My Beloved USNA becomes progressive

Okay, here's another guy who is waaaay, waaay more grouchy than me. Of course, sometimes I think Pat is a few french fries short of a Happy Meal, but he is on to something here.

Dumbing-Down the U.S. Navy


Now, I am going to go out on a limb here to the tippy toes of political correctness and say..."No kidding Pat, they have been doing that since, well at least 1983 (the year I became a plebe at good ol' Canoe U)"
Here's the dirty secret that Pat doesn't know...admission rates don't mean squat, it's graduation rates that count and if 50-60% of those marginally qualified minorities graduate I will be surprised.
See, they don't (yet) have an underwater basket weaving major to help dumb sh**ts and jocks graduate. Everyone has to take the same pain-in-the-ass courses (electrical engineering, physics, calculus, chemistry, celestial navigation-at least in my day, it is now becoming a lost art, and naval architecture) no matter what their major is, and if you can't hack it, you can't hack it.

So, read 'em and weep. I dare say I probably would not even qualify for admission these days..I came from a podunk high school, was an average white guy and I did okay at the SAT (after two tries, long story) but managed to squeak in, where I had to work my butt off, nearly flunk out one semester (another long story) and ended up graduating in the top 1/3 of my class. Not too bad for a hayseed from Oklahoma.

It's the same in flight school, nuke school, even SWOS. Of course I saw (ahem) minority flight students given many more chances to pass than the average white guy or girl would be given. Actually, the girls did quite well, at least at Navigator Training school. (This was in 1989-much before the combat ban was lifted)

The dirty secret is the military of the 1990s (Clinton era) wanted to showcase how progressive they were (and you know how I love progressive things) and I actually saw minority officers promoted way faster than their non-minority counterparts. Call me bigoted if you want, but I was there and I saw it. I think things are better now, because 8 years of war tends to bleed off the bullsh** and combat tends to be a fairly rigorous quality control system, but in the 1990s this was not so.

So in the end, the well meaning (and butt kissing) Naval Academy administration does nothing but likely waste a billet that could have gone to a better qualified (gasp) white male, or female for that matter.




ADDITION:
Forgot to include this...perfect example of Chicago politics brought to Washington...
I can hear the Godfather now..."Reward your friends and punish your enemies" and the coolest part is Obambi gets to punish his enemies with OUR tax dollars...

Billions in aid go to areas that backed Obama in '08

Comments

V-squared said…
In 1994 at USNA, well after service selection night, the Academy Administration announced that there were 10 more pilot billets to be filled...only for minorities! I mentioned this in my last Equal Opportunity Survey on active duty...never recieved any follow-up on it...