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NAVAL ACADEMY DIVERSITY

Naval Academy athletes and diversity admissions programs have been scrutinized over the past several months — sometimes deservedly, sometimes not. Often lost in the debate is the fact that the academy remains a beacon of opportunity for promising high school students and enlisted sailors and Marines who seek to further their education and become commissioned officers. The Navy needs smart, energetic and motivated people from a wide variety of backgrounds, and the academy provides them. I write from experience as an enlisted sailor who attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School, a recruited football player and an African-American.

For this 17-year-old enlistee, NAPS was an outstanding institution that prepared me for the academic rigors of Annapolis. I was fortunate to have instructors who were demanding yet patient and inspirational. We must continue to encourage and value our future leaders who will attend NAPS or our U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation programs.

The military must be a microcosm of the society whose values it defends. Diversity in our officer ranks is an operational imperative as our enlisted ranks begin to mirror national demographics. Women, Hispanics, African-Americans and Asians serving in our military may approach 40 percent to 50 percent of our available candidate pool over the next 10 to 20 years. It is important that our officer population reflects the changing dynamic of America. Naval Academy leadership should be applauded for getting ahead of this demographic trend by leading change and producing officers who can serve as role models and lead in diverse environments [“Diverse class of 2014 arrives,” July 12].

The need to balance academics, military-professional development and athletic programs with admissions standards and student mix will remain a continuous strategic challenge. The change will come from civilian and military leaders who must motivate, inspire and imbue our future leaders with the highest ideals of duty, honor and loyalty. They deserve nothing less.

— Rear Adm. Julius S. Caesar, Vice director, joint concept development and experimentation, Joint Forces Command, Suffolk, Va.

CHIEFS lacking integrity

I read with regret the articles about the chiefs, and in my opinion, these are not chiefs [“No punishment for GW sailor told to cheat on exam,” June 28; “Man sentenced in VA. for buying F-14 gun,” Breaking News, June 28].

The chiefs I know don’t promote or enable cheating, or sell Vulcan cannons off of F-14s. I’m disgusted. Where have these chiefs lost their way?

Our ability to lead from the deck plates can only go as far as our integrity enables it.

— AMCS (AW) Joseph Kampmann, Point Mugu, Calif.

CUTTING NAVY SPENDING

In Lance M. Bacon’s article on the Sustainable Defense Task Force study of potential Pentagon budget contributions to deficit reduction, he quotes from a speech by Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead at the Maritime Systems and Technology seminar June 22 [“Task force: Budget fix requires extreme cuts,” July 5]. These quotes are misleading because Roughead is speaking not about reducing the national deficit, but rather about the Navy’s need to watch its spending in the context of growing fiscal pressures on service budgets.

Roughead remains committed to the goal of a 313-ship battle fleet. He also supports Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ initiative to save $105 billion within DoD accounts over the next five years. Gates’ savings will not contribute a penny to deficit reduction. He plans to plow all the savings back into Pentagon programs, and it is the Navy’s share of this money that Roughead wants to use to grow the battle fleet to 313 ships.

Not only is Gates not offering to contribute to deficit reduction, but he is sticking to his goal of real growth of 1 percent to 2 percent a year in Pentagon budgets. This will increase annual national deficits somewhere in the range of $6 billion to $12 billion. Gates’ position is untenable and will not hold.

If the nation is going to meet its deficit reduction commitments, the Pentagon will have to contribute its share — which is at least 40 percent of the $230 billion-a-year increase in its base (non-war fighting) budget during the last decade. This is the level of cuts the task force has suggested. It is not “extreme,” but rather responsible and realistic.

In the context of the coming national fiscal restraint, the worst thing the CNO can do is continue pushing to grow the Navy battle fleet to 313 ships. The more success he has in buying what will prove to be unaffordable new ships, the further the fleet will have to shrink when austere budgeting arrives. It is far wiser to start reconfiguring and trimming the fleet now and save procurement dollars for a more realistic set of priorities and a more restrained strategic posture.

— Charles Knight, Cambridge, Mass.

DON’T GET SCREWED

The headline “Don’t get screwed out of your advancement” [July 5] completely contrasts the information in the article. Most of the information given is what a sailor can do to make himself more competitive, not what the sailor can do to avoid being treated unfairly.

Many factors must be considered when managing advancement. There’s no doubt that the senior enlisted community is there to guide and develop sailors. However, it is the primary responsibility of individual sailors to track their own efforts, review their evals and ensure they attend career development boards, etc. Too often, individual sailors don’t remember everything they do; this results in loss of documentation on evals and the loss of a competitive edge. It is not the leading petty officer’s or chief’s job to remember everything each sailor under his command does throughout the year.

If a sailor at any time feels he is “getting screwed,” there are many ways to deal with it. Submitting a statement in relation to the eval, appropriate use of the immediate chain of command and requested meetings with a sailor’s commanding officer are some of the steps that can be taken.

Once again, please don’t make it seem like a sailor’s “bosses” don’t care about his careers or are on a mission to hurt his chances — the title of this article was completely unjustified.

— Lt. j.g. Erik English, Richlands, N.C.