive effects of DEI...
"Smart Money" is beginning to recognize it, even if "The Really Smart Guys" in the National Security sphere cannot...
https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2024-10-31/boeing-dismantles-diversity-department-bloomberg-news-reports
Boeing Dismantles Diversity Department, Bloomberg News Reports
By Reuters
Oct. 31, 2024, at 5:40 p.m.
"peer-reviewed" means not what it used to, perhaps truly naught, outside the most physical of sciences, and even there entrenched dogma inhibits scientific exploration.
In the social "sciences" is is completely useless and meaningless.
"More important than a DEI problem is are the issues of housing and shore duty."
No, housing and tempo effect retention, but no 18 y/o walks away because of married housing
I’m looking at the critical 1st Class Petty Officer group, which is where the subject matter experts reside. If E-5, and E-6 are happy and thriving retention for the lower ranks is easy.
My kid stayed Navy because she promoted to E5 then E6 and was able to live in very safe and nice and normal and quiet apartments.
"There was a time in the history of the United States when an Officer or Petty Officer would get orders to a ship or station, and he and his family would move to a house on the base. Sailors would serve at sea, then at shore and back to sea again. Often, they had comfortable on-base housing. ". That did not happen on my watch, which was 30 years. Housing was always scant and hardly comfortable--except for senior officers.
Clinton's "peace dividend" was not the only time we neglected our military bases. We had so many after WWII that we let them all rot; even the ones we were using.
We still have Naval Stations and Bases with land a'plenty to build good housing. We can't have a 600 ship navy without crews.
MILCON always sucks hind teat in funding.
Unless it is to build a brand new gym to replace the 5 year old one because there is plenty of new construction money but no maintenance money.
That was something Lehman noted the Air Force doing in the 1980s.
We used to laugh about it in the 90's. I had a friend, USAFA grad, married, 1st Lt, living in base housing, detached two story house, 5 or 6 rooms, no kids.
I had a shipmate, senior Lt, 3rd kid on the way, hoping to get into base housing once the third was extant.
You are in love with the sound of your own voice.
Everything you said about housing is valid, yet DEI is a separate cancer and can addressed separately (and more easily).
"...this will continue to be a festering, cancerous growth on the U.S. military until it is excised."
Agreed.
First, this current gang must be removed.
Second, everyone associated with and every policy aspect of DEI no matter how deeply embedded in the military must be removed beginning on 1/20/25.
Third, symbolism is important. Restore all the CSA names and monuments. Restore the original words on the arch at the USAFA ("Give Me Men"). Etc.
Intentional. This is intentional. When the left accuses us of totalitarianism, I believe that what they accuse us of, they are guilty of just that.
They want to poison the military, weaken it, because they don’t believe in America. The evidence is open borders. They truly don’t believe in the greatest country in the world who has saved tens of millions of lives through the sacrifice of military members.
They have successfully poisoned the larger military, but haven’t succeeded with the Navy Seals.
I believe the ongoing battle with CAPT Geary and the death of Kyle Mullins is the attempt to destroy the independence of the Naval Special Warfare Community.
NCIS found PEDS in Mullins vehicle but the autopsy never tested for it.
The DOD (Biden’s DOD) tried to plant a DEI bureaucrat in Little Creek (NSW) in 2001? Or something like that.
My E6 Quartmaster just reenlisted because she likes navigating ships, likes her job.
But she’s heard on the waterfront how short they are of QM’s and said they are so short (in general) recruiting, they have pushed through Sailors in boot camp who would be dropped from the Navy at any other time.
As I said, the left has intentionally made it untenable for conservatives to join or families to support it.
I’m thrilled that my kid is so freaking tough and talented and stands up for herself that no one dares take her on. And she’s very good at her job.
She proudly voted with me last week (on leave) for President Trump.
I saw a clip of Capt. Geary talking about that incident, and also that they had an entire class ring the bell during Hell week , less than two weeks after the whole class was forced to take the mRNA COVID therapy. Big Navy wanted to know what changed in training that caused everyone to drop out. I don't use this term loosely: retards.
