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Subject: Dumbing-Down the U.S. Navy
The Lizard King    7/31/2009 1:19:19 PM
ttp://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=32595 "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. The Post's opening paragraphs reinforced the impression. "Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval Academy 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." Who can be against diversity? What the Post gets around to is that 22-year English professor Bruce Fleming objects to a race-based admissions program that was apparently used to create a class that is 35 percent minority. According to Fleming, who once sat on 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 even to qualify for a "slate" of 10 applicants, from which only one will be chosen. However, if you check a box indicating you are African-American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian, writes Fleming, "SAT scores to the mid 500s with quite a few Cs in classes ... typically produces a vote of 'qualified' ... with direct admission to Annapolis. They're in and given a pro forma nomination to make it legit." If true, the U.S. Naval Academy 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, though after a year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School." If true, this is a national disgrace. It would represent a U.S. Naval Academy policy of systematic race discrimination, every year, against hundreds of white kids who worked and studied their entire lives for the honor of being appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and becoming career officers in the Navy or Marine Corps. If true, what Annapolis has done and is doing is worse -- because it is premeditated and programmed racism -- than the cowardly act of the New Haven city government in denying Frank Ricci and the white firefighters the promotions they had won in a competitive exam. At least New Haven could say it acted out of fear of being sued. Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and the Superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing. Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel are nonwhite. The diversity midshipmen, says Fleming, who teaches them, are over-represented in "pre-college lower track courses, mandatory tutoring programs and less-challenging majors. Many struggle to master basic concepts." Thus, though unqualified for college work, these students will be operating the most sophisticated and complex weapons systems ever built -- aircraft carriers, Aegis cruisers, nuclear submarines. "First of all, we're dumbing-down the Naval Academy," charges Fleming. "Second of all, we're dumbing-down the officers corps." Supporting Fleming's claim, 22 percent of incoming plebes in 2009 had SAT scores in math below 600, compared to 12 percent in 2008. If the facts are as Fleming states -- the academy is accepting dumber and dumber students to get its racial composition right -- who can deny that the price of diversity is deliberate acceptance of a less able and competent United States Navy? "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? Whatever happened to the Hyman Rickover-Jimmy Carter motto for the Naval Academy and U.S. Navy: "Why Not the Best?" Consider. If hundreds of black and Hispanic kids who applied to the academy had been rejected though they had higher grades and SAT scores than those admitted, this story would not have been in the Metro section of the Post. It would have been bannered on page one. And Roughead and Fowler would be explaining to a congressional committee why they should not be relieved of their commands. Fleming, who still teaches at Annapolis, and has likely had some unpleasant moments since he blew the whistle on his superiors, has shown considerable moral courage.
 
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Herald12345    ????????????????????????   7/31/2009 3:59:07 PM
Both Jimmy Carter and William Halsey were incompetent bunglers. Carter was technically unable to stand a proper watch without supervision and Halsey as a jdae grounded destroyers, and as an admiral, ran his fleets into storms. This article writer needs to review his HISTORY and check his BIGOTRY at the door.

I suppose "Jocko" Clark was unqualified because he was a "minority"?

Herald
 
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stbretnco       7/31/2009 5:40:39 PM
Herald, you're really letting your hatred of Halsey get the better of you.
 
You are completely missing the point of the article, which is that minority applicants are accepted with lower scores than required for caucasian applicants.
 
Step back, take a deep breath, and read it again.....ignoring the mention of Adm. Halsey and Pres. Carter in the article. They are fluff comments added as most of the general public who reads the article knows their names.
 
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warpig       7/31/2009 6:16:43 PM
The ONLY bigotry in that article is found right here, in the words of the CNO and the Superintendent.  There is no place for racism in the USN, most of all not from the officers in charge of it.  Their words are fundamentally unAmerican and they ought to be fired for it:
 
"Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and the Superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing.

"Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel are nonwhite."
 
 
 
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Herald12345    Reply to Sbret and WP   7/31/2009 7:05:45 PM

The ONLY bigotry in that article is found right here, in the words of the CNO and the Superintendent.  There is no place for racism in the USN, most of all not from the officers in charge of it.  Their words are fundamentally unAmerican and they ought to be fired for it:

 

"Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and the Superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing.



"Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel are nonwhite."

 

 


Underlined is stupid. We can find enough bright kids who can make the cut. Just need to test all 3,000,000 of them in each cohort and offer the academy as an option. Don't need a quota or test score skewing to get diversity. I just was angered at the article author for citing two idiots as examples of quality naval officers or somehow implying that test scores equal competence. It takes far more than doing well on a test to turn out a quality naval officer. Hence the reference to Jocko Clark  a very good Native American naval officer who had some acute academic problems when he attended the Naval Academy.
 
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JFKY    Let it go Herald   7/31/2009 7:53:33 PM
Halsey WASN'T an idiot...Sorry.    Let YOUR Prejudice go....it will set you free(er).
 
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JFKY       7/31/2009 7:57:00 PM
Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel are nonwhite."
 
