CDR Sal, you were, still are, and likely will remain correct for some time into the future. This is not new, and is no longer a "drift", and is a deliberately chosen course. AFA grad, saw this clearly15 years ago, and it is accelerating. As you state, personnel is policy, those policies translate into actions, and those actions give you the desired result. That desired result seems to be a degradation in the officer corps of the U.S. military. And we are getting it, good and hard at all of the service academies.
Have to add, I personally only became aware of it 15 years ago. It started WAY before that. For context, my next reunion will be my 50th...hard to believe it's been that long...
Pete: And my much loved, 1907-vintage alma mater song went from "Men of Dartmouth" to "Dear Old Dartmouth." Co-education at Dartmouth arrived in 1974. Of course, the argument went that the word "men" was not inclusive of females, but, since we now know from experts in gender studies that men can be women, one could argue that the word "men" is, in fact, inclusive, not only of women, but also, of the other 55 genders (plus furbies).
Don’t expect anything from any boards overseeing USNA. The first thing the Biden-Horrible administration did was to purge those boards of anyone who might hold a dissenting opinion. The second thing they did was to purge any reference to the CSA including Admiral Maury. Apparently, if you are from the South you are not included. Don’t expect anything from the Superintendent either as her gender and ethnicity played a major part in her appointment.
Of all the problems in the Navy that CDR Sal has discussed over the past three years, the destruction of the officer corp on the altar of Marxist claptrap is the greatest threat to the ability of the Navy to fight a war.
Perhaps I missed it, but did the CNO address this core issue to rid the Academy of this cancer? For all the accolades and kudos given the CNO, is there anything of a higher priority than fixing this problem for the Navy's future leaders? Seed Corn and all that... SecDef also, but I still twinge at how much praise the CNO got, with very little feedback from what she missed.
We do not have a serious Navy in the Senior Ranks. One of the more egregious political hit jobs made recently was not allowing Admiral Bill Moran to be our CNO. A man of his experience and character could have done great things in four years. Cutting off our nose to spite our face.
If I understand that story, he was someone's rabbi, guy called out for acting the fool at a Christmas Party, and Moran maintained a professional relationship with him after? He didn't Cancel the guy? This was enough to prevent him from accepting CNO after confirmation?
It's an uphill battle for alumni fighting cultural marxism; (not just the academies) the alumni associations may be infiltrated and/or in bed with institution leadership. Seeing some of this from local universities in Lexington VA.
My VMI cadet has shared similar stories. But its not surprising, considering Wins' reputation in the Army prior to his federal service retirement -both from my own personal observations and shared anecdotes from peers/ colleagues.
I dunno, Jet. Maybe SecNav is on to something. Think about it. Climate Change = melting polar ice caps = rising ocean levels = more ocean to patrol & defend. Image how much more hard-pressed we'd be trying to be everywhere and doing everything with more ocean and a dwindling amount of ships. Just thinking out loud, but wouldn't it also help if the Pentagon, et al, expelled less CO2 (a key driver of Global Warming) or none at all? Would Yoga help? I've seen those YouTube videos of women in Yoga pants doing breathing exercises but it only makes me pant harder. But I just might be in a blind alley barking at a treed armadillo, metaphorical speaking. Hypoglycemia is calling me. I need a cinnamon roll. So does SecNav. But you are doing fine, Jet. Keep it up.
I don't know, wouldn't more ocean to patrol & defend maybe increase his budget?
Yoga Story: A long time ago when I was A-Div officer on a CVN and still smoking three packs a day and drinking 20 cups of coffee a day (and not sleeping a hell of a lot, eve in port) the almost spousal unit brought me to a civilian yoga class with her one evening. Instructed to cross one leg over the other, twist around opposite side and "squeeze your stomach muscles" I made my own prodigious and quite loud contribution to global warming, much to everyone's chagrin.
A little later as the instructor had us recline fully and "relax to the tips of your fingers and toes" I feel asleep and apparently snored loudly for some time.
If they make you play the pronoun game, make it hard for them. Choose I/me/mine. Then “they” have to refer to you as “I” or “me”. If they want to screw up the English language, it sucks to be them.
