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Air Force Diversity Pilot Program Not Only Failed, It Likely Violated Its Own Non-Discrimination Policies

Air Force Diversity Pilot Program Not Only Failed, It Likely Violated Its Own Non-Discrimination Policies

Air Force reportedly restructured pilot training class to promote non-whites, but what do you do when the numbers, despite your best efforts, still don’t meet the perceived diversity goals? 

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The hits just keep coming for the United States military these days, and are all self-inflicted.

Whether its the Navy using transgender “Harpy Daniels” to boost recruiting, as we reported here: Navy Drag Queen Recruiters – Definitive Evidence that the Military has Lost Its Way and here: ‘Harpy Daniels’ Update – Navy Disavows Endorsement of Social Media by Its Own Drag Queen “Digital Ambassador”, or whether it is the Army giving away over a third of its front-line inventory of critical Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-air missiles, among billions of dollars of other weapons, free-of-charge to Ukraine, as we reported here: U.S. Weapons Stockpiles “Uncomfortably Low” Due To Arms Shipments to Ukraine and here: U.S. Weapons Stockpile Disaster Limiting Our Ability To Deter China In Taiwan, the U.S. military just can’t seem to stay out of its own way.

Not to be outdone by the Navy and Army, we now find out that in 2021 the United States Air Force held a pilot training class that largely excluded white male pilot trainees, as the Daily Caller has just reported: EXCLUSIVE: US Air Force Ran A Social Experiment To Graduate More Minority Pilots. It Didn’t Go As Planned:

As part of the larger military-wide effort to promote diversity in the service’s pilot ranks, the 19th Air Force command near San Antonio, Texas, “clustered” racial minorities and female trainees into one class, dubbed “America’s Class,” to find out if doing so would improve the pilots’ graduation rates.  However, not only did the effort fail to boost minority and women candidates’ success rates, but officers involved say they were ordered to engage in potentially unlawful discrimination by excluding white males from the class, documents show.

Two officers involved in creating “America’s Class” report that while initially the make-up of the class was designed to mirror U.S. census demographics, “once it became clear that the demographics of the current pool of students would prevent a demographic percentage that mirrors the US census as a whole, the order was changed by verbal order of the [Air Force] 47 OG/CC [Operations Group Command Section] to restructure the class with ‘anybody non-white.'”

The officers were concerned that this verbal order constituted “discrimination based on race” that was “a violation of the Air Force Nondiscrimination Policy (AFPD36-27 1.1).”

That Policy, found here, and which is an “Order of the Secretary of the Air Force,” states at Section 1.1 that “[u]nlawful discrimination against military members is any unlawful action that denies equal opportunity to persons or groups based on their race [or] color…”

One of the officers “contacted the Laughlin [Air Force Base, where the class was taught] Equal Opportunity (EO) office…to inquire on the legality of the order with regards to possible racial discrimination,” but was “told the act of restructuring a class based on race in itself was not illegal…”

But the officers did not “agree with the [verbal] order from an ethical standpoint,” noting that Air Force “class structures have never been based on a minimum quota for race or gender,” and that “the message this send to students and future students is harmful.”

Another current Air Force Instructor Pilot, “who spoke on a condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal,” had this to say:

“When other priorities, like gender or race, are introduced as a metric of assignment and advancement, the foundations of performance-based competition are sacrificed and the emphasis on safety takes a backseat.”

Of course, those fears are not unfounded, as Matthew Lohmeier, a former Space Force Lieutenant Colonel who was fired, forced to retire, and and subjected to an Inspector General investigation within the Pentagon found out after publishing his bestselling book, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military, which tears the lid off the military’s obsession with racist and radical “woke” ideologies.

The problem is that this is the inevitable result of an Air Force culture that prizes “diversity” and “equity” over merit.

Since March 3rd of this year, the Air Force has opened three new jobs for supervisory “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) jobs paying from $82,000 to $183,500 per year.

In addition, the DOD’s Strategic Management Plan for Fiscal Years 2022-2026, available here, has as specific performance goals to increase recruitment and promotion/retention of “underrepresented groups” every year.

And the Air Force released its own Diversity Plan for “rated” officers, like pilots, two months after Joe Biden took office: U.S. Air Force Rated Diversity Improvement Strategy, March 2021.

This plan aims to “develop and retain the Air Force’s best rated aircrew by harnessing diversity as a force multiplier and fostering a culture of inclusion,” and permits addressing “barriers and hindrances to cohesion among students and instructors” in training programs and to “remove rated minority and female aircrew integration and retention barriers.”

