CNO: Future Navy needs more minority admirals

[CommunityEditor]

The Navy’s top admiral has set “benchmarks” for the percentage of nonwhite admirals he’d like to see in the service within 30 years, according to a set of internal Navy messages that appeared Thursday on the Internet. The messages direct subordinates to use the guidelines in considering which officers to recommend for promotion.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has set goals for an admiralty in 2037 that is 36 percent nonwhite — specifically, 10 percent black, 13 percent Asian or Pacific Islander and 13 percent Hispanic, according to an e-mail to admirals dated Feb. 27. The message was signed by Vice Adm. John Harvey, who was then chief of naval personnel. Harvey has since become director of the Navy Staff.

Capt. Jack Hanzlik, spokesman for Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson, said the benchmarks were unofficial and emphasized they are not quotas. They reflect projected trends for those groups in the U.S. population, Hanzlik said, with the idea that the makeup of the Navy’s officer corps should mirror American society.

Commanders should keep those percentages in mind as their nonwhite subordinates make career decisions, Harvey wrote, in keeping with the Navy’s larger goals of increasing diversity in the mostly white officer corps. The message tells admirals that they should know their nonwhite commanders and captains by name; asks what the recipients are doing to help the nonwhite O-5s and O-6s get promoted; and what their commands are doing overall to help promote the nonwhite officers.

A conservative Navy blogger, who posts under the name “cdr salamander,” obtained Harvey’s e-mail and posted it Thursday. Also posted was an e-mail from the office of Navy Installations Command, directing captains to pass up the names of O-5s and O-6s in a “must promote” or “early promote” status and note which ones were “diverse.”

Navy sources confirmed the messages were authentic. A spokesman for the National Naval Officers Association, the largest U.S. group of minority Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard officers, did not respond to a request for comment by Friday afternoon. Spokeswomen for Roughead did not respond to requests for comment.

According to information from the Defense Manpower Data Center, provided for a Sept. 9 congressional hearing into Coast Guard diversity, about 13.9 percent of the Navy’s officers, or 7,137 of 42,343 officers, identified themselves as belonging to minority groups.

In the third quarter of this fiscal year, manpower officials report 8.19 percent of officers are black, 5.73 percent are Hispanic and 3.98 percent are Asian-Pacific Islander. In the admiralty, that drops to 6.5, 1.2 and 0.4 percent, respectively.

Roughead has been outspoken in recent weeks on the issue of diversity. In a list of preapproved quotations sent to Navy public affairs officers earlier this month, Roughead endorses a variety of approaches for attracting more nonwhite officers:

“I believe the policies that we have in place have to attract and be consistent with the type of force we have, but they also need to take into account what motivates young people and what causes them to want to serve and then continue to serve.”

Harvey’s message cites Roughead’s “benchmarks” as the example commanders should follow in increasing diversity in the Navy officer corps, which Roughead and other top commanders have set as a top priority. To that end, Roughead has conducted “diversity reviews” of each of the Navy’s major commands — including the surface, aviation and submarine forces — to get a sense of how well the careers of nonwhite officers are progressing. The Navy has declined to release the results of Roughead’s reviews, or talk generally about diversity in the different warfare commands.

Each Navy division has its own “benchmarks” for officer diversity, Harvey wrote, but at the O-5 and O-6 level, commanders should follow Roughead’s percentages.

“This goal is what you should measure your officer corps against. There is no need to create a new benchmark; certainly the benchmark itself should be a discussion topic, but no need to create a new goal that differs from CNO’s stated targets.”

Roughead first spoke publicly about the diversity reviews in a July appearance before the NNOA in which he charged white commanders with mentoring their subordinates to point them in the right direction. In particular, too few black lieutenant commanders were staying in the Navy and going on to become senior officers, Roughead said, so their commanders should counsel them about what jobs are likeliest to get them promoted.

But Roughead told Navy Times after that speech that the diversity reviews were “quasi-formal,” without the involvement of Navy Personnel Command or statistical breakdowns about numbers and names of officers.

Roughead told Navy Times he was “loath” for his diversity reviews “to turn into some kind of bureaucratic process.”


Article: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/0...ersity_092208/

[tarheelsnipe]

I would like to see this email in its entirety. Diversity is a great idea, and I've seen its positive impact during my service; making a crayola box for the sake of being PC in upper echelon of the world's most powerful Navy might not be in the best interest of the sailors under their charge.

Googling this email now...

