Naval History: All 4 Winners of Top Award Are Women

NPR ^ | July 23, 2010 | Frank James

[smokingfrog]

History was made this week in a little noticed ceremony in Washington when the U.S. Navy awarded its "Sailor of the Year" award to four women.

The Navy gave the awards, among the most prestigious for enlisted personnel, to two hospital corpsmen, Ingrid Cortez and Shalanda Brewer, Navy reservist Samira McBride and cryptologic technician Cassandra Foote. Each was promoted to chief petty officer.

At a ceremony held at the Navy Memorial, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick West, the service's highest ranking enlisted man said, according to a Navy news release:

"This is a great day for our Navy, and today we are making history with all four Sailors of the Year being women. These sailors have proven themselves as professional sailors, experts in their rates, role models to our junior sailors and youth, and most importantly, true leaders," said West.

[Will88]

PC run amuck. Four women and two of them minorities. Not sure what percentage of naval personnel are now female, but it’s probably 20% or less. And from a small fraction of sailors come all four of the most outstanding.

[Red in Blue PA]

Women comprise what part of the total naval population?

Probably 10%. Yet they win 100% of the awards?

Utter PC BS.

[suthener]

I retired from the Navy in 1998. I was in Naval Reserve Recruiting (a tough job but someone had to do it). A master chief walked into a meeting of supervisors (mostly first class petty officers) and made the proclamation that "there aren't enough women in this room". The production side of this command was all male, the support side was almost all female. To meet their quotas they started promoting women who had never recruited one person into the Naval Reserve and putting them in supervisory positions. I had one chance at chief before I retired. I had been a recruiter (active duty and reserve) for most of my career. Honestly, I wasn't a superstar, but I successfully ran a 3 man recruiting station for many years. Of the two people who were promoted, one was a female out of support and I never found out exactly who the other was. Yes, it left me a tad bitter. Affirmative action is alive and well in all branches of the military.

[Klutz Dohanger]

Make that 3 minorities. 2 you can tell right off the
bat, the third one, Cortez probably is a wee bit hispanic.

[MBB1984]

In a few short years the four winners will all be homosexuals.

[Will88]

Make that 3 minorities. 2 you can tell right off the bat, the third one, Cortez probably is a wee bit hispanic.

Yeah, I noticed that when I read the photo caption after posting. This is such a farce that one wonders when the participants in these farces might begin to realize they are making such awards a laughing stock to the portion of the nation that tries to think objectively once in a while.

[Chode]

feh...

[Senator_Blutarski]

This is very much like Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

Affirmative action.

[DocH]

They all MAY have deserved their recognition, but COME ON, ONLY forced PC, directed by petty and vindictive, small-minded left-wing politicians and their kiss-ass officer minions in the military, could have resulted in ALL four being women.

Expect to see more, MUCH more of this until we can drive these bastards out of office.

Fairness is one thing, but these people skew (politically correct)"fairness" so far to the opposite spectrum that the new outcome is now not just unfair, but ABSURDLY UNFAIR.

[Da Coyote]

Liberalthink has bastardized the Nobel Peace, Economics, and Literature prizes.

It has made a joke of climate science.

It’s corrupting the Navy...with AF not far behind.

Don’t know about the Army...at least nothing’s appeared yet.

Hopefully, the Marines will hold out.

Gads, I love the Marines (and I’m from the USAF)!

[achilles2000]

This is PC undermining of the services. “Diversity” must be served.

[Smokin' Joe]

Not so long ago Canada was presented with the image of two gay male RCMP officers in full scarlet dress, being married in Nova Scotia.

Mounties Mountees?

Likely at least one of 'em, anyway.

[Pollster1]

David R Ray, Hospital Corpsman Second Class, USN, received the Medal of Honor for his service in Viet Nam, as did four corpsmen on Iwo Jima, three on Okinawa, and about fourteen other corpsmen. I can imagine a corpsman deserving both a “top sailor” award and a Medal of Honor (I’ve met several great men who earned that award and survived), but I’m a little curious what these women did that puts them above every single person in the Navy who serves at the pointy end of the spear.

[DocH]

Speaking of statistics, and on a related (Navy) note, I work with a black guy who always tells stories (I was an active-duty Marine in a combat MOS for 13 years, but I rarely speak about what I did to anyone but fellow Marines I know or meet) of how he was a Navy SEAL, including the "fact" that he served as a SEAL in the first Gulf war.

I tend to doubt it (as an accomplished rifle and pistol expert and a WSQ swimmer in the Corps, I'm tempted to take him shooting and swimming. My bet is that he is a NSF AND a ROCK.), especially since there have been SO FEW black SEALS (1% or less from what I can glean).

He also said he used to "teach" NROTC at a certain university before he retired, but a search I did revealed a PDF version of a newsletter put out by the unit that ran that program. Each of the personnel had a bio on their military career. The Assistant Marine Officer Instructor, a Marine Gunny, had a very impressive, Two-Thirds-of-a-page bio that included medals awarded for service in the Gulf War and jump wings, etc.

My fellow employee's bio?

A FIFTH-OF-A-PAGE bio that indicated he was no more than the Supply Officer at the unit, and was an SK1 (a STORE KEEPER). There was NOTHING about being a SEAL or serving in the Gulf.

I have also found a couple of pictures of him with an online search, and ALL show a regular Squid cooking hot dogs and burgers at an event at one of his duty stations, and one in a dress uniform where no SEAL insignia is visible.

His BIO does list a three year tour as Navy Security Officer (I had a friend who had similar, temporary duty with a security unit charged with helping to guard nuclear weapon storage facilities for a few years, but this temp assignment and the training he received did NOT make him a RECON Marine) at the Naval Base in Panama. Maybe it was there that my fellow employee rubbed elbows with actual Navy SEALS, and gave him enough inside scoop to come up with his BS story, but it could have been books and TV specials that gave him the knowledge as well to try and bluff his way into gaining respect from those around him.

Any freepers that are, or were, SEALS that would know if being a SEAL, or, at least something to indicate being a SEAL, would be listed in an official BIO?

I am hard-pressed to believe this guy is telling the truth, especially given the statistics and the info I have uncovered.

[fr_freak]

"This is a great day for our Navy, and today we are making history with all four Sailors of the Year being women..." said [Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Rick] West.

His very statement shows his agenda of political correctness. Why should the fact that four women received the awards be a great day for the Navy? Does that mean it's not a great day for the Navy if only 3 of the awards were for women, or none? It's only a great day when the politically correct morons see their agenda fulfilled?

[Will88]

but I’m a little curious what these women did that puts them above every single person in the Navy who serves at the pointy end of the spear.

Good point, and I wonder if any of these female Corpse-men have served with any combat units in Iraq or Afghanistan, or even if women Hospital Corpsmen do now serve with Marine combat units.

My guess of the outstanding Corpsman of the year would be one that had actually served with Marine units involved in combat,

[Plutarch]

They were awarded for not getting pregnant.

[BwanaNdege]

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http://information.usnavyseals.com/2009/07/10-ways-to-spot-fake-us-navy-seal.html

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“For anyone who wants to report a fake US Navy SEAL listed in our site, you may email or call us for any of your other queries as well.”

[Blennos]

In a fair contest, gender neutral, assuming the Navy is comprised of 15% women, the odds of picking 4 out of 4 women is about 1 in 106. It would not happen.

Contests that do not require actual performance are becoming worthless in this and other countries.

[fr_freak]

DocH, I think post #38 might actually have been intended for you, as an answer to your SEAL question.