But what do you do when the numbers, despite your best efforts, still don’t meet the perceived diversity goals?  Issue verbal orders that can’t be traced mandating desired class racial demographics, Air Force Policy, the Civil Rights Act, and the United States Constitution be damned.

All of this occurs, of course, as Joe Biden nominates General Charles”CQ” Brown, Jr., curently the Air Force Chief of Staff, to replace Army General Mark A. Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  As the Washington Post reported last week, General Brown, has, among other things, “put an emphasis on diversity and racial justice,” and

While awaiting his confirmation to become Air Force chief of staff, Brown memorably released a video describing his experience as a Black man in the military after the police killing of George Floyd.  He said in it that he was aware of the “immense expectations” that came with his historic promotion, “particularly through the lens of current events plaguing our nation.”

Stay tuned.

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Comments

Since our military is no longer serious about defending Western Civilization, how about we turn over these airplanes to a military that IS serious about it:

https://www.idf.il/en/mini-sites/israeli-air-force/

E Howard Hunt | May 9, 2023 at 7:35 am

There are no rules against women competing in Formula 1 racing. And yet, despite every sponsor champing at the bit for a sexy girl-racer, none has materialized. Th fact is their bodies cannot handle the physical forces as well as men’s, and their decision making at such marginal extremes of force and speed is inferior. The same applies in the air. I chose women in order to leave significantly lower intelligence out of the argument. Women are almost as smart as men.

    Virginia42 in reply to E Howard Hunt. | May 9, 2023 at 7:57 am

    Historically women have done well as aviators (ask the Russians). But it won’t be a huge number and they should have to meet standards. We have *never* done it that way or at least we have constant shifts in standards to ensure a certain outcome. Never works.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to Virginia42. | May 9, 2023 at 8:01 am

      Women did really well proving themselves as aviatrixes during the old and gone Powder Puff Derby race. I think that was canceled over sexism or some such nonsense.

      Peabody in reply to Virginia42. | May 9, 2023 at 8:13 am

      “…we have constant shifts in standards to ensure a certain outcome. Never works.”

      The Air Force has had female fighter pilots for over 30years. They have had black female fighter pilots for over 20 years—just not in sufficient numbers to satisfy diversity quotas. So in order to get a higher percentage they must shift the standards. But does it work? No, never works!!!

      MosesZD in reply to Virginia42. | May 9, 2023 at 2:07 pm

      There was this thing called ‘Russian propaganda.’ The women pilots (Night Witches) flew 4,400+ combat missions and shot down just 38 German aircraft.

      Richard Bong (USAAF) shot down 40 confirmed. Johnnie Johnson (RAF) had 38 confirmed kills. David McCampbell (USN) shot down 34. Pappy Boyigton (USMC) shot down 26 not including his 2 kills durin his Flying Tigers time in China. Gabby Gabinski (USAAF – Polish pilot) had 28 kills.

      Those women were not special. They helped, but their accomplishments were mostly propaganda.

        markm in reply to MosesZD. | May 11, 2023 at 10:14 pm

        The night witches flew night-time bombing missions in Po-2 biplanes, which were derived from a 1920’s trainer. If they shot down any aircraft in air-air combat in the 1940’s, that’s amazing, because it wasn’t the mission and it sure wasn’t the right aircraft.

    buck61 in reply to E Howard Hunt. | May 9, 2023 at 12:11 pm

    not all pilots need to fly fighter jets and bombers, there is an entire fleet of cargo and transport planes that need pilots. They also have a large fleet of small passenger jets and training planes as well. Women have a long history of sitting in the left seat of these planes and doing it well.

      MosesZD in reply to buck61. | May 9, 2023 at 2:09 pm

      Absolutely. They ferried a shit-ton of aircraft to combat theaters. But people also make too much out of their combat contributions, like with the Russian Night Witches that wracked just 38 kills in 4,400+ combat missions.

      It’s the damn propaganda ping-pong. One side going ‘women useless’ the other side going ‘Yass Queen, you slay!’

Virginia42 | May 9, 2023 at 7:55 am

I doubt they care. This is all being done for the “feelz” regardless of how much damage it does or who it kills. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Maybe someday the American military can be run by the American military. Again.

RepublicanRJL | May 9, 2023 at 8:13 am

Why does the most powerful fighting force on the planet decide to decimate and divide the ranks?

Marxism is rising again and we can all thank Democrats with their Supreme Being Biden.