The way to fix this problem is to put more bright and smiling, "diverse-looking" models in recruitment commercials. This seems to work great for every single corporate advertiser in Amerika.
The first flag to go has to be the Chair of the Joint Chiefs. That guy has openly stated and supported DEI initiatives. I have zero faith in him as a warfighter.
I’m extremely confident he was chosen because of him being the second coming of Obama. Yes, I believe he’s that bad.
Next to go should be the CNO, the Commandant of the USCG and the Superintendent of the USNA. All DEI picks. Any others out there?
Yup. As I’ve said, the USNA DEI chick Supe is ALL about diversity. This DEI cancer has metastasized. FULLY entrenched. You’ll also need to cut out the many years of JO’s who’ve been indoctrinated by USNA. They’re fully onboard with this sorry mess…and BarryO smiles. The “fundamental transformation” is on track.
"Three years into a recruiting crisis, however, the Pentagon hasn’t specifically surveyed this core constituency to determine what’s going wrong." They don't want to find out. They despised that core constituency. They are happy they drove all that "white rage" out of the military ranks. Add in also that experimental "vaccine" they forced people to get even defying the freedom of religious principles of the military personnel.... 4 generations of military service are over with in the large Bravo clan. Every branch involved. And it's not so much about "losing wars" (the South is big on finding value even in the biggest loss on our own soil). It's being FORCED to lose by people who kept a war going on so toddlers could grow up to still fight the war their fathers were sent over to stalemate 2 decades before. Ridiculous. Will be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, a President Trump 2.0 can fix this.
"Will be interesting to see how quickly, if at all, a President Trump 2.0 can fix this."
I am hoping that it does get fixed as well. There are two ways to remove leaf litter, limbs and debris from a forest - periodic controlled burns or wildfire/replant. The latter approach, while effective, destroys the valuable along with the valueless. I also hope that when the Herculean task is initiated that there is both a good enough plan and the right people to execute on it. "Right people" being those with zero/zip/nada interest in the swamp or its denizens.
Look ok on the "bright" side: likely future generations will be able to serve honorably in the community militia fending off roving gangs of thieves and worse, after the DEI folks get determinative control of the power grid and it goes away for a few months or years.
Here's a basic problem...the % of caucasians in the USA, for instance, is 54%. About 15% of the Army is female. Yet, there have been in recent years a Brigadier list exclusively of white men.
I feel the same way about the NBA. Doesn’t represent America.
Way too many Russians in the NHL too!
Canadians too!
I like Canadians.
Why on earth would you admit to such a thing (William Shatner aside)? :)
Vimy Ridge, Billy Bishop, and Juno Beach but those were a long time ago.
Few well educated blacks making an informed decision would choose to join when they have so many better options in the civil sector.
And, you know this to be fact, or just your opinion?
Well gee dude, I'll let you guess. Young black male with a Bachelor STEM degree in cyber/compsci/math is looking at $300K+ per annum to go to Wallstreet as a cyber whitehat or $60K or so as O-1 working 100 plus hours a week at sea. Ask me how I know.
My son just might take a reserve commission as an O-4. That ain't bad for a 27 year old math phd.
I've been bantering off and on with Jetcal1 here for near a decade. He knows:)
Hey Mikey, in one of the first comment here, Aviation Sceptic asks some important questions. Why don’t you answer them instead of regurgitating leftist bullshit?
Are you implying the Army selection boards are racist? Along the same lines, are the NBA owners racist? How about physics PhD awarding institutions?
CDR.
If you are a Leftist, you believe that every aspect of America is riddled with racism.
Leftism is a religion, and racism is their version of original sin.
I would not say that NBA owners are racist. I’ve been in wonder how black men dominate the NBA. I can only believe that the physiology of black men are superior to white men.
Which is fine and should be lifted up and celebrated.
