Junior OfficersThis is a duplicate discussion and the contents have been merged with the original discussion. Click below to see more on this topic...
NOTE: The photo of the Naval Officer attached to the original taskandpurpose blog post is not a photograph of the author of the taskandpurpose blog post, as is noted on the photo at taskandpurpose. This has been brought to my attention by a colleague of the officer in the photo, who is currently serving. I can't seem to get RallyPoint to remove the photo except by removing the URL to the blog, so I'm removing the URL. The photo does not add anything to this discussion, so I'm removing it.
This young Navy officer's reasons for resigning seem applicable across the Services.
1. Promotions are based more on “hitting the wickets” than exemplary performance.
2. Unsustainable strain on your personal relationships.
3. The military is a homogeneous, anti-intellectual organization.
4. Ownership of self.
On point 3, she writes: "When I was a week into my first deployment, I was preparing my slides for a watch turnover brief as the assistant chiefs of staff all filed in. A fellow junior officer, whose watch station was adjacent to mine, muttered, “Man, the Navy has a never-ending supply of middle-aged white men.” And she was absolutely right. The majority of senior military leaders are white, Christian, conservative men with engineering degrees from a service academy, masters’ degrees from a war college, who grew up middle-class or privileged and whose wives do not have a career outside the home. There is nothing wrong with any of this — indeed, this is probably the profile of most executives in America. But this also means there’s a lack of diversity of ideas, a resistance to alternative ways of thinking, and the lethality of group think."
How do those she describes here (senior officers) respond? Is Service homogeneity a problem, and does it create a "lethality of group think" and a "resistance to alternate ways of thinking"?
You can find the article at taskandpurpose; it is titled "4 Reasons I Am Resigning My Commission As A Naval Officer."
http://taskandpurpose.com
This young Navy officer's reasons for resigning seem applicable across the Services.
1. Promotions are based more on “hitting the wickets” than exemplary performance.
2. Unsustainable strain on your personal relationships.
3. The military is a homogeneous, anti-intellectual organization.
4. Ownership of self.
On point 3, she writes: "When I was a week into my first deployment, I was preparing my slides for a watch turnover brief as the assistant chiefs of staff all filed in. A fellow junior officer, whose watch station was adjacent to mine, muttered, “Man, the Navy has a never-ending supply of middle-aged white men.” And she was absolutely right. The majority of senior military leaders are white, Christian, conservative men with engineering degrees from a service academy, masters’ degrees from a war college, who grew up middle-class or privileged and whose wives do not have a career outside the home. There is nothing wrong with any of this — indeed, this is probably the profile of most executives in America. But this also means there’s a lack of diversity of ideas, a resistance to alternative ways of thinking, and the lethality of group think."
How do those she describes here (senior officers) respond? Is Service homogeneity a problem, and does it create a "lethality of group think" and a "resistance to alternate ways of thinking"?
You can find the article at taskandpurpose; it is titled "4 Reasons I Am Resigning My Commission As A Naval Officer."
http://taskandpurpose.com
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google