    Whitewall in reply to RepublicanRJL. | May 9, 2023 at 8:42 am

    It is a sickness produced by our culture and those who control our culture. On the other side of the world, the Chinese people have to overcome communism. Here at home, we only have to overcome its cousin ‘progressivism’ and the Democrats that operate it.

      CommoChief in reply to Whitewall. | May 9, 2023 at 9:16 am

      It isn’t a recent development. I was forcibly medically retired in ’15 from an Army career of just over 26 years of service. Throughout that time there were numerous examples of folks promoted b/c they checked one or more diversity boxes and others not promoted or not given the opportunity b/c they didn’t. The most glaring IMO was Lt Gen Sanchez, the V Corps Commander who was in totally over his head in the early days of Iraq. He simply wasn’t up to the task of command ing a Corps in combat nor being placed in charge of operations in Iraq.

      To be clear there are or were anyway some incredibly good Leaders and Soldiers who happened to check one or more boxes. They didn’t wear their tribal identity on their sleeve, just went about doing the best job they could and very often their performance was superb. Others who were selected due to tribal affiliation not so much.

      The DoD used a photo and summery of career record presented to a board to determine promotions for decades. The wokiestas at DoD were unhappy that SR officer selection LT Col and up were not more diverse, ignoring the SR enlisted promotion results which skew towards ‘diverse’ candidates way above what we would expect from the pool. So they got rid of the photo b/c they were convinced that showing what the candidate looked like led to racism. Then the results came back and selection of ‘diverse’ candidates for promotion plummeted by over 1/3. They restored the photos the next cycle.

The Gentle Grizzly | May 9, 2023 at 8:34 am

Question from folks who might really know: Were the “Red Tails” black aviators of WWII all they were blown up to be?

I have heard everything from they shot down eleventy-two bombers on every mission and suffered no losses. This from the Black History Month storytellers.

Others have said they were just a symbol, accomplished little, and were mostly cowards. This from some of the more effervescent people from places like American Renaissance.

Which is it?

    Fat_Freddys_Cat in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 9, 2023 at 9:47 am

    I suspect that will be a difficult question to get an honest answer to. Finding objective historians is a bit of a job these days.

    TheAbidingDude in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 9, 2023 at 10:33 am

    Were they aces that slaughtered every German that dared to take to the air? No.

    But that wasn’t the mission. Their job was to escort the bombers and ensure they got to the bomb line in good order, able to bomb, and then shepherd them back home.

    By all accounts from the time, they were extremely good at that mission, and had loss rates for their charges well below the theater average.

    You don’t win wars by shooting the enemy one plan at a time at 25,000 feet. You win them by dropping 100 tons of bombs on him at one go.

      Amen to that. Bomber crews had become accustomed to their escorts haring off after a first wave German fighters, only to have a second or third wave sweep in unopposed. The Red Tails *stuck* to the bomber formations, and had a far better record of surviving bombers going home than other units to the point where many bomber crews had a rather drastic change of opinion about racial relations. Amazing how having your life saved can affect your mind.

      The Gentle Grizzly in reply to TheAbidingDude. | May 10, 2023 at 5:23 pm

      Thank you.

    E Howard Hunt in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 9, 2023 at 10:44 am

    What I was able to find is that they proved just as good as the white fighter escort groups- no better; no worse. It is not surprising that rather than make an inspirational movie showing them to be just as good as whites, a comic book, superhero, celluloid monstrosity was released showing how they single handedly won WW2.

    The Red Tails were men who went through very tough screening and evaluation then flew and fought as well as any other Army Air Corps unit in WWII.

    Yes, modern re-writers of history tend to overload them with accolades, but that’s true for most if not all other units as well. Who is going to talk shite about their grandaddies unit? Everyone were ‘heroes’, as compared to mere veterans,

    They most certainly weren’t cowards, but neither were they all superheroes, just like any other unit.

    Free State Paul in reply to The Gentle Grizzly. | May 9, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    A history professor at Tuskegee wrote a paper about the RedTails. Some of his conclusions were:

    1) Using takeoff and landing accidents as a proxy for flying skill, they were average. Neither the best nor the worst accident rate.

    2) The claim that they never lost a bomber they escorted was not true. It was media propaganda (there was a “narrative” even then.) But their loss rate was very low.