[ProSwo]

Please, at least in the SWO community we don't have enough people to fill our ranks as is. As an officer of any race, it is appalling to see what we're promoting in order to just try and keep enough bodies. As a white office who can now only compete for 64% of flag billets, it makes me wonder if the Navy really wants me, or whether I should contribute to the personnel hemorrhage.

[Variable Wind]

Lets base everything on ethnic diversity as opposed to merits. Sounds like a great way to run a country into the ground.

[SeaLawyer]

Now here's the problem! I think the CNO should be saying, "Future Navy needs more qualified admirals." How does an individual's external compositions make him a better admiral then the one with internal skill sets like knowledge. If these type of demographics are a weighted factor, then I think the Navy needs more war amputees etc. to fairly represent our demographics.

[CplH5811]

Well, we can't forget about the vertically challenged. I don't believe that there are any midget flag officers out there. Being Politically correct for the sake of "creating more diversity" is not something as can be applied in the US military. But, if you want to that kind of stuff, it should go all across the board. Don't be hypocritical and do it towards once religion, race or sex.

[james]

As a serving "minority" myself, I would like to see more officers or flag officers representing a wider representaion of society. None the less I think that just promoting minorities or the majority to a position to which they are unqualified for creates resentment, belittles their standing with their peers and puts the mission of our Navy at stake to Commanders incompetence. This is not Hollywood where every flag officer or military leader is depicting a minority in charge. This is the real world where lives are at stake and our national security is dependent on Commanders proper judgement. It makes people wonder if we are going in this direction because of the current Presidential race of color. Affirmative action simply does not work or belong in the enlisted ranks or officer ranks. As I say this, politicians being who they are will demand and impose these requirements on our military whether we agree with it or not. Liberal agendas at their best.

[Measure Man]

Note that the timeline is 30 years!

This is fair. The question isn't that the Navy should promote less than qualified people to Admiral because they represent diversity.

We should ALWAYS promote the most qualified...but to truly fight discrimination we need to dig deeper.

If the most qualified are all white...we need to ask "Why are minorities not qualifed?...is it because they aren't being selected for career-broadening positions at the 0-4, -5, -6 levels? If that's the case, fix it there...if it's because there aren't enough qualifed at that level...look down...why aren't there minority officers qualified at that level?

If the problem is that there just aren't enough minorities entering as officers...why is that? Are we only recruiting white officers?

Basically...where does the demographics become out of whack with the civilian sector...your problem is most likely one level lower. If we are recruiting a proportionate amount of minorities...then we are probably discriminating them in field grade selections/positions. Then, if they don't get those positions, they become not qualified at senior level positions.

I'm not sure Adm Roughhead's approach is necessarily the right one...but his timeline is right...this isn't a problem you correct by simply hiring the most qualified minorities to be Admirals,...it is a problem you solve by developing minorities over the long term to be qualified to be Admirals.

[Measure Man]

Originally Posted by ProSwo

Please, at least in the SWO community we don't have enough people to fill our ranks as is. As an officer of any race, it is appalling to see what we're promoting in order to just try and keep enough bodies. As a white office who can now only compete for 64% of flag billets, it makes me wonder if the Navy really wants me, or whether I should contribute to the personnel hemorrhage.

Your math is interesting...

I don't think expecting a fair proportion of minorities in senior positions means that you are "only competing for 64% of flag billets."

If that were right..then blacks are only competing for 10%...Asians for 13%...etc.

I'm pretty sure that's not what it means...what it means is that if 64% of Americans are white, you should expect 64% of Admirals to be white...just a proportion...doesn't mean you are limited to that number or that your individual opportunity is any less.

Well, I guess if currently 95% of the flag billets go to 64% of the people...then yes, maybe your opportunity might be less...but not unfairly less.

[Variable Wind]

Originally Posted by james

As a serving "minority" myself, I would like to see more officers or flag officers representing a wider representaion of society. None the less I think that just promoting minorities or the majority to a position to which they are unqualified for creates resentment, belittles their standing with their peers and puts the mission of our Navy at stake to Commanders incompetence. This is not Hollywood where every flag officer or military leader is depicting a minority in charge. This is the real world where lives are at stake and our national security is dependent on Commanders proper judgement. It makes people wonder if we are going in this direction because of the current Presidential race of color. Affirmative action simply does not work or belong in the enlisted ranks or officer ranks. As I say this, politicians being who they are will demand and impose these requirements on our military whether we agree with it or not. Liberal agendas at their best.

Very well put. I agree.