I am a retired Army intelligence officer who tries to eschew politics in my fiction. I am nowhere on the Red-Blue continuum, I’m a libertarian. Which takes me off the liberal-conservative continuum as well because I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative. What does any of this have to do with being a retired military officer?
In June 2020, sixteen hundred National Guard troops were deployed to Washington, D.C., during the summer of mostly peaceful arson, looting, destruction and murder. They were brought to the nation’s capital to augment forces protecting federal property, including the White House. The Mayor wanted them gone and ordered them out of their hotel, refusing to pay the bills. They were depicted as an occupying force and part of the problem.
In January 2021, twenty-five thousand national guard troops were deployed to Washington, D.C., in certainty that armed insurrection would occur. They were used as props for photos of the capitol, saving the Republic from the half of the country declared traitors. There was no armed insurrection. And the white supremacist uprising predicted for all fifty state capitals was limited to one: a mostly-white Antifa group set fires and attacked the state Democratic Party headquarters in Portland, Oregon. They featured a sign saying they didn't want Biden, they wanted Revenge.
As soon as the inauguration was over, these women and men who had volunteered to protect and defend our nation no longer had any use as props, and were ordered to leave the capitol and spend the night in a parking garage during sub-freezing temperatures.
As physical privation for the military goes, this is small potatoes albeit gratuitous. Seven thousand soldiers, two bathrooms, no internet and one electrical outlet make for interesting math. The order allegedly came from the capitol police, who report through committees to the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader of the Senate. Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer bear ultimate responsibility. Shame on them.
This would be less significant were it not preceded by an undeserved insult from Representative Steve Cohen, who expressed concern that the loyalty of white members of the National Guard troops was suspect because only “twenty percent of them voted for President Biden.” The test of loyalty to the country is voting for a specific candidate for President? That standard goes beyond shameful to disgusting. Cohen’s focus on white members of the National Guard is racist and unacceptable. It’s not the first time Cohen has sounded the racist klaxon; in 1996 he lost the primary election to succeed Harold Ford, Sr, to Harold Ford, Jr, and claimed that the result proved that it didn’t matter what a white person did, he could never overcome bias in the black community.
All of that is merely prelude to the Secretary of Defense’s betrayal of trust to his troops. Secretary of Defense Austin, during his Senate confirmation hearings in January 2021, said in prepared remarks, “We also owe our people a working environment free of discrimination, hate and harassment. If confirmed, I will fight hard to stamp out sexual assault, to rid our ranks of racists and extremists, and to create a climate where everyone fit and willing has the opportunity to serve this country with dignity.” In early February, he ordered a DoD-wide stand-down to address racism and extremists in the military. The order followed a discussion of the capitol riot of January 6, 2021.
The subject of sexual assault is not easily unpacked. The demographics of the military differ significantly from the general population, because they include primarily fit women and men age 18-25. That’s the same demographic in the general population that includes most victims and suspects of sexual assault. Secretary Austin’s words would indicate some trend leading to urgency. The most recent data are found in the military’s April 2020 Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military.
Of 6,244 reported sexual assaults in 2019, 72% could be investigated. The remaining 28% could not be investigated because of doubtful reports, insufficient evidence, or absence of any viable suspect. Reported sexual assaults including a military victim and military suspects were 62% of the total, a percentage little-changed over the past ten years. Of all reports, ten percent were referred for felony charges. The Washington Post reported in 2018 that in the general population, only 1.1% of sexual assaults were referred for felony charges. Rather than an object of derision, it appears that the military’s handling of sexual assault should serve as a model. The problem of sexual assault should not be trivialized. By his testimony, Secretary Austin has implied a problem so significant that it merits prioritization ahead of such things as readiness. Most military personnel will beg to differ.
Since President Harry Truman ordered the integration of the military in 1948, it has become and remains the most integrated, least-racially-biased, institution in the country. Secretary Austin entered the military in 1975, after it became an all-volunteer force and the influence of the 1960s culture wars was beginning to decline. According to Pew Research, minority representation in active-duty forces has continued increasing for the past four decades. Now that no one is drafted, military service is a free choice, and minority members do not appear dissuaded by massive institutional racism nor white supremacy.
A twelve-hour search of the internet by a professional who is an expert at drafting search queries was unable to find a single authoritative list of racist or white supremacist incidents year-over-year in the military since General Austin joined in 1975. There are more than 20,000 citations of opinion polls about racism in the military, but not one contains a list of incidents nor a statistical comparison. I don’t dispute the importance of rooting out racism and racial supremacy, but I don’t know the origin of the immediate need to stand down the US military.
Again, according to Pew Research, diversity in the ranks is ever-increasing, with white active-duty members dropping from 64% to 57% between 2003 and 2017. USA TODAY reports that at the upper ranks, though, a large gap exists between blacks and others in flag officers (Generals and Admirals). One can view this unequal result as the outcome of a unequal process caused by racism, but that would be only part of the story. Foreign Affairs reports that among Colonels in Army combat arms (Infantry, Armor, Artillery), black officers are promoted to flag rank at a higher rate than their peers. We can probably conclude that the problem isn’t becoming a General or Admiral, it’s first becoming a Colonel or Seafaring Captain. Even that is only part of the story.
The Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) was tasked around 2009-2010 to examine this issue. They addressed the issue, scrutinized it, but admitted they had no solution. They also acknowledged that despite a higher attrition rate among black junior officers in the Army, there was no institutional bias that could account for the higher attrition.
The publication Your Black Life offers a plausible explanation: On entering commissioned officer service in the Army, few black men choose combat arms. Most choose support branches, which is fine until it is time for promotion. Military
promotion boards consider all officers in a grade or rank competitively with one another for promotion. The core strength of the Army, and all other services, is combat. That is why the military serves as an effective deterrent to aggression. Combat arms officers, representing the core strength, are chosen at higher rates than all other officers at every promotion opportunity. The rules and regulations surrounding promotion board decision-making are complicated, but they all mandate separation from service after a reasonable number of attempts to be selected for promotion. As one ascends in rank, the cohort becomes increasingly combat arms-represented, and the falloff of non-combat arms officers, disproportionately minorities, becomes noticeable.
The services have attempted for the past forty years to recruit more black officers to combat arms, to no avail. If and when black and other minority officer cohorts choose combat arms assignments at the same rate as their white counterparts, they will likely be promoted at similar rates. It will still take twenty-two years until minorities and whites have proportional representation among Colonels and Seafaring Captains. No matter how many studies are conducted, no matter how many stand-downs are ordered, it will take a quarter-century after the cause for under-representation is fixed before Generals and Admirals will begin to look like America.
I close with an unattributed quote I found last week on the internet.
The nation which forgets its defenders will itself be forgotten.