Gentlemen, I thought you'd like to see this essay I found on AMREN pertaining to the picture. At least, it seems, my beloved Corps is trying to stem the tide of "Diversity," for now anyway.
41 â€" USMC Gunny wrote at 5:16 PM on March 10:
As a Retired Marine with 22 years service, I can write with some authority on this subject. I spent my entire career in the Infantry Field, with a few instructor or special duty assignments along the way. I did this because I wanted to be a Warrior and not some sort of uniformed technician.
The actual war-fighting part of the U.S. Military is heavily White, especially the Special Ops Community. This unit photo you see in the article is not an anomoly, this is pretty standard. Take a look at a unit picture for a Marine Rifle Company, a Special Forces A-Team, a Navy SEAL Platoon, a Company in a Ranger Battalion, none of these units "looks like America"Â. White men are doing most of the heavy lifting when it comes to fighting this nation's wars.
On the other hand, when you walk into the Unit Personnel Office, Motor Pool, Supply Warehouse, or any of the "Service and Support"Â arms of the Military you will see they are heavily Black and Hispanic. There is a tendency for many minorities to see the military as just a well-armed civil service job, with cool work clothes. As a rule, they aren't there because of any burning desire to be a member of the Profession of Arms, it's all about paycheck, bennies and job security.
You rarely see much minority representation in Scout/Snipers, Recon or Force Recon, the Navy SEAL or Army Ranger or Special Forces communities. These are all volunteer outfits, key word being "volunteer, you have to suit up and show up first. Just because you show up doesn't make you a part of that outfit, you have to get through the Indoc. Indoc is where they find out who appears to pack the gear they need to make it through training. Most applicants (of all colors) don't make it though Indoc. For those that make it thought Indoc, they still have months of brutally tough training before they are even considered an "entry level"Â Special Operator.
In two of the Rifle Battalions I served in, the Scout/Sniper Platoons that were accused of racism because there were no Black Marines in them. I asked a Scout/Sniper friend of mine what the story was. He shrugged and replied "The dooor's open for them too, just like anyone else, none of them ever show up to take the Indoc"Â.
I was a Recruiter for a couple years. Most enlistees have a good chance of being placed in the field they want to go into, as long as they have the test scores for it. Most people end up in the fields where they want to go. I recruited in Western AR and Eastern OK, this was a heavily White region of the country with some Black and Indian population. I never had a single Black applicant who wanted to go into the Combat Arms fields, they always gravitated toward the Service/Support Fields. Most of the White and a lot of Indian kids I worked with wanted to go into the Warrior side of the business. We we seldom had enough Infantry slots to go around for all the kids that wanted them, some had to settle for Artillery, Tanks, Combat Engineers.
The Corps has never conducted Enlisted Recruiting on a racial quota or gender basis. If a kid walked into our office that was mentally, morally and physically qualified to be a Marine and WANTED to be a Marine, we didn't care if he was the color of a baboon's butt, we put him in. One of the Navy Recruiters gave me White kid one time because the lad wanted to join up, NOW, and the Navy guys couldn't touch him because they hadn't put in Black female for the month. That was my first brush with "quota"Â recruiting.
Officer Recruiting is different, the OSO (Officer Selection Officer) is required to recruit Officer Candidates on a basis of Ethnicity. In short, they want an Officer Corps that "looks like America"Â Here is where where a lot of problems occur, quality-wise.
There are huge numbers of Blond haired, blue eyed, exceptionally fit White boys with high test scores, no Police involvement or drug use history, that are dying to be Marine Officers. The OSO has a large number of exceptionally qualified White applicants to choose from and usually rakes in the best of the bunch when filling his "White Quotas"Â
Recruiting minority Officer Candidates is problematic. With the way the diversity departments of private sector companies are fighting for qualified minorities, few highly qualified minority applicants are showing up on the OSO's doorstep. If the OSO has 3 "Black Quotas"Â for the year, he may get 1 exceptionally well qualified black applicant, and another 2 that barely make the cut. Sometimes the OSO has to really strive to make sure these guys get through the selection process, due to police involvement, drug use or mediocre test scores.
Once everyone becomes a an Officer Candidate and goes to OCS, the quota system ends. We have to recruit them on a quota basis but there is no graduation quota in place. It's on them to meet the standards required to graduate OCS. Black Candidates have had a higher washout rate at OCS than the other ethnicities. I believe that is due to the fact that we aren't getting their best and brightest. If the same high sandards were applied to recruiting Black Candidates as are applied to the White kids, there wouldn't be the Black washout rate we see.
For those that make it through OCS, they have to put in 3 choices for Occupational Fields while they are in TBS (The Basic School). Most of the White Officers joined to be Infantry Officers, or at least in one of the Combat Arms. Typically, Black Officers opt away from the Combat Arms. During my 22 years of service, I worked with very few Black Infantry Officers, and that number wouldn't come close to the 12% of the population they represent.
When I was a Platoon Sergeant, one of my Platoon Commanders told me that when he was in TBS, the School Staff there had to assign Black Officers to the Combat Arms against their wishes because there weren't enough of them applying for these fields. This was a result of them being prodded from upon high to make our Officer Corps "look like America. Inspite of this practice, there is a dearth of Minority Officers in the Combat Arms Fields.
Anyone who wants the important commands during their career has to come from the Combat Arms. The Corps is not going to assign a Supply Officer to command a Rifle Battalion. A career Data Dink is not going to command a Regiment. An Aviation Maintenence Officer is not going to become Commandant of the Marine Corps. Minority Officers can shy away from combat assignments all they want, but those whose jobs don't include leading Marines in combat are not going to get the important assignments later in their careers.
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Tom Iron...