And about the military
It is the policy of my Administration that the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security with regard to the United States Coast Guard (USCG), and every element of the Armed Forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex.
There’s a ton more at the link, but the goal is to rid the military of the policy of DEI Uber Alles. It started to be implemented during the Obama administration, to the best of my recollection, and picked up enormous steam during the Biden administration. It is deeply entrenched now. Good luck getting rid of it.
We’re already seeing some of the resistance from the Military bureaucrats with the malicious compliance by officers in recruit training who eliminated mentions of the Tuskegee airmen and women pilots during World War II from training materials. Senator Britt from Alabama was tipped off and she contacted DOD head Hegseth who quickly reversed it. It will be interesting to see how Hegseth disciplines the officers involved.
It might be a good idea to try to avoid wars for a while, with the military leadership as it has grown up under Obama and Biden.
“the military leadership as it has grown up under Obama and Biden.”
I can’t remember where I read it, but someone was saying that there are now more flag officers in the US Navy than there are ships. In WWII there were roughly 130 ships per admiral. During the cold war it was 2.2 ships per admiral. After the Berlin Wall fell it was 1-1.6 ships per admiral, and now it’s actually a negative ratio.
No wonder this garbage took hold so easily. The services are jampacked with petty careerists.
@Praising With Faint Dams:now it’s actually a negative ratio.
There would have to be fewer than zero admirals, or fewer than zero ships, for that to be true… but I can believe the ratio is less than one.
The Director needs to start passing out pink slips like he’s passing out Halloween candy. That’s how you fix it in a hurry.
I Callahan has the right of it. You reform the military the same way the leftists did… by purging from the top down and promoting those who take seriously defending the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic.
I agree, do it the way that Clinton and Obama did it. Purge the GOFO corps.
GOFO = General Officer Flag Officer
That’s the level that will have to be purged, since leftists were promoted and normal military people opted for early retirement after being passed over. If Hegseth can reverse this, young men might sign up again. Under Biden, they didn’t want to.
Bring in the FAFO corps!
F*** Around, Find Out.
It is odd to have to say that war is different from other issues;
But when a leader is chosen for some reason other than competence, it becomes obvious to the rank and file. And, presuming he doesn’t get a bunch killed, re enlistment won’t look particularly good.
And if you’re a veteran advising a kid….
See LTG Kara Hultgren. The real betrayall was that the F14 iis a two-seater and the Navy put people who’d never done them any harm in the aircraft flown by pilots demonstrably unfit to fly the thing.
Although I have no direct experience, I think the chain of command and the way it works, will turn out to be a great expediency. Once Hegseth makes the principle of accountability clear to his ranks, then senior officers will understand they can be demoted, and once that happens a few times, you can bet the junior officers within their commands will get the message at light speed.
If anybody is trying on disruption through over-obedience or other passive-aggressive forms of behavior, it won’t take long to enforce discipline. The absence of labor laws and punitive lawsuits is going to simplify the task. I wish them luck, because as others have mentioned, the rot has been nurtured for a couple of decades now.
Vets here are welcome to correct me, but I suspect there is a deep hunger in our military to get rid of the woke.
Trump and Hegseth are giving our men and women the opportunity. My bet is they take advantage of it … fast.
It’s obvious that military rank structure is, to use a metaphor, pyramidal.
The higher, the narrower; fewer bricks.
So when a captain is hoping to make major, so are a bunch of others. One makes it, the others up for promotion (time in grade and other considerations) are “passed over” for promotion. When I was in, passed over twice and you’re out.
But not necessarily. Almost all officers south of general have “reserve” commissions. “regular” commissions come from the Academy and some other paths but are rare. Your “regular” rank is as an enlisted man.
Saw a major turn into a staff sergeant once. He can stay in until he gets his twenty years, more than likely, and retire at E6 rank. With associated pensions and adjustments for earlier compensation (I think).
Also knew a major who was going to be medically retired a few days before he had his twenty in as a commissioned officer. Convinced the doctors to keep him between the sheets for an extra week. Worked.
Point is, if you want to make the military your career as a commissioned officer, you don’t want to be passed over. And screwing up your superior’s policies is a good way to get passed over, since there are other candidates who didn’t oppose it., It would be written–figuratively speaking–in bold letters in red Sharpie in your offficer efficiency report.
So, when DEI is forbidden at the highest levels, not many can afford to mess with it. And if somebody plays it straight while his commander is stilll pushing DEI, a “reclama” can be sought if said commander tries to screw you on your next OER.
I conclude that, if this is made sufficiently clear, it will filter down relatively quickly, except for those trying to continue it under cover of other requirements.
Hard to believe most of the folks actually doing it in this age actually believe it in. They’re ordered to and, culturally, expected to. Given a chance not to…I suspect they’ll take it.
Well the rot has been entrenched in the US Military Academy (West Point); remember the graduation ceremony when one cadet proudly (?) showed the inside of his dress cover (cap) where he had written
IIRC he didn’t serve but how could he graduate with that mindset? His fellow cadets didn’t care? WTF!
A future “Milley?”
om:
That would be Comrade Spenser Rapone. Apparently he was a decent fellow radicalized by his experiences in Afghanistan.
________________________________
Toward the end of his deployment, he learned West Point fulfills a certain quota of enlisted soldiers every year. Despite his growing disillusionment about the military, he applied and got in.
“I was still idealistic,” he said.” I figured maybe I could change things from inside.”
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/06/19/commie-cadet-sends-vulgar-message-on-his-way-out-of-the-army/
________________________________
My best friend from high school got a ticket to West Point as an enlisted soldier. It didn’t hurt that his father was one of the most decorated sailors in WW II.
Unfortunately, he had such high blood pressure that he collapsed on the field during an exercise. The Army put him on a stretcher and barely let him move until he was safely discharged and ineligible for benefits.
