STARRS routinely collects comments to see the sentiment of what military people are thinking about the woke agenda. Comments were collected from the post below (and from others) by a retired Army Colonel who goes on X by Cynical Publius.
Good grief!! There were so many comments and they were so revealing that it deserves its own post.
He also wrote an article about all this that should be read: DEI and the Death of Effective Military Command
Link to X Post | Link to Military.com article
What People Are Saying
“Leaders don’t want to be the face of DEI policies foisted upon them by woke bureaucrats–or be prosecuted when they aren’t.”
“My nephew is a Lt. Col. in the Army, and confirms all this. He told me of these kinds of things 5 years ago, in fact.”
“Odd that the article doesn’t mention the politicization of today’s military, which gets harder and harder to avoid at higher ranks. I suspect that a major can avoid toeing the DEI line, but a colonel or brigadier general can’t.”
“I suspect for many, they simply aren’t willing to operate as a leader in the current environment. They know that ONE perceived slight could be a career ender. I hope this changes in the next administration.”
“Each advancement requires selling an additional chunk of your soul to the DEI gods. We’re seeing the level at which many are reaching Faustian exhaustion.”
“Who wants to lead troops on orders from people who hate them, the country and their ancestors? Get to LTC, ride a desk for a few years and retire before you get relieved because the red guard hates you too.”
“I think it has more to do with not wanting to face endless EEO complaints by woke DEI scammers.”
“Could it be that until the DEI/CRT standards are changed that they want no part of enforcing something they don’t believe?”
“Perhaps it has something with the heightened DEI scrutiny and compliance that might be part of taking on a Command position under the current Woke guidelines? That will change under Hegseth.”
“Will likely come out on the next CSL but have already decided to decline. After Covid, AFG withdrawal, weak senior leaders, etc my faith in the institution is rock bottom.”
“I have the feeling that we have turned our Army into a place where a person can minimally perform for 20 years and then punch out with great retirements benefits. If so, we will be in a world of hurt the next time these guys have to deploy for something serious.”
“Why would you put your retirement and family at risk when some woke private could destroy your command / career for an allegation.”
“Another consequence of having a Woke military. No one wants to be a Warfighter anymore.”
“I work in a position where I encounter many of the O-5s and E-9s in that group. An alarming amount of them seem low-key dreading facing the “weaponized investigation” culture that is currently pervasive. Combine that with the paltry manning (but perception from higher that everything must still get done as if they were 100%) and it is absolutely not surprising to me that the command opt-in is down.”
“So many ways to “Get the Old Man!” He used the wrong pronoun! He yells too loud. He disrespects “us”. (Whoever US is at the moment.) Command is a setup for failure and suspension.”
“It’s not that today’s officers are shirking duty, it’s that they are disillusioned with our senior “leaders”. They know that they won’t be allowed the LEAD their own units, but will be micromanaged and scolded every step. They’re not happy being staff-o’s, but it’s better than being used for target practice by unscrupulous ladder climbers.”
“I’m just wondering if all of the Regulations and DA Pams were updated to reflect all of these weird DEI policies. A good example would be the wear and appearance of the military uniform. How on Earth do you navigate through the day with all of the special cases where transgenderism in smack in the middle of the platoon level?”
“When my MAJCOM commander told me I was a racist because I wasn’t anti-racist as he waived Ibrahim X Kendi’s intellectually garbage work? Brother, I was done.”
“Why would one want to command? I’m guessing even hard charging officers know they’ll be held hostage to the insanity that grips the Army these days. Future commanders might get the title, but they won’t actually get to command; it’s the zampolits (both unofficial and semi-official) who will do the actual “commanding.”
“As a non-commissioned officer, my ultimate career goal was to achieve the rank of Command Sergeant Major. At the age of 23, holding the rank of E6, I seriously contemplated pursuing this path. However, the perceived prioritization of political maneuvering over merit in promotions beyond E7 ultimately dissuaded me.”
“We’re probably making officers who are like that – and even for some who want to be war fighters, commanding a battalion these days probably involves navigating a minefield of career-ending woke bullshit. I mean, think about it – the soldier causing all the trouble now announces he’s trans…WTF are you gonna do?”
“Most are marking time till retirement and want out now with all that has gone on such as DEI.”
“This cancer has spread through every command level on the active duty side as well as the GS system that’s supporting the warfighters. A white male either bends the knee and walks on egg shells or accepts the end of their career. Leader’s decision are guided by fear of the system instead of truth and integrity.”
