Report Provides Evidence of Devastating Influence of DEI on U.S. Military Operations
Report claims senior White Male officers are required to tow the DEI line, or watch their careers implode
We have long chronicled the negative effects that diversity, equity, and inclusion have had on the U.S. military, mostly in the realm of the heinous drop-off in recruiting numbers that all of the services are suffering from:
- Cause and Effect: Military Enshrines DEI While Recruiting Tanks
- Army Sees Significant Drop in White Recruits
- Military Experts Blame Biden Admin’s DEI Agenda for Our Shrinking Armed Forces
- Navy Drag Queen Recruiters – Definitive Evidence that the Military has Lost Its Way
These effects are real and are resulting in a smaller U.S. military fighting force. But has the U.S. military lost its fighting edge?
Well, recently an Air Force B-1 bomber crashed short of its landing runway, resulting in injured crewmembers and over $450 million in destruction: $450 Million B-1B Lancer Crash Attributed to Crew Failures and ‘Degradation of Airman Skills’:
A B-1B Lancer valued at more than $450 million that crashed in South Dakota at the start of this year missed the runway by 100 feet, a mistake accident investigators attributed to the aircrew’s shortcomings as well as the poor training culture within units at Ellsworth Air Force Base.
The scathing crash investigation report shared with Military.com pointed to “failure to perform standard crew resource management,” along with adverse weather conditions, ineffective flying operations supervision, lack of awareness, and “an unhealthy organizational culture that permitted degradation of airmanship skills” as contributing factors in the Jan. 4 crash. [emphasis added]
That incident led Ellsworth to temporarily close down its runway and relocate roughly 250 crew members and Lancers to Dyess Air Force Base near Abilene, Texas.
And, while I don’t normally credit Twitter posts as fonts of reliable knowledge about the U.S. military, this particular one caught my eye, not only for its content but also for its author, who has proven himself to be quite reliable on various military topics:
I have been posting a lot lately about the impact of DEI on organizational incompetence and how it relates to the Secret Service. We generally think about this phenomenon in terms of hiring and promoting people primarily based on factors other than competence, but I have sources…
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) July 18, 2024
Cynical Publius, an Army veteran with combat tours of duty in Iraq under his belt, never fails to impress with his wit and insight into the U.S. military. The key parts of the above post are as follows:
I have been posting a lot lately about the impact of DEI on organizational incompetence and how it relates to the Secret Service. We generally think about this phenomenon in terms of hiring and promoting people primarily based on factors other than competence, but I have sources at high ranks currently serving in the Department of Defense who have alerted me to an even more sinister impact of DEI.
The original Star Trek series did a famous episode called “Mirror, Mirror.” This was the episode in which Spock famously had a beard, and the premise was that there was an alternate universe in which the Federation were the evil bad guys running amok across the galaxy. In this world, Starfleet officers got ahead by assassinating their superiors. My sources tell me that we are seeing this now at high levels in the DoD, except the tool of assassination is not a phaser, but a discrimination complaint to the local DEI office.
Some people I have talked to inside the DoD at the SES and multi-star flag level (sorry, anonymity is essential here) tell me that we currently have a climate in the very high ranks where efficiency reports, disagreements on the job, promotion and advancement opportunities, and day-to-day operations are all heavily influenced by a fear of displeasing DEI subordinates. As a result, negative words are rarely said about poor performance and advancement opportunities are presented that are not earned. The drill goes like this. A high-ranking officer (who is usually a heterosexual white male) puts in a word (or is perceived as putting in a word) regarding the poor performance of a DEI subordinate (who is him or herself also pretty high ranking) and if things don’t go quite as the subordinate wanted for promotion or new assignments, he/she officially alleges racial, gender and/or sexual orientation discrimination on the part of the superior to their local DEI official, which immediately results in a formal investigation into the superior with a presumption of guilt. This is a death sentence for the superior, as even if the DEI allegations are proven to be unfounded, the mere fact that the claim was made is often found to mean that there is a “loss in confidence” in the white male superior, with that wholly innocent senior officer being quietly cashiered. I am told that every white heterosexual male at high rank understands this game, and does everything he can to avoid it. This is something straight out of the mind of Lavrentiy Beria, and as a consequence the halls of the Pentagon E-Ring [i.e. the part of the Pentagon where the Generals and Admirals work] are chilled with a sense of fear and walking on eggshells, and it is no wonder that the senior echelons of our military have become so dysfunctional and ineffective. In this context, the disgrace of Abbey Gate [i.e. the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan] really starts to make sense.