Huxley:
So an “idealistic” soldier turned communist and wanted to change things from the inside? How original.
But wait there’s more (but different):
https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/01/28/hegseth-pulls-milleys-security-detail-and-orders-review-to-consider-grounds-for-demoting-him-n2184927
A Court Martial (sic?) would be fitting. Second Lieutenant Milley, how’s that sound?
A friend told me that you can be medically discharged for having diabetes, asthma, and other issues since you cannot be deployed overseas where the medicines and the treatment may be unavailable.
So, when will the medical discharges start for the variety of trans-soldiers? I think the morale of the units will improve.
Can you imagine if Secretary Hegseth visits some of the bases and spends some time training with the troops? It would help to see some fit people in the higher ranks. Many of the staff seem to be rather overweight.
Don’t forget the service members that were discharged for refusing the vaxx.
Trump has offered to reinstate them at full rank and with back pay. He can demote the recalcitrant officers and replace them with ones who actually have principles and the backbone to honor them.
“Vets here are welcome to correct me, but I suspect there is a deep hunger in our military to get rid of the woke.” – huxley
Ten years ago, I was invited to a “Dining In” (Formal squadron dinner – not something we did back in the day.) by the CO of the Squadron I was a member of in the 1960s.
It was a strange experience for me. There were a number of speeches given by various squadron members. Most of them were well intended and well given but were mostly about feelings and ambitions.
In my day any speeches would have been about being aggressive, hitting the target, flying a perfect carrier approach, flying tight formation, and other operational issues. Every pilot in the squadron wanted to be the best pilot in the Navy and tried to prove it every day in the sky. Feelings, ambitions outside being a pilot, and the like? Not a chance.
They were nice young men and women, and probably could do a decent job, but they were markedly different than the old days. I realized then that there had been a culture shift in Navy Air. I think Obama and his minions changed the culture. It’s a nicer, more nuanced military with goals other than maximum combat lethality.
It’s an all-volunteer service now, so what the leaders project is what we get. Force many of the “gentlemen” high ranks to retire and start promoting the tigers. That will attract the type of volunteers that we need. But it will take some time.
I’m sure there are some who will welcome the change, but they may not be as numerous as we hope. Time will tell.
J.J.:
I always welcome your comments and your experience.
With no experience myself I do hope there are embers of warrior spirit which may flame yet again.
The time is right.
@ Neo > “It [DEI] started to be implemented during the Obama administration, to the best of my recollection, and picked up enormous steam during the Biden administration. It is deeply entrenched now.”
That’s only 16 years: how can a culture change that fast and still be deep?
I’m hoping that the observations in the comments here are correct: that a lot of the wokery is lip-service to the priorities of the (corrupted) brass.
However, since the academies have had the same 16 years to indoctrinate the new officer corps, and some of the classes are coming in from infected high schools, I suppose the rot (IOW, sincere believers) can be wide-spread and many layers deep by now.
@ Molly Brown > “He can demote the recalcitrant officers and replace them with ones who actually have principles and the backbone to honor them.”
I really, really hope that you are correct about Trump reinstating the anti-covid-vax service members, but how many want to come back, after being shafted before and starting new careers?
@ J.J. > “Force many of the “gentlemen” high ranks to retire and start promoting the tigers. That will attract the type of volunteers that we need. But it will take some time.
I’m sure there are some who will welcome the change, but they may not be as numerous as we hope.”
Or as numerous as we need.
PS This particular EO was definitely crafted by a lawyer, as shown by the clauses about severability, liability, and implementation.
I don’t think I’ve seen that in many of the others where I’ve looked at the text itself and not the media reports.
Maybe I’ll check into it – (hah).
I suspect that the drafting was parceled out to people/groups with a particular interest in the subject matter, with varying degrees of experience in writing contracts and statutes.
Be interesting to know who the ghost-writers were.
Sometime during the past 20 years the US Naval Academy dropped the requirement for Celestial Navigation. That is to say for about five years the leadership of every ship out on the seas accepted that they only needed the necessary information provided by satellites! IOW if an aircraft carrier, for some “unforeseen” reason lost its satellite connections the ship would be dead in the water! That inevitability was accepted by the top command level !!
It was not until a group of retired Navy people got together and forced the Naval Academy to reinstate the Celestial Navigation requirement that the Academy saw the light of day!
It would be interesting if someone here could get the history of that event from the academy and make it available to the President so that he has some backup power! I remember reading the story in the press and the significance of that event had been watered down! The error may have already been corrected but the cause (source) of the error may still be in place ! Help the President do his job by providing factual information regarding educational practices in the services!
Bottom line here is to go back to the K-12 groups and start cleaning up that mess!
There are things called Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), submarines can’t use GPS, IIRC, without coming up near surface to put up an
antenna .
If INS is small enough and reliable enough for a boomer or attack sub I would guess it would fit and be good enough for an aircraft carrier.
Should be pretty easy to add a celestial nav device. After all spacecraft don’t use GPS. Of course we once chased our own rocket plume. Oops. I believe ICBMs are stellar inertial.
AesopFan:
DEI is fairly recent, but affirmative action is much older and a less extreme form of the same thing.
@Chases Eagles:I believe ICBMs are stellar inertial.
Yes, because inertial navigation has to be checked against a second form of navigation. Submarine-launched ICBMs, unlike land-launched ICBMs, cannot use their launch point as an external reference, because the sub’s position is not known accurately enough (at least not by the missile, the subs of course periodically use a second method to correct their inertial positions to whatever precision they find sufficient). I don’t know if different ICBMs have different navigation systems but the sub-launched ones at least use stars for external reference.
Of course the larger the missile payload, the less important it is to be accurate within meters….