Dumbing-Down the U.S. Navy

Townhall.com ^ | July 7, 2009 | Pat Buchanan

[Kaslin]

"Naval Academy Professor Challenges Rising Diversity," ran the headline in The Washington Post.

The impression left was that some sorehead was griping because black and Hispanic kids were finally being admitted.

The Post's opening paragraphs reinforced the impression.

"Of the 1,230 plebes who took the oath of office at the Naval Academy in Annapolis this week, 435 were members of minority groups. It's the most racially diverse class in the nation's 164-year history. Academy leaders say it's a top priority to build a student body that reflects the racial makeup of the Navy and the nation."

Who can be against diversity?

What the Post gets around to is that 22-year English professor Bruce Fleming objects to a race-based admissions program that was apparently used to create a class that is 35 percent minority.

According to Fleming, who once sat on the board of admissions, white applicants must have all As and Bs and test scores of at least 600 on the English and math parts of the SAT even to qualify for a "slate" of 10 applicants, from which only one will be chosen.

However, if you check a box indicating you are African-American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian, writes Fleming, "SAT scores to the mid 500s with quite a few Cs in classes ... typically produces a vote of 'qualified' ... with direct admission to Annapolis. They're in and given a pro forma nomination to make it legit."

If true, the U.S. Naval Academy is running a two-tier admissions system of the kind that kept Jennifer Gratz out of the University of Michigan and was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

"Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s and Cs and Ds also come, though after a year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School."

If true, this is a national disgrace. It would represent a U.S. Naval Academy policy of systematic race discrimination, every year, against hundreds of white kids who worked and studied their entire lives for the honor of being appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and becoming career officers in the Navy or Marine Corps.

If true, what Annapolis has done and is doing is worse -- because it is premeditated and programmed racism -- than the cowardly act of the New Haven city government in denying Frank Ricci and the white firefighters the promotions they had won in a competitive exam. At least New Haven could say it acted out of fear of being sued.

Yet, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead and the Superintendent of the Naval Academy Vice Adm. Jerry Fowler seem quite proud of what they are doing.

Fleming quotes the CNO as saying that "diversity is the number one priority" at the academy. Fowler says he wants Annapolis graduates who "looked like" the fleet, where 42 percent of enlisted personnel are nonwhite.

The diversity midshipmen, says Fleming, who teaches them, are over-represented in "pre-college lower track courses, mandatory tutoring programs and less-challenging majors. Many struggle to master basic concepts."

Thus, though unqualified for college work, these students will be operating the most sophisticated and complex weapons systems ever built -- aircraft carriers, Aegis cruisers, nuclear submarines.

"First of all, we're dumbing-down the Naval Academy," charges Fleming. "Second of all, we're dumbing-down the officers corps."

Supporting Fleming's claim, 22 percent of incoming plebes in 2009 had SAT scores in math below 600, compared to 12 percent in 2008.

If the facts are as Fleming states -- the academy is accepting dumber and dumber students to get its racial composition right -- who can deny that the price of diversity is deliberate acceptance of a less able and competent United States Navy?

"Diversity is our number one priority," Roughhead is quoted. Can one imagine Adm. Chester Nimitz or "Bull" Halsey making an insipid statement like that? Can one imagine what Adm. David "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Farragut would have thought of such a policy?

Whatever happened to the Hyman Rickover-Jimmy Carter motto for the Naval Academy and U.S. Navy: "Why Not the Best?"

Consider. If hundreds of black and Hispanic kids who applied to the academy had been rejected though they had higher grades and SAT scores than those admitted, this story would not have been in the Metro section of the Post. It would have been bannered on page one. And Roughead and Fowler would be explaining to a congressional committee why they should not be relieved of their commands.

Fleming, who still teaches at Annapolis, and has likely had some unpleasant moments since he blew the whistle on his superiors, has shown considerable moral courage.

Hopefully, Congress will show the same moxy and investigate this outage. Hopefully, some of those white kids, cheated out of their life's dream of attending the Naval Academy -- while less qualified kids were admitted -- will sue the academy, just like Frank Ricci and those gutsy firefighters sued the city of New Haven.

[wita]

Who can be against diversity?

Anyone who knows what it takes to get it.

Then again consider the new meaning of the word.

It is purely a liberal concept, and means basically, get whitey.

[DoughtyOne]

One of these kids will become the next Colin Powell.  Others will infiltrate our sevices and make them weaker.  Mission accomplished.



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[DieHard the Hunter]

Isn’t the answer to this self-evident? Check the box that says “Native American” rather than “White”, and be done with it? Let them prove that you aren’t “Native American” and see how far they get.

(The only time you couldn’t do that is if you were born outside the USA (like Obama).)

If there is nothing to be gained by ticking the “White” box, don’t tick it!

[iowamark]

Pat Buchanan complaining about racism. Pot/kettle?

[Canedawg]

We are well on our way to the Idiocracy.

"Aks" anyone.

[Smokin' Joe]

More on the situation: at the link

[Vaduz]

Diversity nothing more than a dumming down program by libs.

[Thrownatbirth]

Pat is full of elitist crap.

NAPS has been around for about a century. It is for US Navy sailors who are good enough to compete for a measly 100 Secretary of the Navy appointments to the Academy. There's nothing remedial about it - students have to pass college freshman level courses (heavy on math and science), or they go back to the Fleet and serve their time.

He owes Navy enlisted sailors who attend NAPS an apology.

[Jacquerie]

"Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s and Cs and Ds also come, though after a year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School."

If true, it means that minority admission to NAPS is also dumbed down. 300 scores? That shouldn't be enough to get into Journalism or Education schools.

[hflynn]

What's the problem? There ought to be enough money in the stimulus package to just give each new ensign a teleprompter along with a diploma. What the hell the cost could be offset by eliminating 4 years of study at the USNA and requiring 2 weeks of teleprompter school in Hollywood, California. This is working out just find at the White House, er, er, er, er, isn't it?

[Jacquerie]

David Horowitz warned us over a generation ago to not let the radicals set their claws into our military services.

In the mid 1970s the very missions of the service academies were changed to accommodate the admission of women.

In the 1980s, Congresswomen Pat Schroeder and her NOW gang began the thinning of what they considered “knuckle draggers” from the officers corps.

Tailhook 1991 - A great excuse to complete the purges.

Racial political correctness will continue to get men killed as unqualified officers are put into positions beyond their capabilites.

[Thrownatbirth]

I went to NAPS in the early 70’s with a lot of sailors and Marines who only had GEDs, but a lot of combat experience. They certainly deserved a shot at a commission. Regardless of your prior education, you still had to compete academically with everyone one else for those 100 appointments. If you didn’t get an appointment, you went back and served the rest of your enlistment (usually WESPAC).

[HiTech RedNeck]

Racial political correctness will continue to get men killed

Women, too.

[Fred911]

Whats the big deal? If we can have an affirmative action presidant, why not a few affirmative action naval officers?

[Kozak]

What do we expect when people like this run the country....

Corrine Brown Florida Gators

[cbkaty]

Why not the best.....?

[driftdiver]

People like that don’t run the country. They just get in the way and suck money out of the system.

[Thrownatbirth]

why not a few affirmative action naval officers?

Sure. NAPS was called the Seaman-to-Admiral program back in the 50's. We called it the Seaman-to-Civilian program because so many of us went back to the Fleet to serve out our time after Plebe year at Canoe U.

For me, enlisted life was a lot more fun. I laugh at those guys on "Deadliest Catch".

[Bulldawg Fan]

Looks to me like the policy is not dumbing down but dumbing up, all the way to the top.