My sources are only inside the DoD, but I have to presume this is happening elsewhere in the federal government. When you consider the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is on record as selecting USAF pilots based solely on the color of their skin, and when you see Secretary of the Army Wormuth building a force of female Infantrymen (women), none of this is really surprising. When Trump v2.0 comes to office, selecting the best possible SecDef must be one of his absolute top priorities, and whomever that is must immediately take a firehose to clean out the Augean Stables that the Pentagon has sadly become.
I have two comments: First, this is just incredibly sad for me, as someone who dedicated 31 years of his life to the U.S. military and the defense of this country. This is NOT the way it was when I retired in 2008. Second, the B-1 bomber crash reported on above becomes completely understandable in this construct. No longer are the best and brightest promoted to General and Admiral, or probably even Navy Captain and Army Colonel. And even in cases where the best and brightest are promoted, they are hamstrung by DEI de facto policies that make real leadership, which sometimes requires negatively reporting on subordinates of all types, impossible. In this atmosphere, getting along to just get by until you can retire is obviously the plan for most.
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Comments
Does anyone know anyone who is encouraging their kids to join the military?
I know a lot of veterans and they are telling their kids to take a hard pass.
Incidentally – back in the 80s as a precocious young twit and for the decade or so following- the fact that the military bureaucracy was set up to enable EXACTLY this was why I took a hard pass on ever joining.
I saw this winding up in the early 80’s. For example, I had a black Sgt (E5) who could not read. Seriously. You might ask how he could relay orders or pass the E5 board on the first place. So did we as he was the most incompetent Sgt anyone had ever seen. It was too bad as we had several other black sgts that were studs. One retired as a Master Sergeant. Our 1st Sgt was also black and highly competent.
We also had a female company Capt that while nice nobody had confidence in and she was transferred. Also a female 2cd Lt that slept with so many guys in the company they sent her off somewhere. When I got to my unit we had 7 females. Within 1 yr 6 were pregnant.
Someone in my immediate family retired from the AF as a Captain in 2016. He said similar things about the promotional politics throughout his career. It was not uncommon for officers to move up the ranks through what civilians would call a$$ kissing and politicking even out of uniform. So, there was always some degree of incompetence that you would expect in that culture. However, it was getting worse post 9-11 in his opinion. More pressure on things not related to performance, but to cultural factors. DEI wasn’t really a phrase in that era. It’s why he retired earlier than he planned. Now, of course, he works for an airline LOL.
Eight years back my nephew-in-law got out of the Navy after 4 years at E-5. The new LT-JG was a trans guy of color who wanted to be a girl that had grudge against men, especially white men. He had a promising carrier but left because he saw where the military was headed.
Read Matthew Lohmeier Irresistible Revolution on the military turning to Cultural Marxism
DIE officials are the new version of Commasar, political officers to make sure everyone follows the party line.
Lohmeier’s book is a must read, along with Stu Scheller’s “Crisis of Command” concerning the Afghanistan debacle.
This has been happening under the radar within the SR Enlisted structure for some time, at least in the Army. This is exactly what the culture was becoming when I retired in ’15; a sort of caste system within the organization outside of the rank structure where straight white males were presumed guilty of every sort of ‘ist, ism and phobia’. It was destroying unit discipline, particularly the unofficial off the record version used by NCOs. Instead every infraction that would have been an unofficial counseling went on paper, disciplinary files being created until the unit CDRs began declining to use Art 15. Things fall apart quickly when there isn’t an evenhanded enforcement of clear transparent rules/regs. Morale goes down b/c why should Joe show up on time to do the dirty job when Bill doesn’t and isn’t held accountable? Good Soldiers begin to depart and the remaining good Soldiers are overwhelmed with pulling the duds weight.
My son had seventeen years total in RegArmy and National Guard. He was in Iraq twice and Afghanistan once. He said the atmosphere in his Guard unit changed drastically between the time he went to the Rockpile and returned to The World. Even after direct pleas from the Command Sergeant Major of his state Guard he decided to walk away from a pension at twenty years – three more years was all he needed but he wanted nothing to do with what his beloved National Guard had become. So they lost the knowledge, ability, and experience of an E-5 who had brought his patrol back to the FOB *every time with no losses*.
.
This is the sad continuation of Obumbles drumming out all of those mid level officers and NCO’s during his “administration”. Nearly all of them were officers who got their rank through actual experience, instead of political maneuvering.
Throw in the ones that were bounced out due to not wanting to get the Jab and the trend of separating people who are on the last 5 of their 20 and what you have left are the politicians in uniform, the DEI Tutu troops, and those that have failed upward.
This CRAP was going on long before Obama. I was in during the Carter years and it was already bad. Saint Ronnie of Borax did NOTHING to correct it, nor did anyone who followed him.