My problem is the continued meme of systemic racism when clearly a majority of white fans welcome celebrating superior athletes which happens to be professional black athletes. College football too.
So what does that prove?
I get a kick out of the, "generals and admirals...blah, blah...statements." I wonder if that is new to this era? Nah...I expect not.
What is unique to this era is to have an active political movement call military members, especially those who sacrificed limbs, sight, scars, and life, losers. Indeed...the military is still the most respected national entity, but its popularity decreased by over 25% since "My Generals" became "losers and suckers." Google it.
Unbiased google
Well Admiral, shall we point to the material condition/FMC rates, the 9-14K gapped type two billets, the inability of the Navy after FORTY(!) years to reload VLS at sea, the loss of the BHR pierside, optimum manning that killed 17 sailors......would you like me to go on?
And while you ran for the senate as a Democrat? I expect you to be biased. But you were large and in charge for how many years?
TBF to the right honourable admiral, he served on ABs four times and once as CO of DESRON 28 according to Wiki. That is only five tours. In CDR Sal's time 2 World Wars is not nearly enough time to solve the ball of tangled yarn that is VLS reloading at sea. The hinterlands do not appreciate how Byzantine the Potomas has become.
Nonetheless as a Flag he owns the current state of the USN which began its decline on his watch. His party owns the SecNav who stated his number one priority was climate change. Not readiness, not retention, climate change.
You and your peers really should engage in some honest self reflection...
But I am not hopeful that is going to happen.
As for this...
"My Generals" became "losers and suckers." Google it."
You were a Democratic Senate candidate (you lost), so spare me the political pablum.
What is unique to this era is a class of Generals and Admirals who openly attempted to "Queeg" the Commander in Chief...
Adm McRaven speaking in uniform and all but openly advocating for the removal of the CinC
Gen. Milley openly stating that he would warn the Chinese if the CinC made, what was in his opinion a rash decision.
Gen. Kelley, who instead of immediately resigning when the CinC purportedly made the "suckers and losers" statement, stayed on, and only made these things public years later.
What does have credibility, that the CinC made the lament that he wished he had 'loyal Generals...", because he sure didn't.
This applies Admiral... but the ones who should take heed think they are too superior to bother with the message:
https://youtu.be/5SRxYONb12I?si=WYIpQ7WhIAJgSQHA&t=30
Recall these rotten flags to active duty and indict them for treason.
As far as I am concerned they are all f%^&& liars and traitors, and I rather doubt at this point I'll ever see any evidence to dissuade me of that impression
I have a close family member with serious mental health issues that gave me a more than passing familiarity with the "field". Was advised that often people suffer from the "if you spot it, you got it" syndrome. IOW, if you think someone is a narcissist after you observe them, you are "spotting" you own world view on that person (they are acting just how I would!). The number of high ranking personages I've observed that "spot" a former president's flaws when maybe, just maybe they need to look in the mirror is...large. Pot calling the kettle black, and all that, I guess.
It is unfortunate your mind has been broken by the relentless propaganda.
Rather than embarking on nonsensical barking...here is a study from ~2015 that captures the essence behind readiness and optempo.
https://csbaonline.org/uploads/documents/CSBA6174_%28Deploying_Beyond_Their_Means%29Final2-web.pdf
Of my grandparents, parents, and my generation, 12 of 13 men served and 4 of 13 women served. Of my age eligible children (nieces, nephews, and in-laws as well) and grandchildren's generation, 4 of 14 served. My anecdotal data point supports the overall declaration of diminishing numbers from 'military families'
While I come here for the spirited discussion, and I served myself, "well Heck, thank you ALL for your service."
My DEI short tent pole is that the DEI mafia claim that "diverse teams/boards/corporations/businesses/girl scout troops and the military all perform "better" than non-diverse entities. But where are numerical studies to back up the claim? I've seen no corporate annual meeting showing how DEI improved the return to shareholders, no retention stats showing "we recruit diversity and ALL stay", and no sports entity that has EVAH said "we win cuz we be diverse".
