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Diversity dearth: Army data reveal lack of black leadership in key commands
Stars and Stripes ^ | 9/13/14 | Vanden Brook

Posted on 09/13/2014 6:14:56 AM PDT by pabianice

The U.S. Army launched a new recruiting video at the All-American Bowl -- it's largest recruiting event -- aimed at piquing the interests of minority recruits into joining the Army's officer corps.

[1st Lt. Drexel King is featured in the Marine Corps Recruiting Command’s newest diversity advertising campaign, Fighting with Purpose. King is a Raleigh, N.C. native. Marine Corps illustration by Cpl. Nate Carberry]

New Marine Corps ads target women, minorities to join as officers

The Marine Corps has launched a multimedia advertising campaign aimed at encouraging more women and minorities to join as officers and ending a decades-old stereotype that the Corps is the domain of white men.

[For Command Sgt. Maj. Marilyn Washington, the top soldier with the 1st Signal Brigade headquartered at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul, the inauguration has historic timing as well. U.S. Army photo]

Black military leaders express pride, not surprise, at progress

STUTTGART, Germany — Anthony Jackson recalls the encounter like it was yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Command of the Army's combat battalions and brigades — its pipeline to top leadership — is virtually devoid of black officers, according to interviews, documents and data obtained by USA Today.

The lack of black officers who lead infantry, armor and field artillery battalions and brigades — there are no black colonels at the brigade level this year — threatens the Army's effectiveness, disconnects it from American society and deprives black officers of the principal route to top Army posts, according to officers and military sociologists. Fewer than 10 percent of the active-duty Army's officers are black compared with 18 percent of its enlisted men, according to the Army.

The problem is most acute in its main combat units: infantry, armor and artillery. In 2014, there was not a single black colonel among those 25 brigades, the Army's main fighting unit of about 4,000 soldiers. Brigades consist of three to four battalions of 800 to 1,000 soldiers led by lieutenant colonels. Just one of those 78 battalions is scheduled to be led by a black officer in 2015.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
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And here I thought flag officers were selected from the best, not the most diverse.
1 posted on 09/13/2014 6:14:56 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: pabianice

believe me, the Army gives less than a sh8 about skin color, if you are competent, the job is yours, if you ain’t, you ain’t


2 posted on 09/13/2014 6:17:44 AM PDT by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: pabianice

Wasn’t Colin Powell selected in that manner?


3 posted on 09/13/2014 6:20:51 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: pabianice
military sociologists

Why does such a thing exist?

4 posted on 09/13/2014 6:21:35 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: Izzy Dunne

In the Soviet Union, they were called Political Commissars.


5 posted on 09/13/2014 6:22:56 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("Harvey Dent, can we trust him?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBsdV--kLoQ)
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To: pabianice
And here I thought flag officers were selected from the best, not the most diverse.

This is 0'Mugaube's military now. Straight White men need not apply.

6 posted on 09/13/2014 6:23:54 AM PDT by YankeeReb
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To: pabianice

Black senior leaders were bitching about this when I was a cadet in the early 2000s. I’m sure the bitching goes much farther back than that. I still don’t GAS.


7 posted on 09/13/2014 6:24:02 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: yldstrk
believe me, the Army gives less than a sh8 about skin color, if you are competent, the job is yours, if you ain’t, you ain’t

How I wish that were so.

8 posted on 09/13/2014 6:24:34 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
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To: Olog-hai

Colon Powell was an affirmative action promotion. Maybe we need to double the size of the army do we can have more brigades and, ergo, more command slots available. New headline. DEMOCRATS DISCRIMINATE AGAINST BLACKS BY DOWNSIZING THE ARMY.


9 posted on 09/13/2014 6:24:47 AM PDT by bravo whiskey (we shouldn't fear the government. the government should fear us.)
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To: pabianice

It is shameful that racist insist on always pointing out that blacks are not keeping up with the rest of the world.


10 posted on 09/13/2014 6:25:35 AM PDT by all the best
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To: pabianice

Allen West should be a Flag Officer. A GWB failure IMHO.


11 posted on 09/13/2014 6:26:42 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Held my nose to vote.)
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To: pabianice

Time for Affirmative Action in the Officer Corps and to do away with racist Merit selection.


12 posted on 09/13/2014 6:28:33 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: pabianice

I believe the current army sgt major is a shirker who happens to be black who spent the GWOT going thru schools and then voila the second black president comes along and suddenly he steps into that role.


13 posted on 09/13/2014 6:29:08 AM PDT by junta ("Peace is a racket", testimony from crime boss Barrack Hussein Obama.)
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To: pabianice

There is also a lack of red heads, midgets and paraplegics in leadership positions, so what?


14 posted on 09/13/2014 6:30:07 AM PDT by Right Brother
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Allen West should be SecDef. Let him handle it.


15 posted on 09/13/2014 6:30:10 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Drink your Ovaltine)
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To: Future Snake Eater

Affirmative Action for blacks and women has also been in effect to some extent, at least for the desk officers. Affirmative action IS in effect for homosexuals all through the system.


16 posted on 09/13/2014 6:31:33 AM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: pabianice
It has been a well known secret for many years that Blacks both officers and enlisted tend to enter into the non combat arms MOS positions.
17 posted on 09/13/2014 6:36:34 AM PDT by Radix ("..Democrats are holding a meeting today to decide whether to overturn the results of the election.")
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Or President!!!


18 posted on 09/13/2014 6:41:08 AM PDT by ontap
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To: pabianice

So now I don’t just look at my doctor and wonder “affirmative action?”....I have to do the same with my CO? Or with *his* CO?


19 posted on 09/13/2014 6:41:52 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Islamopobia:The Irrational Fear Of Being Beheaded)
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To: Future Snake Eater
How I wish that were so.

No kidding. That certainly wasn't my experience for 25 years in uniform. Minority quotas for promotions and schools were common and it showed.

20 posted on 09/13/2014 6:46:41 AM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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