Obama is responsible for a lot, but not this. He was no worse than Reagan, either of the Bush’s or anyone else including TRUMP.
It will also not stop under a new Trump administration unless he guts the officer corps, much of the upper enlisted ranks, and rebuilds from scratch. He can’t do that because to actually put white straight males back in charge again will not happen.
Dunno, GG. Isn’t the president the C-in-C? Doesn’t that mean that everyone below him has to follow his orders? Why can’t orders be issued to institute courts martial to weed out the dross? Surely they’re performing actionable offenses. Of course, resignations would be preferable to dishonorable discharges, so the exodus would be largely spontaneous.
But, one says, that would gut the military. Nah, just those who impair its functions. The anticipated swell of enlistments into the new, rational military would more than make up for it.
As a practical matter no leader can gut the officer corps and senior enlisted ranks (E7 and up). It would be an open invitation for other countries to do whatever they wished because the US military would be unable to respond for a significant period as replacements are slowly found, trained and brought on-board (no matter the color).
Just curious, but given what we have right now, what kind of response to them “doing whatever they wished” could we mount right now, and how effective would it be?
Subotai Bahadur
Are you sure your son was a 17yr E5? That well beyond the advance in rank or discharge time
Might be possible in a Guard unit, though it seems unlikely. At least in the last century EM did not have an “Up or Out” requirement, as did officers. Heck, in the early ’60s I served with WW II vets who were E-4 and 5. They might have been of greater rank at one time or another, we had an E-7 who managed to get himself down to E-2 via Court Martial.
The fundamental transformation continues apace.
Perhaps someone should have asked him what, exactly, he meant by that.
The anti-America enemy has infiltrated the country in just about every manner possible, at just about every level possible.
“an unhealthy organizational culture that permitted degradation of airmanship skills”
That is the most important line in the report. Basically, it means they were more worried about something other than training and combat readiness and apparently the command structure was a big part of those lapses.
Now I expect this investigator to be reassigned to an “accident” coming soon.
Elevation to Aircraft Commander isn’t automatic either. It occurs at the Squadron level, has always been a very subjective process, and adding the DEI factor to it just poisoned the well a bit more.
“I wasn’t promoted to AC because – insert your racial or sexual grievance here.”
(Not because I have hands of stone, the aeronautical ability of the Dodo, and the judgement of a 16 year old).
Nevertheless the US Military will double down on DIE.
Discrimination
Enabling
Incompetence
If Trump gets in again he needs Gen Mattis again or someone with a similar temperament. Someone who will make the military into the kind of force that when the enemies see the US marines (or Army or any other branch) coming over the hill they shit themselves in fear.
I agree. The danger is that he will appoint another Mark Milley, like he did the last time he was President.
And CQ Brown is somehow better than Milley?
Who would YOU appoint?
Didn’t Milley call his Chinese counterpart and promise to warn him in the event of an attack?
Is CQ Brown anY better?
Who would YOU appoint?
Ha. He should fire the entire JCS and promote a couple of O-3’s and O-4’s from company and battalion level to serve on the JCS.
That’s perhaps the only officer level that hasn’t already been corrupted by DIE.
All flag rank officers should be pensioned off.
A major problem is that the pool to promote from is limited, consisting of serving or recently retired three and four stars.
You missed my point. ALL flag rank officers should be removed, DEI banned, and flag promotions from O-3 to O-5.
Sadly, Mattis turned out to be a backstabber as well–as Trump found out.
Well OF COURSE it has a devastating impact. It is in fact the antithesis of all that used to be good and proper about the military… duty, honour, country, merit, competency, excellence, service before self — all of that.
Enemy action. That’s what this is. And sadly, so many are going along with it.
The new recruits won’t know how to hit a target with their rifle, but they will have a flawless knowledge of which pronouns to use.
So DEI is working exactly as designed.
I’m an Air Force vet and I used to recommend the military to young people. No longer.
I’d like to see Kurt Schlichter as Secretary of Defense in President Trump’s second term. The firings and changes would be beautiful to behold.
Go read this article by Col. Schlichter detailing his ideas. It will make your day.
https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2024/07/04/fixing-the-military-requires-a-dying-art-called-leadership-n2641332
That’s a good read. Thanks for posting. I might add on first day kick out all the mentally ill trannies.
Changing the motto from “we leave no man behind” to “we leave no man’s behind” did not help recruiting.
I cannot wait for DJT to Make America Powerful Again.
Those thinly veiled threats about using F-15s start sounding empty when their DEI-hired would-be pilots are likely to crash them before they even reach their targets.