Lawmakers want review of minority promotions

[unhappycamper]

Lawmakers want review of minority promotions
By Rick Maze - Staff writers
Posted : Friday Oct 19, 2007 15:59:50 EDT

Worried than many minority officers are giving up on their military careers because it takes longer for them to rise through the military ranks than the corporate career ladder, a Florida lawmaker vowed Thursday to push for a review of officer promotion laws next year to see if something can be done to make staying in uniform more attractive to minorities.

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and the House Armed Services Committee, said young military officers are impatient and don’t want to wait two decades or longer to rise in the ranks when there are opportunities in the private sector.

“Maybe it is time to take a closer look at promotion policies to see if we can do something about it,” Meek said.

He and other caucus members met Tuesday with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughhead and Navy Secretary Donald Winter to talk about ways of getting more minorities into the officer ranks. Meek said the meeting included discussion of increasing ROTC and Junior ROTC programs at schools with large minority populations, ideas for getting more mentors for young minority officers and how to ensure minorities are considered for key wartime leadership roles, which could be a big factor in their promotion chances down the road.

The meeting with the Navy’s top leaders came after the Black Caucus went to the Pentagon two weeks ago for what they thought would be a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, only to learn at the last minute that the service vice chiefs had been scheduled to meet with the lawmakers instead.

What caucus members took to be a slight at the time was later found to be a misunderstanding when the meeting was originally planned; the service chiefs had never been scheduled to attend.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_minorities_promotions_071019w/



uhc comment: Kendrick Meek is a dem with a hugh D.

[NYVet]

1. Why should there be quotas on promotions?

Would you rather go into battle with Officer A (the best qualified officer for the position who has shown the skills to be promoted) over you, or Officer B (someone who didn't rate as well as officer A, but was promoted because a legislator said that they needed X number of Jewish officers in that grade.


I personally think that the current promotion process for E-7 and above and officers should be tweaked to remove any reference to race, gender or ethnic group. Instead of the DA photos being included with the promotion packet, the packet is scrubbed of names and other personal information and given an identifier. The person is then judged on their military schooling and their OER or NCOER.

[Maq]

2. Another minority problem for NYVET

This situation NYVET reminds me of the five hundred year case of the North American Indian (USA and Canada) versus the Roman Catholic Church.

How come there are not any or so few North American Priests, bishops, monsignors, in the Catholic Church?

Could it be that the current occupiers of the hierarchy primarily promote their own kind? Surely ALL North American Indians over the last five hundred years could not have been that bad?

I hear tell that Indians are very spiritual people.