Don’t let them point at you when they say “I” or “me”, when they do, say it triggers you. If they say it is too confusing, well yes it is! Don’t let them use other pronouns on you or use your name, that asked your
A petty exercise in a much more important war, but sometimes fun.
Bottom line, thank you CDR Sal for continuing to shine the bright light on the problem.
I hope not to have to deal with this, but if it comes up I'm going with "Master/Master" or maybe "attack helicopter" if the audience might be in on the joke
This is unfortunately to be expected. I was a Regular NROTC grad---at least we could avoid the more egregious lefty professors, though at my school (Miami (Ohio), there were not that many. At the Academy, I gather there is no choice. This is forced indoctrination of the worst kind. C'mon Navy, do the right thing. Oh all right, maybe in the next ADMINISTRATION. Maybe.
Recently orphaned at 19, I entered USNA as Class of 60, 11th Company, in June, 1956. I was there two years - cruised off Rio on the IOWA - had (in retrospect) one of the happiest times of my life at Crabtown-on-The-Bay, but could not pass Calculus (or the re exam). Life, then, was pretty much as we youth had been taught: no woke faculty (one or two not suited, professionally, to teach, or lead) but the world was happy, then, due to ignorance of youth. Now, we all "know too much." In reality, the world is (was and is )a different place than how we were taught. For me, it was a time of Hyman Rickover, stories of 31-knot Burke, and of Captain F. Julian Beckton, who had fought his DD well at The Battle of Leyte Gulf (by co-incidence, in Command of Iowa on that cruise). Today, my late next-door neighbor had been an O-2 in a boiler room of the Heerman there, that day: his memory was mainly that their torpedo officer fired all their torps at a Jap Cruiser and missed. How did we get from the world, then, to the world now. Yesterday, you quoted Gen. Milley observing in a conference that we need to give our President as many options (including a mission-weak upgrade cruise missle with monkey glands) as possible. To me, that sounded like a kiss-ass comment by a bemeddaled veteran who somehow had lost sight of what his ass was in that chair for. He had won those medals in discharge of his oath as an officer but, now, thought his mission was to kiss Pelosi and Obama's behinds and make sure all wore their WW2 uniforms. He, like the Navy, had lost its way. The Battle Ship Admirals Nimitiz had to contend with back when, were a diffent breed of blindered professionals, than what I sense out there today. My middle kid is now at age 61 and a retired O6 at what used to be Fort Benning. It is now named Fort Al Sharpton or some such. The "white boys" no longer line up to sign up. The reasons abound as to Why.
Mark Milley accused Trump of disrespecting a disabled veteran when the video showed Trump embracing that man and greeting his family. Milley is a liar without shame and any cadet who did what he did would be expelled from the USMA.
"We welcome subspecialties in disability studies, film, and multiethnic or global Anglophone literature," the job description adds. I have the perfect film to assign on Day 1 of class: "My Left Foot," with young Daniel Day Lewis in the starring role. The character has no arms and lives in a poor English family. Yes, the protagonist is white, but, with film colorization, skin color is easy to change. By the way, the film is quite good.
Perhaps, the film can be re-made, with the protagonist playing a gunner's mate on one of His Majesty's ships, loading cannon balls into a 10-pounder with his feet. "All Feet on Deck!"
So, the Cold War actually ended in 2035 with the reds winning? 🤬
my preferred pronouns if someone asks or demands I tell them are:
Ghow/Fah/Qur/Silf
My pronoun Admiral of the Fleet.
I might be more direct... Mine would be F*/off/*itch...
They get upset when you say "My pronoun is 'Master.'"
CDR Sal, you were, still are, and likely will remain correct for some time into the future. This is not new, and is no longer a "drift", and is a deliberately chosen course. AFA grad, saw this clearly15 years ago, and it is accelerating. As you state, personnel is policy, those policies translate into actions, and those actions give you the desired result. That desired result seems to be a degradation in the officer corps of the U.S. military. And we are getting it, good and hard at all of the service academies.
It began at USAFA when they removed the words “Give Me Men” from the arch. That line was from a poem but the PC gang was offended.
Have to add, I personally only became aware of it 15 years ago. It started WAY before that. For context, my next reunion will be my 50th...hard to believe it's been that long...