    3) As Georgfellis has already pointed out, their success was due to not leaving the bombers to go chasing after kills. The Germans would take new fighters with fresh engines and strip out the guns and armor. They’d give these “hot rods” to their most skilled pilots, who would fly in a purposefully clumsy manner. Their job was to lure the more aggressive Americans away from the formation on a low-level wild goose chase.

Old Navy Doc | May 9, 2023 at 8:39 am

This a clear demonstration of what is taking place as the medical schools concentrate on everything EXCEPT intelligence and competence. Probably because REMF’s (look it up) are pushing these commands.

Is it coercion that leads our agencies to participate in this, or do they really believe in it?
IMHO, it is more divisive and dangerous.

The Chinese communist regime doesn’t need to lift a finger to corrode and erode the morale and cohesion of the U.S. military — the vile Dumb-o-crat brass in the Pentagon and in the field will do it, themselves, by imposing their corrosive, stupid, lawless and discriminatory racial diktats.

builder_bob | May 9, 2023 at 10:48 am

Ummm, each of the latest F-35’s cost the taxpayers about $89. Million each.
Now at that price, do we want the best and most experienced pilots flying or put the diversity hire in the cockpit and roll the dice..

Bucky Barkingham | May 9, 2023 at 10:57 am

FTA “19th Air Force command near San Antonio, Texas, “clustered” racial minorities and female trainees into one class”.

Anyone who served in the military knows that a “cluster” is another term for a disaster.

inspectorudy | May 9, 2023 at 11:03 am

When I went through the Navy flight training I started out with a class of about 30 men including one black guy. When I got my wings two years later there were 5 of us left. The pressure and stress were too much for many very smart and nice people who probably succeeded later in life but did not have the makeup to be fighter pilots. Out of the 5 who got wings only two went to fighters, the rest to transports or bombers. I simply cannot imagine throwing another requirement on new students to create the same results when that new requirement has nothing to do with being a good fighter pilot. Diversity is a meaningless word when applied to a skill or talent. All it means is a different skin color or gender, not diversity of opinion. How then is diversity a “Force Multiplier”?

    Gosport in reply to inspectorudy. | May 9, 2023 at 11:27 am

    When I went through Navy flight training, as a Marine, I couldn’t have cared less what the race of my fellow potential aviators was because the standards were the standards and they were ruthlessly enforced.

    What bothered me later in my career was watching standards being reduced to permit what I’ll call diversity, particularly of gender.

    Anyone who claims that quotas weren’t a factor is a liar or a total moron.

      inspectorudy in reply to Gosport. | May 9, 2023 at 3:39 pm

      Semper Fi brother. I’m too old to have had women in my class but I can’t imagine worrying about anyone else’s race or ethnicity but my own survival during that period. In that world, you produced or perished. Diversity has no meaning sitting in a cockpit.

DEI denies individual dignity, individual conscience, intrinsic value, and normalizes color blocs, color quotas, and affirmative discrimination.

That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one.

I have always been puzzled why the equity crowd seems to think that all “equitable” outcomes would reflect the demographics of the country. There is no evidence for this. Consider nursing, truck driving, or Chinese Language teachers – these professions all attract certain people and not because the profession is inequitable. If any one profession does not reflect the demographics of the country, then mathematically all other professions will not. The “equity” crowd have never given their assumptions much thought.

Free State Paul | May 9, 2023 at 4:39 pm

Everyone knows that diversity is our strength!

I’m confident that should America find itself in a hot war with Russia or China, our racially, sexually and gender-diverse military will prevail, given the multitude of different outlooks, cultures, feelings and lived experiences they will bring to the battlefield.

Our monocultural foes will be bewildered and confused by our constantly changing and evolving battle tactics. They’ll never be able to predict our next move. Advance? Defend? Withdraw? Surrender? Ask for a time out? Demand special accommodations? Sue for discrimination? Stop talking to them?

inspectorudy | May 9, 2023 at 7:41 pm

Can anyone tell me what the value of diversity is? In most universities today diversity is hawked as a huge benefit to the students. They never tell us what this benefit is but one thing is for certain and that is it isn’t diversity of opinion. Professors and students alike all have the same views and opinions about almost everything they discuss and if a student strays from the accepted line, both professors and fellow classmates attack.

The whole point of any “diversity” program is to discriminate.

How can you even include a “non-discriminatory” policy as part of your “diversity” program?

Of course it violated the law. They knew this when they came up with the idea.

This diversity policy is akin to murder. Should any of these diversity pilots ever face a pilot in a dogfight not subject to this feel-good recruitment and promotion they would surely be killed.

Only the absolute best do for fighter piloting!