Diversity and the Navy

"'Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity,' ran the headline in the Washington Post. The impression left was that some sorehead was griping because black and Hispanic kids were finally being admitted. ... 'Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval Academy [NA] in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the nation's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it's a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation.' ... According to [Bruce] Fleming, who once sat in the board of admissions, white applicants must have all As and Bs and test scores of at least 600 on the English and math parts of the SAT to even qualify for a 'slate' of 10 applicants, from which only one will be chosen. ... If true, the US [NA] is running a two-tier admissions system of the kind that kept Jennifer Gratz out of the University of Michigan and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. 'Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s and Cs and Ds also come through after a year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the [NA] Preparatory School.' ... Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughhead and the Superintendent of the [NA] Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing. ... 'First of all, we're dumbing-down the [NA],' charges Fleming. 'Second of all, we're dumbing down the officers corps.' ... 'Diversity is our number one priority,' Roughhead is quoted. Can one imagine Adm. Chester Nimitz or 'Bull' Halsey making an insipid statement like that? Can one imagine what Adm. David 'Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!' Farragut would have thought of such a policy?", my emphasis, Pat Buchanan, 6 July 2009, at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=103293.

"Diversity is our number one priority". Is that from 1984? Is the US Navy Orwell's Ministry of Peace? Remember, "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength". That's our Navy's motto today. Fowler and (misnamed) Roughhead are "metrosexual officers", see my 2 December 2008 post: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/12/security-and-specialization.html.