Pete: And my much loved, 1907-vintage alma mater song went from "Men of Dartmouth" to "Dear Old Dartmouth." Co-education at Dartmouth arrived in 1974. Of course, the argument went that the word "men" was not inclusive of females, but, since we now know from experts in gender studies that men can be women, one could argue that the word "men" is, in fact, inclusive, not only of women, but also, of the other 55 genders (plus furbies).
Don’t expect anything from any boards overseeing USNA. The first thing the Biden-Horrible administration did was to purge those boards of anyone who might hold a dissenting opinion. The second thing they did was to purge any reference to the CSA including Admiral Maury. Apparently, if you are from the South you are not included. Don’t expect anything from the Superintendent either as her gender and ethnicity played a major part in her appointment.
Of all the problems in the Navy that CDR Sal has discussed over the past three years, the destruction of the officer corp on the altar of Marxist claptrap is the greatest threat to the ability of the Navy to fight a war.
Perhaps I missed it, but did the CNO address this core issue to rid the Academy of this cancer? For all the accolades and kudos given the CNO, is there anything of a higher priority than fixing this problem for the Navy's future leaders? Seed Corn and all that... SecDef also, but I still twinge at how much praise the CNO got, with very little feedback from what she missed.
The CNO has a degree in journalism. In a serious Navy she might have become CHINFO.
We do not have a serious Navy in the Senior Ranks. One of the more egregious political hit jobs made recently was not allowing Admiral Bill Moran to be our CNO. A man of his experience and character could have done great things in four years. Cutting off our nose to spite our face.
The anti-Moran coup was not a mistake, it was an intentional act.
Agree. I should have phrased it differently.
If I understand that story, he was someone's rabbi, guy called out for acting the fool at a Christmas Party, and Moran maintained a professional relationship with him after? He didn't Cancel the guy? This was enough to prevent him from accepting CNO after confirmation?
We deserve to lose the next war.
It's an uphill battle for alumni fighting cultural marxism; (not just the academies) the alumni associations may be infiltrated and/or in bed with institution leadership. Seeing some of this from local universities in Lexington VA.
My VMI cadet has shared similar stories. But its not surprising, considering Wins' reputation in the Army prior to his federal service retirement -both from my own personal observations and shared anecdotes from peers/ colleagues.
Teaching fighting and unit cohesion are what we need. All this DIE stuff does the exact opposite.
Kamas716: Fighting and unit cohesion? I think there's an estrogen injection for that (with annual boosters).
The SecNav has determined that climate change is the number one priority for the USN.
Where was the SecNavy when the USNS Big Horn ran aground? He was in Great Neck, NY to name a nonexistent ship after Long Island.
I dunno, Jet. Maybe SecNav is on to something. Think about it. Climate Change = melting polar ice caps = rising ocean levels = more ocean to patrol & defend. Image how much more hard-pressed we'd be trying to be everywhere and doing everything with more ocean and a dwindling amount of ships. Just thinking out loud, but wouldn't it also help if the Pentagon, et al, expelled less CO2 (a key driver of Global Warming) or none at all? Would Yoga help? I've seen those YouTube videos of women in Yoga pants doing breathing exercises but it only makes me pant harder. But I just might be in a blind alley barking at a treed armadillo, metaphorical speaking. Hypoglycemia is calling me. I need a cinnamon roll. So does SecNav. But you are doing fine, Jet. Keep it up.
I don't know, wouldn't more ocean to patrol & defend maybe increase his budget?
Yoga Story: A long time ago when I was A-Div officer on a CVN and still smoking three packs a day and drinking 20 cups of coffee a day (and not sleeping a hell of a lot, eve in port) the almost spousal unit brought me to a civilian yoga class with her one evening. Instructed to cross one leg over the other, twist around opposite side and "squeeze your stomach muscles" I made my own prodigious and quite loud contribution to global warming, much to everyone's chagrin.
A little later as the instructor had us recline fully and "relax to the tips of your fingers and toes" I feel asleep and apparently snored loudly for some time.
Sadly, I was not invited to return.
Jetcal1: "It's raining men! Hallelujah!"
Oh, sorry, wrong lyrics.