I kinda thought the No. 1 Priority might be producing a fleet that dominated the Naval-Aerospace Battlespace.  Who knew it was to produce a "diverse" fleet?  Ok this explains a LOT about the USN in the recent past...less focus on Naval Professionalism, to include Acquisition, but a lot of focus on issues secondary to its TRUE MISSION.
 
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Herald12345       7/31/2009 8:24:18 PM

Halsey WASN'T an idiot...Sorry.    Let YOUR Prejudice go....it will set you free(er).

 
POLITICS: A Word About Accountability and Leadership

A lot of conservatives are up in arms about John McCain's call for the firing of Chris Cox as SEC Chairman due to the collapse of numerous Wall Street firms on his watch. There is a more than fair argument against McCain's position: that Cox is a smart, capable conservative and expert in the area who hasn't really done anything wrong, or at least hadn't until the recent move against short sellers (I don't buy that Cox is above criticism, but I don't think this mess is in any way his fault). But there is also a case to be made for the emerging McCain leadership style. As McCain explained today:

Dwight David Eisenhower, when he was commander and he was in charge of the largest military operation in history, the invasion of Normandy. He went to his quarters the night before the invasion and wrote out two letters. One of them sent a letter of congratulation, a messgae of congratulations to the brave Americans who landed in Normandy and made the most successful invasion and partly brought about the beginning of the end of World War II. The other letter he wrote out was his resignation from the United States army, taking full responsibility for the failure of that invasion.

My friends that kind of accountability and responsibility is missing in Washington today and that's why I believe the chairman of the SEC should resign.

That's McCain's view in a nutshell: you produce results, or you step aside, regardless of how well you performed your duties. You own your watch. It's a decidedly military outlook, as befits a man who spent so many years in the Navy. It's perhaps an odd way for McCain to approach leadership - in his book Faith of My Fathers, McCain movingly recounts the bitterness he inherited over how his grandfather was scapegoated unfairly by Admiral Halsey for a mistake Halsey himself made in steering the fleet too close to a storm, mistreatment that McCain ascribes as a possible cause for the elder Admiral McCain's fatal heart attack on his return from the war.

I don't, personally, think that this unforgiving, only-results-matter management style is the best possible way to run an organization in terms of motivating people, and neither is it really a good or fair way to treat subordinates, but it's one well-established leadership style, and it's been successful for plenty of people in business, the military, politics and sports. Certainly it's a sharp contrast to President Bush; while Bush has sacked a lot of people (including Harvey Pitt, his first SEC Chairman who was also just in the wrong place at the wrong time), he's nonetheless frequently found himself in trouble for leaving loyal but incompetent subordinates in place too long after they became obvious political liabilities. McCain is sending a message: the likes of Mike Brown, Alberto Gonzales and Scott McClellan will not be left in their jobs in his White House. Loyalty will give way to accountability.

 Halsey was a no good incompetent person all the way down the line.
 
Nothing changes fact. Nothing.
 
 
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JFKY    Yes Halsey was such an incompetent...   7/31/2009 9:03:40 PM
that he took over from a paralyzed and failing Ghormley and WON the Battle for Guadalcanal.  And then proceeded to advance up the "Slot" destroying the Imperial Japanese Naval Airforces and Light Forces, setting the stage for the success at Tarawa and later the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  Man that's IMCOMPETENCE.
 
You are too Binary.  People are not either "idiots" or "Capable."  They are more sorted, Halsey was good, better than Ghormley, but not great.  So let it go.
 
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JFKY    The Navy has lost its way...   7/31/2009 9:12:55 PM
The goal of the fleet and its officer corps is NOT to match the colour of the fleet.  It's to command men and women and vessels, in stressful situations and the ultimate stressful situation, Combat.  The crew will not be thinking, "Ensign Minority is an idiot and gonna get us all KILLED, but I sure do respect the fact that s/he's Black like me."  I've never met anyone who had a doofus boss, but was happy that the Affirmative Action Box had been marked off...if the US Navy can't understand this, then it has a very deep problem, now and in 20 years as these defective officers assume senior positions.
 
My friends and family serve(d) in the Ground Forces (USA and USMC) never heard them discuss the RACE of their NCO's and Officers, just their competence.  I don't hear the USMC or the USA talking about "diversity", but rather about ability to lead on a battlefield and succeed.  I guess it's something the USN ASSUMES that ability and has decided to focus on other things...a thing that the USN may come to regret in a few years.
 
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Herald12345    Rhe Battle fo Rennell Island, JFKY    8/1/2009 1:55:56 AM

that he took over from a paralyzed and failing Ghormley and WON the Battle for Guadalcanal.  And then proceeded to advance up the "Slot" destroying the Imperial Japanese Naval Airforces and Light Forces, setting the stage for the success at Tarawa and later the Battle of the Philippine Sea.  Man that's IMCOMPETENCE.

 

You are too Binary.  People are not either "idiots" or "Capable."  They are more sorted, Halsey was good, better than Ghormley, but not great.  So let it go.

Over "Jocko" Clark's objections of course.
 
Herald
 
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