“I imagine command is now less about leadership than it is about trying not to step on any DEI landmines.”
“They all know that they’re going to be forced to lead in a different way than that of their favorite battalion commander growing up.”
“I suspect that many of them realize the power of DEI to destroy them if they reach for that brass ring. It is abundantly clear that Pentagon policy intends to advance the careers of minorities, women, and the LGBTQ crowd, and that policy uses the carrot and the stick.”
“It’s the weaponization of the complaint process (IG, EO, SHARP). Good commanders who hold people to a standard end up under investigation often and now ALL officers who have any substantiated investigation (no matter how minor) have this information reported in a data basis and is made available to promotion boards. It’s risky to be in command.”
“I’m aware of several dedicated career leaders, 05/06 that ultimately chose the command of self and family, would have to change personal (and traditional) principals to continue; bend the knee to the political-DEI patronage system. Max out without kneeling and move on to retirement and civilian world; sad for our country, but making tremendous impact on the companies they are currently leading.”
“Many things have happened. The promotion system has become decisively less meritocratic degrading the meaning and status of command but most of all the nature of command has changed. A lot more time is spent managing the vast amount of social-experiment driven admin tasks.”
“Leaders deference to accusers and the whole “me too” crap are huge factors in this.”
“Perhaps you don’t understand the bullshit that COMES w/ those ranks these days. They want people they can turn into commies & DEI sycophants. If people are TURNING DOWN those roles, this says nothin but GOOD things to me.”
“I’d bet it has a lot to do with not wanting to enforce woke BS — or having the integrity not to be in a position issuing orders they don’t believe.”
“THIS is why the loser Military Brass embraced DEI insanity. It’s a helluva lot easier to get rewarded for mandating Chinese Cultural Revolution seminars than developing measurable excellence in military skills. Subsidizing troop gender surgery fits the new model perfectly.”
“Is this a reflection of the compromises they’d make to be a Commander in the current environment? Hope that changes.”
“Could it be that commanders aren’t supported when they make tough decisions? Future commanders see how current commanders are treated. Dirtbag soldiers (small s) consume much of their time and when counseled have the dirtbag algorithm that they start with.
– IG, racism
– IG; when that doesn’t work, sexual something or another
– when that doesn’t work, suicidal
(None of the three are true, just a manipulation tool used by the troublemaker) Then, you get COM because you didn’t have a smooth command…you actually tried to get rid of the troublemakers. Who wants to deal with that?”
“FemiCommies & social justice. Too dangerous, not worth it.”
“Wonder if it has anything to with being held accountable but given no real authority to hold personnel accountable? The “helping” agencies have been weaponized against leadership. One wrong look or word has you relieved and investigated, career over.”
“Maybe the Commissars of DEI will get you cashiered or get your command wiped out.”
“Maybe it has something to do with the CINC the last four years… those on active duty may not want to stay in for the same reasons veterans are not encouraging civilians to enlist.”
“Few want to be in charge of the current Cluster F%}*^”
“You could be right that this generation does not have the esprit de corps and the desire to lead that was prevalent when I retired 24 years ago. But there may be another reason. The upcoming batch of O-5s that would be in line for BNCO likely joined 20 years ago when you weren’t required to deal with the bullshit DEI/gender criteria that appears to be needed for promotion in this age. So, they might just despise it enough that they don’t want to participate in the command structure and would rather just be staff officers until they retire.”
“It’s on par with the Soviet and PRC commanders having a political officer in their command.”
“Boards are DEI rigged so officers they KNOW are inferior to themselves are chosen. Why be humiliated participating in rigged process – and then hearing “I’m better than you” from DEI morons? WON’T get fixed until EVERY DEI selected in last four years is DEMOTED or GONE. Question is WILL Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth demote EVERY DEI selectee from last FOUR years if they won’t apply to retire before 20 Jan 2025? Better believe the Soldiers we need to stay are watching to see if we will actively rid DOD of every DEI mistake made.”
“DEI did that, now they want no part of it. Simple.”
“An O-6 who works in the DC area tells me they’re all terrified of some E-4 just feeling mean one day and ending their careers with a false accusation.”
“”personal and family circumstances” sounds good, but how many do not want to be a sacrificial lamb to whatever cause is popular. Might be the same issues that are causing enlistment rates to drop. Who would admit that publicly?”
