Deputy Under Secretary of Defense Talks Diversity, Inclusion in Military Leadership

The highest-ranking transgender in the Department of Defense, a male former naval aviator who later became a senior Pentagon policy official with immense power to push the alphabet agenda throughout the military, recently gave a talk at Georgetown University. This is one of many civilian policymakers in the Pentagon who are responsible for the woke disaster brought upon the military.

By Pooja Narayan | The Hoya

Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Shawn G. Skelly stressed equitable military hiring practices as crucial to national security at a Jan. 13 event.

Rebecca D. Patterson, the associate director of the Center for Security Studies and the Security Studies Program, a graduate program for those seeking defense or security jobs, moderated the event, focusing on Skelly’s career transition from serving in the U.S. Navy to working in defense. Skelly, one of the highest-ranking openly transgender officials in the U.S. government, shared her experience with military leadership and inclusion work, encouraging diverse audiences to envision themselves as service members.

Skelly, who first joined the military due to a childhood interest in naval airplane manufacturing, said effective leadership requires demonstrating equal capability and effort.

“In the military and aviation, you’re not just a commander that has all these units and people in the field, and you talk on the radio, and you teach them things,” Skelly said at the event. “A leader in aviation has to actually fly the very same airplane their junior officers do. So it was really about always being mindful, to remember what it takes to do the thing that you’re asking.”

Patterson said the different roles Skelly has played in the defense and national security industries have equipped her to communicate the importance of diversity and a well-prepared defense force.

“Not only has she been appointed in the Biden administration, but also in the Obama administration and served for 20 years of active duty service in the U.S. Navy,” Patterson said at the event. “Her trailblazing career and advocacy demonstrate how inclusive leadership is really essential in strengthening national security.”

After her military service and a short stint in the private sector, Skelly joined the Obama administration in 2013 and worked first in the Department of Defense and later in the Department of Transportation. In 2018, she co-founded Out in National Security, a non-profit organization to empower LGBTQ+ military service members.

Skelly said the military’s need for service has made diversity and inclusion strategic recruiting goals.

“It requires us to turn over every rock in the United States of America, the people who are interested and potentially willing to serve their country,” Skelly said. “When it comes to diversity and inclusion, the Department of Defense doesn’t see an American as anything other than someone capable of doing the job that the nation needs for our national security. We’re not a perfect organization.”

“But we are a pretty decent, functional, pragmatic, egalitarian organization. If you do well, you have a chance to succeed, to be promoted,” Skelly added.

Skelly said a lack of representation in U.S. military positions may be discouraging some from serving.

“Practices seem to become accepted and people go where they see themselves,” Skelly said. “There’s an attitude of, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to fit in there because I don’t see anybody like me in any of the pictures from the class photo.’ Meanwhile, people are.”

The Department of Defense is the largest employer of transgender people in the United States, and roughly 41% of those serving in the military identify with one or more minority groups. Since the 2015 decision to open up all military roles to women, including those in combat, female representation has risen at the entry-level in the military.

Skelly said changing the perception of the military’s openness to diversity is crucial.

“If segments of our own population do not feel that they get a fair chance, that will be bad,” Skelly said. “That is very dangerous for the United States and by the way, adversaries are working on accelerating those types of things to replicate this, which is part of the ongoing competition.”

First published in The Hoya