What Is DACODAI?

By Capt. Brent Ramsey, US Navy, ret

The Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (DACODAI) was formed in 2022. The committee’s website says it is to “examine and provide recommendations to improve racial/ethnic diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity within the DoD [Department of Defense], with a primary focus on military personnel.”

Sounds innocuous. However, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology promotes a radical, un-American belief system.

DEI promotes extreme ideas like America is a racist nation, that racism and white supremacy are widespread today, and that whites are oppressors and minorities are oppressed.

The committee itself is not diverse.

However, the need for DACODAI is questionable, as the DOD’s 2022 demographics report shows the military is extremely diverse, at or above national demographics for race and ethnicity.

DACODAI’s own data publicized in December 2023 shows rates on all types of discrimination complaints are tiny fractions of a percent.

Examples of military adoption of DEI:

—$114.7M in FY2024 for military DEI, a substantial increase from 2023.

—In ongoing litigations against USMA and USNA, both admitted to using admissions practices that consider race and ethnicity. Specific practices of one or both include

(1) reserving vacancies for racial “diversity” applicants,
(2) using candidate composite score (only a small fraction of which is standardized test score) thresholds that differ by race when making admission decisions, and
(3) using out of order of merit selection to achieve racial diversity.

Better-qualified white and Asian applicants, some having much higher candidate composite scores, are not selected to make room for lower-scoring “diversity” applicants.

These practices unarguably violate constitutional equal protection of the law, deny equal opportunity to hundreds of higher-scoring but non-selected applicants, demean minorities who gain admission based on merit, and, combined with other poor policy choices, lower standards for about 10%-20% of the entering class.

These practices have been concealed from Congress and the American people for decades. The result: Warfighters are not always getting the best-qualified leaders.

—DOD websites and recruiting emphasize DEI. DEI training is continuous and ubiquitous.

—In 2022, the chief of staff of the Air Force set a goal of no more than 67.5% white pilots. Currently, 90%+ of AF pilots are white.

—2023 Navy selection board guidance overtly allows the use of race in selections.

—Based on their personal experience or those of their children, thousands of current and former military members objected to DEI’s dilution of merit. These voices represent thousands of years of service. They are the voices of experience, and they warn that the path we are on now leads to disunity, division, lower morale, recruiting and retention problems, and, eventually, failure. These testimonies are at STARRS.

Meanwhile, zero data shows diversity improves performance, lethality, or readiness.

—Col (Ret.) Bill Prince, U.S. Army Special Forces with 11 combat deployments, quotes the USMA’s Chief Data Officer, Col. Paul F. Evangelista ‘96, in commenting on attempts to measure the effectiveness of DEI, “We don’t have the data.”

—BG (Ret.) Ernie Audino, U.S. Army, nails the issue precisely, saying: “If generals are right, i.e. that racial diversity in our officer corps is a ‘national security imperative,’ then the services would at least track racial percentages in their mandatory assessments of unit combat readiness, but they don’t. Racial diversity is not included and never has been.”

—CDR (Ret.) Phil Keuhlen, USN, is a former commanding officer of a nuclear-powered attack submarine. His analysis of Task Force 1 Navy’s claimed diversity benefits shows the Navy misrepresented source applicability, extended conclusions beyond the data, and ignored source conclusions that gains were due to factors that degrade military effectiveness. His detailed analysis is at RealClearDefense.

—Col (Ret.) Bing West, USMC, is one of the most decorated combat veterans in our nation’s history. His article, “The Military’s Perilous Experiment,” ought to give our military leaders pause in their headlong pursuit of diversity. He writes:

“Inside the military, however, another criterion has taken central booking: diversity. The focus has shifted toward emphasizing gender and racial equality, particularly in leadership positions. Diversity has replaced lethality as the lodestone for the military. … As a Marine veteran, I find this disconcerting. From boot training on, Marines are taught to put aside diversity, not to emphasize it.”

The article can be found at the Hoover Institution.

DACODAI met in DC on December 14-15, 2023, and invited public comment. The input submitted by multiple public interest organizations was ignored. This behavior by DACODAI is most disconcerting.

To ensure DACODAI will have various ideas, STARRS collaborated with leaders of Calvert Group, Veterans for Fairness and Merit, Flag Officers 4 America, the MacArthur Society, and Take Charge Minnesota in producing recorded, public testimony about DEI’s adverse impacts on the military. This powerful public testimony is available at the STARRS website. It deserves DACODAI’s attention and substantive response.

Warfighters know it needs both.

DACODAI will meet again in early May. Americans interested in preserving our military’s unity, cohesion, and readiness to defend us against our enemies are urged to tell them what they think about DEI in our military.

First published on Patriot Post