This past Christmas season I was in a place I rarely go - Walmart - and 7 black guys came in behind me all carrying a Food Lion paper bag. They went to the men's room and 3 min later emerged in their USAF flight suits with WINGED name tags with a SH call sign. I asked what unit they were with and they said USAF academy. Ohhh, what year? Sophomore or Three Degree. So I asked why their names tags all had USAF pilot wings. "To impress girls". I reminded them of the USAF C-17 base literally a mile down the road and weren't they concerned about commissioned officer spotting them. And their ringleader said and I quote "look at us, we're black, they ain't gonna nothing to us". Off they went.
I told my good friend (black, retired USAF O-5, USAF academy grad and a helluva pickleball player) the story and he said "DEI is the paint on the Air Force Potemkin village - looks good until it takes a hit and then SHTF".
I thought flight suits were for the, you know, flight line...
Sadly, in the past twenty years, they've become every day wear. Nobody at Mayport wore a flight suit to the Fleet Exchange in the 1990s. I'd remember, as I sold popcorn there as a Cub Scout. Now, air crew wear them all the time.
If I got to be a Base CMC, or higher, my first rule would be "No wear of flight suits off the flight line outside of 1100-1300." If that was resisted, I'd get a dress poopy suit (clean blue coveralls with patches) and wear that and sneakers around base HQ until someone wigged out.
"Nobody at Mayport wore a flight suit to the Fleet Exchange in the 1990s"
So, back in summer of '89 I was in a school on Coronado, and one of my guys asked "Sir, I need to go to the bank at lunch; can I" and since there was an NFCU branch on base I said "Sure, Perry Officer Smithers."
At end of training day, I find myself in wet and sandy greens in front of a displeased O-5 XO asking if I truly gave Petty Officer Smithers permission to go out into town to the Bank of America in his dirty, unwashed greens during lunch. I sadly admitted that I had in fact, unwittingly, done so.
I was asked politely to visit the beautiful waters of the Pacific, frolic in the sand for a bit, and do 250 8-count body builders for my sins, which was a less than pleasant experience 12 hours into the training day, LOL.
Good times
I've got a feeling that Smithers was put up to it by someone to informally test you.
The minute God crapped out the third caveman, a conspiracy was hatched against one of 'em!
Lest I give a false impression, I was also asked to leave said school after a few months due to a bit of claustrophobia that was at the time insurmountable, but it was a great experience.
I started to see the pre-curser to DEI in the early 2K's when an admin officer reported to us and immediately (insidiously) began dividing the staff under the guise of 'mentoring' the female Sailors. Until that point I, (as CSO/CO-acting) had everyone on the same team and focused on our mission, but discovered she was selectively excluding some of our female officers who weren't buying her BS (and all the male staff) thereby dividing the staff into DEI-like groups of favored and not-on-her-team. I stopped this disruptive practice at the time, but when a new CO reported, he and his wife were privately 'courted' by this person and my objections were silenced. It was disruptive to our mission and harmful to those not on the diversity team. Our Flag next door rescued me by transferring me to his staff.
General Charles Q. Brown, Jr., our current Chairman, JCS, was the Air Force Chief who did this.
"The Air Force issued a memorandum in 2022 setting specific race and sex quotas for officers."
1. The only kind of diversity that should matter is that we draw personnel from all 50 states of the Union in approximate proportion to population. We ought to have representation for all of the country. Being Virginia's Navy or Texas's Army does us no favors.
2. I've been souring on getting new people in, despite the barrage of posters at the NRC to have every Sailor a recruiter. I know a couple of Canvasser/Recruiters (SELRES on active orders), and if I know someone interested, I'll send them that way. At this point, the black marks of the political decisions on Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with the preference for DEI over basic operations, discourages me from encouraging enlistment. I'll stay for retirement, just to say that I could, but if I wasn't at closing in on that point, like many experienced sailors I know, I'd be separating.