“Would you want to lead a DEI organization in today’s armed forces? This is not our military.”
“When I retired we could no longer hold female officers to the same standard as their male counterparts. I had young female officers who were grossly out of standards, could not qualify their primary watch station, & we could not give them a poor evaluation.”
“I recall asking a deck chief (sub tender) why the males appeared to be doing twice the work as the females. He told me some of the females would manufacture harassment claims if they were assigned undesirable jobs.”
“My son told me horror stories of the Army he was in, which was unrecognizable from the Army I was in.”
“My middle son is an Army Sergeant. He finally made it to BLC, where he wasn’t allowed to graduate because he sang “Colors of the wind” and someone decided that it was racist. The rot is deep, down to the very bottom of the ranks. The officer corps of every service needs to be razed.”
“Also explains why so many DEI zealots ARE taking those O-5 positions, instead of qualified, verified leaders.”
“It’s important to point out that the vast majority of minority soldiers don’t benefit from the DEI bullshit at all. The last NG unit I served with was about 90% black (since the area it was in was 90% black, and NG reflects the region), and the majority who didn’t play the DEI games were just as hurt by the handful who do. What’s a black, female private to think when she sees her purple-haired, black, queer-but-married-to-a-man female captain slap a black, female E4 and threaten an EO complaint against either of them if they say anything? I mean, to me the O3 was wrong from the moment she dyed her hair a non-natural color, and if that standard isn’t being enforced, how is anything else going to be?”
“I have a family member who was relieved from her command over a BS issue such as what you’re describing. A warrior and incredible soldier, I almost couldn’t even believe my ears when I heard about it.”
“Thank you for continuing to share the truth about our military DEI rot. Sadly, we have the same thing throughout most large corporations. I decided to retire this year rather than walk on eggshells in this oppressive DEI environment in corporate America. It was amazing how quickly the DEI infection spread through corporate HR in our country and overseas too. Consulting companies like Deloitte spread it widely.”
“I am a 20+ year retired SNCO and this past weekend, my son played USMA, no not the football game another sport the night prior, and the lack of character, poise, and integrity I witnessed by the USMA players had me beside myself. Even my wife asked me after, as a dig, would I be rooting for USNA on Saturday? Of course I said no but I could not believe the lack of discipline I witnessed not only in their game but their behavior and the coaching staff said and did nothing.”
“The son of a friend was in Basic at Sill last year and made some sort of ‘yo mama’ comment to another guy, who happened to be Hispanic with an illegal alien mother, or a deported mother, or such like, and that guy complained under the new rat-em-out program they have, and so he went under investigation. Then another Hispanic guy said to my friend’s son, “Hey isn’t [female Drill Sergeant] hot?” (Yes, I said ‘female Drill Sergeant,’ and the soldiers were guys.) Anyway, he said, ‘Yes, she’s beautiful,” or similar, and the guy, a friend of the first Hispanic guy, reported him for sexual harassment of the Drill. He got kicked out of Basic.”
“The challenge for the incoming SecDef will be removing those who foisted these DEI witch hunts on good officers and returning those wrongfully persecuted back to their rank and positions to help clean house.”
“Last year, I was observing a mil twitter thread about mental health and several junior Os (mostly females) talked about being on anxiety/depressant meds. I told them they had no business leading Soldiers in combat medicated (keep in mind, this generation had not ever been to combat) and the caterwauls were insane- The highlight was some dipshit saying my generation lost the wars and they would have won (ha ha). The societal crisis of victimhood is now well encased in the Army. I have had one friend turn down BDE Command, and several have remarked to me Bn CMD was absolutely miserable because of the scrutiny of every single discipline or training decision. Glad I am out.”
“It’s like having the political officers in the Soviet military. When ideological purity trumps war fighting capacity you are in real trouble.”
“Been there. Was XO at USCG OCS in a previous life. I was the hammer who failed out students. Only suffered one such investigation from a 38 yr old BF Officer Candidate. She was there on several waivers (age, test scores, etc.) and only got in because she had been the asst to the Master Chief Petty Officer Of The Coast Guard. Weak, lazy student, entitled individual with no military bearing. Easy decision to boot her. She came at me three ways – age, sex and race discrimination. Took the IG (then DOT) a while, but they finally cleared me. Way too much documentation of how much she sucked and a by the book expulsion. That was 24 yrs ago. I still have the investigation folder in my safe to this day…just in case. ”
“It’s even worse when you realize there is review authority of everyone up the chain from each of these O-5s. And it’s been happening for a while now. even if you beat an allegation and keep your CoC from reprisal, nothing stops more new allegations.”
