U.S. Navy leaders are failing to “promote or advance surface ship warfighting in a meaningful way,” according to officers interviewed for a congressional report on several major naval accidents.
“Sometimes I think we care more about whether we have enough diversity officers than if we’ll survive a fight with the Chinese navy,” according to an officer the report describes as “one lieutenant currently on active duty."
“It’s criminal. They think my only value is as a black woman," she added, according to the report. "But you cut our ship open with a missile and we’ll all bleed the same color.”
The report emerged out of “77 exhaustive and intensive interviews ... with sailors of all walks of naval life” — a majority of whom agreed that the loss of the USS Bonhomme Richard and other major accidents, such as the deadly collisions that damaged two destroyers over the last five years, reflect a common problem.
“Many sailors found their leadership distracted, captive to bureaucratic excess, and rewarded for the successful execution of administrative functions rather than their skills as a warfighter,” U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle and U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, both retired, wrote in the report. “There was considerable apprehension that the surface warfare community in particular lost its fighting edge in the years following the end of the Cold War.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/they-think-only-value-black-woman-sailors-say-navy-leaders-failing-prepare-war
