I take no joy in writing this as I served in the Air Force for twenty-five years before retiring in 1995. But it seems we were different then, especially among the senior officer ranks. And those officers that came before don’t deserve the legacy they are seeing today. Let me explain what I mean and how I’ve observed one of the most harmful programs in my recent memory become a false god. DEI.
A sham program, a blivit for us of a certain age. It is currently being thrown overboard in corporate boardrooms, federal agencies, and academia. For the military I would submit it’s a feel good program that forces conformity and seriously degrades unit cohesiveness and war fighting skills. And, from his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, it seems our next SECDEF agrees. And with a stroke of the pen yesterday so does our President. But like many mistakes the Services have made, it probably got a back bencher promoted in these days of ideological conformity. And our current crop of generals unfortunately carried the water.
But off-the-cuff programs such as these promote a ruinous victimhood. How? By discouraging and denigrating personal effort, dedication and merit, hiding them behind the cloak of kumbaya. For those who disagree with me, how has this program contributed to color blindness rather than color consciousness? Innovation? How has it helped the war fighter in the field? And while we’re looking at it, did it directly contribute to an AF goal of reducing the percentage of “white pilots”? How does that contribute to retention and recruiting? To me, it says “whites” need no longer apply. So we’re instituting racial quotas? Isn’t that illegal? We’ve always had pilot retention problems at one time or another but do we have to have the Head Shed exacerbate them?
As I’m often reminded, I’m “old school” writing about the current military. But two things were schooled into us in those bygone days, accountability and responsibility. I saw wing commanders fired over a failed Operational Readiness Inspection. A failed Nuclear Surety program. I saw NO ONE fired, or do the right thing and resign, over the chaos that was Kabul when 13 service members died and many others were wounded as a result of incompetent decision making. I would say “planning” but there was obviously none of that. Did that event also contribute to not meeting recruiting/retention goals? Have we sacrificed what’s right? Has leadership failed? Only 57% “of servicemembers and military families say they’d recommend joining the service.” (Military Family Advisory Network, 2023) So we wonder what is the problem with recruiting and retention. Is it all DEI? No generals, it’s leadership. The needs of the military come first. Remember? No matter race, color, or creed.
In sum, the Woke will not inherit the earth. So I hope we return to those old days. And I hope that the Air Force will lead the charge. So let’s “salt the earth” so that ill-conceived programs such as this never grow back again.
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