“It’s actually worse than that. I know an O3 who has spent his career in SO. He turned down a rotation to a standard infantry unit because word is out that if soldiers don’t like the CO, they will make an DEI allegation that ruins the CO’s career. Why take the risk?”
“Kids quitting pilot training for this shit. Further, flying training quality has gone way, way down. It’s a shit show, as are most all the services’ “cool guy” specialties.”
“I remember seeing an E2 tell a Chief no, not doing that while deployed with zero consequences. Knew we were screwed at that point.”
“A big part of the problem is they start sending O-5s and up to get their masters degrees at woke schools like UNC-Chapel Hill, where they are indoctrinated in cultural marxism and then return to post with that mentality. Saw that happen to my buddy who was an SF LtCOL.”
“Roger. My 2 CG O-3 sons are separating soon; they have no desire to become what they see above them.”
“Had this happen as a DoD contractor when a poor performing coworker was faced with a very poor performance review, he threw out the gay card. Our manager was the one the one who got in trouble and we were left with someone who did not have to do anything.”
“That’s why my nephew (O-3) bugged out. He realized as a white male he could not make a career in the military.”
“An officer will have someone try to protect them. Be a junior NCO, and know that if you enforce standards your career is over. You will be thrown under the bus hard, fast, and with no support, lest the command get accused of protecting an -ist.”
—–
“As someone who served as both an EO rep, and a SARC during my military career, I can say that much of the rot emanates from those well meaning programs. Do they serve a good, with some exceptions yes, but SHARP programs are ran by extreme leftist civilians, with subordinates in uniform that are equally “chip on shoulder”.
SARCs and SHARP reps sometimes coach victims toward hyperbole in order to pass through the scrutiny of Command reviews; the program coordinators have incentives to create clear examples of bad command climates, the ultimate goal, which is mostly to pronounce the dire need for their ridiculously high paying GS jobs, who cares about the impact to units right?
Same with EO, which is filled with even worse leftist civilians and senior NCOs, most of which have benefited from diversity pressured promotion boards. I saw these activists hiding in obscure offices (installation level offices – not your collateral duty NCOs at the units like myself) that made Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, and other race baiters look timid in comparison.
The lack of awareness and deficient moral imperative that led to the need to refocus our military with EO and SHARP is largely unnecessary today, good leaders can actually handle this issue at the unit level, no one tolerates it anymore.
We need to get the radical left activists out of these positions and remove the poisonous threat to senior leaders and the instigatory rot within units that they currently represent.”
—–
“The other side of this coin is that if you are a service member in a “protected class” and you are sub-standard, or worse, prone to being ‘disruptive’ (your drug dealer…), you can exploit this dynamic, which increases over time, both in the micro and @ the macro levels.”
“It’s like having an indeterminate number of zampolits in your unit, just waiting to inform on you.”
“Commanders often encounter entrenched civilian employees who fight any changes & vow to wait out the Commander’s 2yr assignment. The DoD needs to make civilians relocate after 5 yrs in an organization. They’re passive aggressive at best & will ruin a career if challenged.”
“If you’re in command of a load of “protected minorities” and it’s your ass if you discipline them and they know it, you don’t have a command. You have a broken chain of command and no military discipline worth a damn. Your unit has no merit, honor or morale, is just as likely a danger to itself as to others and the enemy knows this. You’re more likely to get into a battle because the enemy regards you with contempt and you’re more likely to lose. The people who inflict DEI on an institution are not ignorant. The investment in political science and sociology is extreme. They know what they are doing and brilliant minds describing the effects on the ground are very late to the table measured in years if not decades. Illegal orders to force poison the entire U.S. military *should* have resulted in general disobedience. The softening up preceding this general humiliation was long instilled. The demoralization was Progressive, one can make an educated guess, since 2008. The Biden era. There needs to be hell to pay. Incoming in the form of Trump Hegseth by the looks of it.”
“24 years, retired Air Force. I can’t adequately express my horror, outrage, rage, and disgust at what Clinton started, and Obama massively expanded in our armed forces. Civilians have zero fucking clue just how gravely dangerous Woke/DEI in our armed forces is to our security.”
More than Half of Senior Army Officers Are Turning Down Command Consideration
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