After lawmakers and family demand justice, Navy changes regulation (trunc)

Capital Gazette ^ | 06 Feb 2019 | Selene San Felice

[blueplum]

After lawmakers and family demand justice, Navy changes regulation that led to Shannon Kent's deployment

The Navy is changing its waiver policy after the death of Chief Petty Officer Shannon Kent, the Fort Meade Naval officer who died in an attack in Syria last month.

Kent was in the process of appealing the waiver denial that led to her deployment before she became the first female sailor killed in the fight against ISIS on Jan. 16...

[TheDandyMan]

I’m suggesting that the Navy, and all the service branches, should set realistic expectations for how likely you are to be able to pursue a given path, and how the needs of the service will come first and most likely interfere with what you want to do to some extent, up to and including dying in combat.

Case in point, this sailor thought she could become a clinical psychologist. Instead she was blown to bits in a dumpster fire of a country Called Syria.

[af_vet_1981]

No, you don’t understand, they said she wasn’t fit to go to psychology school, but she was fit to deploy.

She was not qualified (yet) to serve as a clinical psychologist.

She was qualified as a Cryptologic Technician (with previous deployments as well). The mission in Syria requires interpreters, not students of Psychology.

“In a case like CPO Kent’s, though, it is difficult to understand why the Department would require a long, drawn-out waiver process when she was cancer-free and in remission. If CPO Kent was fit to deploy to a war zone, we believe she was fit to serve her country as a clinical psychologist.”

She was already trained in the Cryptologic specialty that is needed, and was competing for a slot in a specialty that required (expensive) training rather than providing current value to the existing mission. Service (life) expectancy should play a part in deciding who is selected. However, she was already trained, wanted to remain on active duty, and provided value, as a Cryptologic Interpreter. Had she been trained in a language whose need was not so immediate and gone back to school to retrain in a language which was needed now, it would make sense to send her to school, since she knew the trade, so to speak.

[rottndog]

So justice for lawmakers and family in this case would have meant some other American dying in Kent’s place?

[yldstrk]

Four prior deployments isn’t enough?

[Glock22]

Buddy, I think you’re exactly right. Like all the rest of us, the Chief signed that blank check payable to Uncle Sam in any amount, up to and including our lives. Looks to me as if this deployment was perfectly rational and consistent with the needs of the Navy. But I think the other poster has a strong point: that those who pressed for women in combat do not want to accept the reality of women having their plans derailed because the service needs them in a combat post. They don’t want to accept responsibility for the Chief’s death, so they must blame the Navy.

In any case, that Chief gave her all for us, and I salute her. RIP, Shipmate.

[duckman]

“Perhaps we should rethink the whole idea of women in the military.”
I agree. Maybe I’m old fashion,(74y/o), I just don’t see women in a combat zone.

[blueplum]

(sorry, it’s not a very well written story) It sounds to me that the soldier was applying for an educational program to avoid deployment on the grounds of being a future cancer-risk. But since the soldier was medically cancer-free at the time, the soldier was deployable and couldn’t use future-cancer-risk as a valid reason for a waiver.

Then there’s also the (x years of paid school for x years of service) education contract. If the military thinks they won’t get their x number of years following graduation, they’re not going to pay you to attend a 4- or 6-yr program.

Policies may have changed but military used to only approve schooling for mission-critical specialties. Formal sciences such as advanced engineering and mechanical sciences, physics, biosciences, physicians, surgeons, RNs, etc. Psych grads not so much since it’s a skate degree and no shortage of psych grad officer-enlistees.

[moovova]

"Kent’s family sent Moran a letter on Jan. 24 asking for changes to the waiver process that would have stopped Kent from being in the attack that killed her."

They'd prefer that someone else's child die in Syria.

[Cen-Tejas]

“In your letter, you informed me Shannon was fighting to change the regulations which prevented many qualified enlisted sailors from commissioning as naval officers,” Moran wrote, according to Stars and Stripes. “Her drive to bring fairness and consistency to this process highlighted areas where we, as a navy, needed to improve in order to maintain the trust of our enlisted teammates.”
************************************************************

Admiral Moran put the above words to paper and sent it out to the press and the parents of this unfortunate CPO.

The phenom of political butt kissing by our Admirals was also present on the Bridge of our two destroyers that ran into huge ships in the sea lanes of the Western Pacific.

Rottndog, post 23, made the best point on this thread and gets my blue ribbon.

[IronJack]

Join the Navy then demand a waiver for combat duty? What kind of commitment is that?

Then worse yet, turn around and sue because you were required to do the job you agreed to do?

[Tennessee Nana]

What was the regulation that was changed and what was it changed to ???

[DesertRhino]

Tough toenails. The military i was in told a lots men no, you can’t go to OCS, flight school, scuba school, astronaut training, etc etc.
Lots of them got killed being a grunt.
The military isn’t there to make her dreams come true. It sends you where IT needs. Deal with of

[DesertRhino]

No You aren’t. You might be healthy enough to deploy but unfit for dozens of other positions. Besides, they usually have tons of applicants for all the shore jobs that get hogged up by women, forcing men back into fleet for another deployment. Talk to any USN corpsman.

[DesertRhino]

She should have been home with her two kids. Women don’t belong in the military

[DoodleDawg]

You might be healthy enough to deploy but unfit for dozens of other positions.

The position in question was going back to school, becoming a doctor, and serving the Navy in the Medical Corps as an officer. How did her medical history make her unfit for that but fit for deployment?

Besides, they usually have tons of applicants for all the shore jobs that get hogged up by women, forcing men back into fleet for another deployment. Talk to any USN corpsman

So then the solution would be to get rid of all the women in the military?

[MrEdd]

Additional training is not a right.

It is awarded however the military sees fit.
As mentioned in the article, the Navy made an evaluation calculating the cost of the school and the statistical probability of the return of cancer.

I am sorry if it hurts your little feelings, and I’m sure if you could signal your little virtue harder you would but...

Not only is the Navy allowed to weigh statistical likelihood in troop management, it is the responsible thing for them to do.

As I said before, it’s not a charity.

[docman57]

There is no such thing as a Military paid for Clinical Psychology program for an enlisted Crypto Tech, not even for Corpsmen. This story was written by a fucking bleeding heart idiot who can’t keep her facts straight. That school was personal choice, 35yr old Chief getting ready for retirement in a couple of years. It was her turn to go, and unfortunately she went farther than bargained for. Paid the full price. I say honor the service rendered, and the sacrifice made, instead of turning this sad occasion into a baby boo hoo story. It’s the fucking Navy, shit happens, nobody did anything nefarious here.

[gcparent]

She had a history of thyroid cancer. Her father is the number 3 top cop in ny state.

She joined the service in 2003. Would she be retiring soon?I

[GailA]

Hubby went where the Navy sent him for 20 yrs. Nam, Missile Crisis, 2 yrs Japan, he’s been around the globe and spent 6 months of the year aboard ship. Blue Water Navy in Nam. ATC electronics Flight Deck.

[elpadre]

Agree!! Woman should not be assigned to combat units. There are plenty of support military occupations to be filled.