Comments on: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

By: Peteo

Peteo — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 17:12:20 +0000

I have always wondered about a correlation of a cadet’s performance with the political leaning of their congressional sponsor.
I shudder to think of the qualities Pelosi must demand for an appointment.

By: 911xav8r

911xav8r — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:20:47 +0000

“Life isn’t fair” is a line most parents say to our children at some point, but we need to try to make Life be as fair as we can, — just to avoid war, if nothing else. Swinging a pendulum too far in an opposite direction doesn’t fix an injustice, it only creates another one. In my case, it has created a person who is now admittedly racist, — not against every black person, just the black culture of entitlement, poor behavior and deficient values that I feel have become a blight on this nation. It really hasn’t begun to be addressed and It would end immediately if “White Guilt” ended. I never felt that because all my ancestors were running the underground railroad or fighting for the North in the Civil War.
I think it’s time to move on, people.

By: 911xav8r

911xav8r — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:18:45 +0000

I am glad that someone at the USNA with experience and credibility has the courage to say what has been obvious for many years. Yes, there were always exceptions made for children of distinguished military and government families, and most colleges do favor athletes. That's never been fair, but it was somewhat rational and fairer than making the huge exceptions now made in every institution and workplace in America about race. I worked for an Architect who made a lucrative career from his race status by "affiliating" himself with civil construciton projects as a "DBE" consultant, (selling his name for a fee). He then gained a fat job in county government and feels he's an example of a successful professional African American. When race-politics reverse the roles, who's going to do the actual work? Who's going to pay the taxes for entitlements? I sure don't feel "advantaged" by having been white. As a matter of well-known fact, had I been black, or female, I would have made it to any goal in either profession in about a quarter of the time, and often with little or no expense.

By: 911xav8r

911xav8r — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:07:24 +0000

I was nominated to the USNA years ago as a young naive white high school senior. The USNA selection process was the very first exposure I had to “affirmative action”, and after not being selected and learning that my grades and test scores were far higher than the average African-American plebe, I was pretty disappointed and bewildered.

I then went to a local college, joined a USMC Aviation Officer program but NPQ’d out for a spinal fusion. Decades later, I have had 2 careers as an Architect and then as a professional civilian pilot, and I have encountered a snootful of race politics in both. As a white person already in minority status in Milwaukee, WI where I now live, I see things much differently now. I am sick of race politics in every aspect of my life. I have struggled every step of the way, paid for every class and flight hour from meager incomes in highly competitive jobs and am currently unemployed and unable to find work in either profession. I don’t feel like I’ve had a particularly easy time because I am white. But yet I have to pay for some sin “my race” committed.
Isn’t that racism?

By: Sgt Sly

Sgt Sly — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:24:20 +0000

Duh, I’m shocked that institutes of higher learning show favoritism to otherwise unqualified athletes. See also Vick, Young, Russell, Katzenmoyer.

By: Cedric

Cedric — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:10:09 +0000

Part II
Junior officers need to be reminded that they maybe senior to a CPO/LPO, but they will need the guidance and wisdom that the CPO/LPO posses. 2 years out of ROTC/academy has nothing on actual time in the fleet. To lead, you must learn how to follow.

ABarber, if you served honorable, then you’ll eligible for veterans preference for civil service jobs. Is that giving one group preference over another? Yep!

It is more than a test score or our racial background. Too often we are more comfortable choosing someone who looks like us rather than who is better qualified. When that happens I turned that into an opportunity to try harder and try again.

By: Cedric

Cedric — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:09:07 +0000

It would be nice if the system was color and/or socio-economic status, but it isn’t. Now, I was recruited by both enlisted and officer recruiters when I was in high school. I scored high on the ASVAB and was desirable to both camps as an African American teen (double in the book). I enlisted because the enlisted recruiter had my ear more than the officer recruiters. I didn’t feel comfortable taking a BOOST billet as I came from a non-disadvantage background (at the time, dad had an executive MBA and was President/CEO of a non-profit and schoolteacher mother with masters in education) and affluent suburban schools.

By: ABarber

ABarber — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:56:20 +0000

I’m not WHITE, I’m Italian American, is there a box for me?
Should also look at the government hiring process. One either has to be an uneducated non-white or have a relative in a high up position to push your resume through CPOL. I have too much integrity to copy and paste a false resume and I think “the what ethnic box are you” should be removed from all applications. I believe without a doubt I have not been hired for many positions because the job went to someone other than [white] or they had friends in the hiring processes.

By: rasheri

rasheri — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:08:19 +0000

Years ago I flew with a LTjg affirmative action activist on the Navigation table. Over the objections of CIC officers and Air Traffic Controllers he had us headed for France or England instead of returning to the North American Continent. We had as physical way points 4 Destroyer Esorts, One Coast Guard Ocean Station (D), the Portugese Azores Islands of Corvo and Flores. We had a surface search radar that reached out 250 miles and more radios than most ships. 16 if remember corretcly. After telling the Plane Commander that I was only an enlisted man and the CICO was biased. ( I was the Senior NCO, Flight Crew Leader, with several commendations and approaching 3500 hours flight time on the Barrier) our 2nd pilot finally got a star shot and turned us around.

Several years later I met this WRONG WAY CORRIGAN on M street in Washington, DC. He was working as a lawyer with a civil rights advocacy firm. Within five minutes he was ranting about his slavery in the Navy. Getting blown out of the air by the British or the French air defense commands would have solved his slavery problems.

By: James Grainger

James Grainger — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:20:26 +0000

Affirmative Action has outlived it’s usefulness. Unfortunately, there a many, whites included, who think it still has a purpose. It takes more than a star running back or point guard to lead in combat.