And America's enemies smile "good".
Posted on 09/18/2011 12:48:10 PM PDT by jazusamo
The Navy’s former top civilian has rocked the service in a military journal article by accusing officials of sinking the storied naval air branch into a sea of political correctness.
Former Navy Secretary John Lehman, himself an ex-carrier-based aviator, wrote that the swagger and daring of yesterday’s culture has given way to a focus on integrating women and, this year, gays.
Pilots constantly worry about anonymous complaints about salty language, while squadron commanders are awash in bureaucratic requirements for reports and statistics, he added.
“Those attributes of naval aviators — willingness to take intelligent calculated risk, self-confidence, even a certain swagger — that are invaluable in wartime are the very ones that make them particularly vulnerable in today’s zero-tolerance Navy,” said Mr. Lehman, who led the Navy in the Reagan administration.
“The political correctness thought police, like Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, are out to get them and are relentless.”
Navy pilots privately have complained for years that a post-Tailhook-convention push to clean up conduct by aviators went too far.
The 1991 Las Vegas convention has stood as a black mark for the Navy because some naval aviators engaged in lewd escapades and excessive drinking.
An ensuing Pentagon investigation ballooned into one of the government’s most extensive probes as scores of officers were targeted and had their careers shortened. Feminists used the scandal to demand a change in Navy culture.
Now, Mr. Lehman, a New York investor who served as a bombardier navigator in A-6 Intruders, has aired in public in what active duty pilots dare not say.
His lengthy article adorns the home page of the magazine Proceedings, a forum for active-duty and retired personnel on naval issues. Proceedings is published by the U.S. Naval Institute, an independent association located at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Thank goodness I served when Lehman was Secretary of the Navy.
Unfortunately we will all have to drain the bitter cup of military incompetence caused by PC. Hopefully, we will not have to meet a first rate military power for at least another generation. If this PC crap keeps going and the Chinese improve they will clean our clock.
Gee, what took him so long to come out with this? Anyone who served in the last 20 years knows this to be the case. Anyone who suffered through a sexual harassment stand down knows this to be true. And now the gays? You ain’t seen nothing yet...
Great article....exactly on target....rats are scurrying away from the blast zone.
He says it for the Navy, but it applies to all of the armed services. Morale, unit pride, cohesiveness and fear of unfounded and petty charges are steadily eroding many units effectiveness across the services. The problem was stated well a few years back when my military doctor who had been an enlisted man for a number of years before becoming a doctor told me that after his next assignment he was retiring because this was no longer the military that old guys like he and I had originally entered. He and Lehman are absolutely correct.
Women on subs? Gays on subs? Takes “hot bunking” to a whole new meaning..(G)
LoL!
Spineless cowards.
Strongly agree with Sec. Lehman.
You're absolutely right.
One reason that I left the navy was the chance that I would have to serve with women on board.
We pay these men to kill and put themselves into harms way yet we expect that same person to act civilly during their regular day. I always felt more intune with my military job when the captain busted my ass personally for something or when he felt comfortable enough to say something to me personally.
Lehman is obviously a fool. The only purpose of the military is to be social experiment, build hospitals and schools, deliver food to starving somalis and be targets for muslims.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
John Lehman has more guts in his pinkie toe than the current crew have collectively. Too bad he will be completely ignored and the gutting of our once proud US Navy will continue.
If it’s anything like the USAF, it’s not that it’s wrong to be disrespectful of other people. It about putting all or nearly all the focus on the wrong things. Based on my experience, it’s no longer about being the absolute best you can be about doing your job. It’s about all the other stuff, like not offending anyone, being active in areas outside your core job, and devoting yourself to physical fitness. Physical fitness, for example, is a good thing, but is it more important than flying airplanes? You can be terrible at your core job, literally wasting hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from mistakes, and survive, maybe even get put in a staff job, but heaven help you if you fail to do the requisite number of situps or say something that offends someone.
There's an underground patch our there, something like, “Next Time Call the Girls and Fags.”
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