It's the only reasonable thing, really. NASA already has a handle on Muslim Outreach.
If they make you play the pronoun game, make it hard for them. Choose I/me/mine. Then “they” have to refer to you as “I” or “me”. If they want to screw up the English language, it sucks to be them.
Don’t let them point at you when they say “I” or “me”, when they do, say it triggers you. If they say it is too confusing, well yes it is! Don’t let them use other pronouns on you or use your name, that asked your
A petty exercise in a much more important war, but sometimes fun.
Bottom line, thank you CDR Sal for continuing to shine the bright light on the problem.
I hope not to have to deal with this, but if it comes up I'm going with "Master/Master" or maybe "attack helicopter" if the audience might be in on the joke
This is unfortunately to be expected. I was a Regular NROTC grad---at least we could avoid the more egregious lefty professors, though at my school (Miami (Ohio), there were not that many. At the Academy, I gather there is no choice. This is forced indoctrination of the worst kind. C'mon Navy, do the right thing. Oh all right, maybe in the next ADMINISTRATION. Maybe.
Do USNA professors have tenure? Can they even be sacked?
I'd hope the ones that just got there this year could still be canned, but who knows.
Incredibly embarrassing for my old trade school.
Recently orphaned at 19, I entered USNA as Class of 60, 11th Company, in June, 1956. I was there two years - cruised off Rio on the IOWA - had (in retrospect) one of the happiest times of my life at Crabtown-on-The-Bay, but could not pass Calculus (or the re exam). Life, then, was pretty much as we youth had been taught: no woke faculty (one or two not suited, professionally, to teach, or lead) but the world was happy, then, due to ignorance of youth. Now, we all "know too much." In reality, the world is (was and is )a different place than how we were taught. For me, it was a time of Hyman Rickover, stories of 31-knot Burke, and of Captain F. Julian Beckton, who had fought his DD well at The Battle of Leyte Gulf (by co-incidence, in Command of Iowa on that cruise). Today, my late next-door neighbor had been an O-2 in a boiler room of the Heerman there, that day: his memory was mainly that their torpedo officer fired all their torps at a Jap Cruiser and missed. How did we get from the world, then, to the world now. Yesterday, you quoted Gen. Milley observing in a conference that we need to give our President as many options (including a mission-weak upgrade cruise missle with monkey glands) as possible. To me, that sounded like a kiss-ass comment by a bemeddaled veteran who somehow had lost sight of what his ass was in that chair for. He had won those medals in discharge of his oath as an officer but, now, thought his mission was to kiss Pelosi and Obama's behinds and make sure all wore their WW2 uniforms. He, like the Navy, had lost its way. The Battle Ship Admirals Nimitiz had to contend with back when, were a diffent breed of blindered professionals, than what I sense out there today. My middle kid is now at age 61 and a retired O6 at what used to be Fort Benning. It is now named Fort Al Sharpton or some such. The "white boys" no longer line up to sign up. The reasons abound as to Why.
Mark Milley accused Trump of disrespecting a disabled veteran when the video showed Trump embracing that man and greeting his family. Milley is a liar without shame and any cadet who did what he did would be expelled from the USMA.
Victor Davis Hanson did a year as a visiting prof at the USNA in 2002-03. The Academy faculty was woke then. Here is a video of his experience. <iframe src="https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show/episodes/ce5217db-c9ee-42b4-b97e-3d698e6e81c0/embed?type=artwork&theme=dark-blue" style="width: 100%; height: 320px; border: 0 none;" scrolling="no"></iframe>
This is the weekly reminder that DEI = Didn’t Earn It…
"We welcome subspecialties in disability studies, film, and multiethnic or global Anglophone literature," the job description adds. I have the perfect film to assign on Day 1 of class: "My Left Foot," with young Daniel Day Lewis in the starring role. The character has no arms and lives in a poor English family. Yes, the protagonist is white, but, with film colorization, skin color is easy to change. By the way, the film is quite good.
Perhaps, the film can be re-made, with the protagonist playing a gunner's mate on one of His Majesty's ships, loading cannon balls into a 10-pounder with his feet. "All Feet on Deck!"
meanwhile on the navigation charts…