A Death Knell for Military DEI

My phone stayed silent on Inauguration Day. No missed calls or voice messages from the 202 area code. Apparently no one in the old administration or the new one cared for my advice or opinions on what might be the most turbulent change of command in our national political history. That’s unfortunate because like most patriotic Americans, I’ve got a metric ton of both.

The hissy fits in the media and bloody catfights in our courts are looming over most if not all of the 26 executive orders the new President signed on Inauguration Day. There are plenty more to come. Our new Commander in Chief is shaping the battlefield with prep fires. He’s got a lot of bureaucrats in all sectors of American life cringing, nearly crapping themselves over what might come next. It tickles the hell out of me, but maybe I’m just one lowly curmudgeon who thinks we are ready for some sweeping governmental and societal sea changes.

Polls would indicate otherwise, reflecting that a clear majority of Americans think our country is on the wrong track for survival and success. But hey, those are polls. Nobody believes polls. Right, Democrats? OK, let’s move on here.

Mark me in favor of most of the initially proposed course corrections, especially the crackdown on troublesome illegal aliens and a strict enforcement of border security, but what’s got me really flashing happy hands is the death knell of DEI. A shift back to simple meritocracy, away from race- or gender-based special consideration or entitlements in all sectors of American life, is long overdue. Since my viewpoint on a lot of things is shaped by two decades in military uniform, I’m watching and musing with interest in how this will all shake out for our men and women in uniform.

There are some early indicators that the services are proceeding as ordered to expunge DEI time and effort wasting. The abrupt dismissal of US Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan couldn’t be more significant despite the boilerplate lack of trust and confidence excuse. She’s been an outspoken DEI advocate and an ineffective leader in the Coast Guard’s law enforcement part of the border battle for too long now. The stars are starting to fall and hopefully there are more to come shortly.

Our Air Force is in a dither over it, but they saluted smartly and eliminated what was called a “Barrier Analysis Group” which was, according to advocates, put in place to focus on barriers affecting their service members ability to serve with dignity and respect. Maybe a renewed focus on aircraft flying, fixing, and fighting would provide all that, but what to do with uniformed scolds who do nothing more productive than whining and complaining? Check flight lines or maintenance hangars. They could likely use some extra hands.

We have yet to learn publicly about bomb-damage assessments in the Army and Navy but rest assured, those services are conducting similar fights with uniformed PC advocates who have carved out comfortable niches in various social justice study and advocacy groups. Even if such efforts are classified as collateral duties—or extra assignments beyond what someone is officially supposed to be doing—everyone knows what a tremendous time-suck they can be. And when a political spotlight hits on a DEI topic, mission creep promptly follows. That collateral duty quickly becomes primary.

Not that anyone in the Pentagon is asking for it, but my advice to all our services is to weed out the DEI committees, working groups, advocacy panels, and advisory billets or whatever other opaque title bureaucrats have applied. Then hold muster and count heads. Odds are we’d find a lot of folks available to flesh out manpower shortages in combat arms and warship crews.

The United States Marine Corps, in which every Marine is purported to be a rifleman and totally focused on warfighting, has done a shabby job in this regard. As a Marine, it embarrasses me to learn that our Commandant General Eric Smith, as recently as 15 January told a group of Defense oriented reporters, “we don’t do DEI in the Marine Corps, we never have.” That’s just bovine excrement. The Corps as recently as 2021 published a doctrinal paper called Talent Management 2030 which has an entire section titled “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Talent Management.” Count the capital letters and…how about that? D-E-I. Might want to review your guidance, General.

For the most part, the diffusion of effort represented by the DEI situation in the military will self-correct eventually despite all the pearl clutching and fainting-couch collapse we’re seeing right now. Dawdlers, idlers, race baiters, gender benders, political sycophants, and self-serving lifers in uniform are either edging toward exits or facetiming with liberal lawyers. Bravo Zulu (hooray!) and Charlie Mike (continue mission) on all that.

The point here is to recognize that we’ve been wasting a bunch of military time and effort that should be spent on training for warfighting. We’ve had an all-volunteer military for decades. The people wearing our military uniform for the most part want to be there. And they want to focus on their primary mission which is standing ready to instantly deploy and defend this nation and our national interests. Anything else is a wasteful, aggravating, and potentially lethal distraction. It’s about sharpening the bayonet blade, folks, not making the handle more comfortable.

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