HollywoodBQ said:
rebel06 said:
RIP Rebel E. Hard for me to believe there weren't excellent candidates within the outfit to fill that role but, with Ramirez as commandant, nothing surprises me anymore.
Disclaimer - I'm a B-Company Street Fighter and fully on Team Ramirez so I'll get that bias out of the way.
Disclaimer - So, I guess we aren't on the same team..........
The Corps is very much following the lead of the military today. The political leadership of the military has decided for the past few decades to make the military's priority political correctness based on societal norms instead of being the absolute fiercest fighting force in the world with one end goal which, at the end of the day, is to kill the enemy. The military is part social experiment laboratory. How much time and resources have been devoted to things that don't support the end mission?
The Corps of Cadets is no different. Good, politically correct PR is good for the Corps.
I am NOT saying that outfit integration is wrong and shouldn't happen. I believe there are very capable females who have earned the privilege to serve in the leadership roles assigned. They are squared away and deserve the honor. They've earned the right to be RVs, to be in the CAV, to be in all the special units, to be in leadership. However, when political correctness is at least a consideration, and if you think it's not.............well. If you've had any connection to the Corps for the past several years, you know, whether spoken or not, PC is a consideration. It looks good.
Several years ago, a Commandant said, and I paraphrase, "we WILL have a female Corps Commander very soon". The second that statement was made, it told me that "female" became a criteria, instead of being the best person for the job. It told me that political correctness was now a consideration. And a short time later, the Corps had its first female Corps Commander. And she WAS squared away, an impressive young lady and by all accounts did an outstanding job. I was proud to see her achieve what she did. But there was always the statement made by the Commandant that one of his goals was to have "a female Corps Commander". It says, if you have two equal persons in all respects, but one is a female, that becomes a determining criteria. At the same time, had the criteria been to choose the male only because he was a male, that is wrong as well. Gender should not be a consideration. Neither should race, ethnicity, anything else. Best person, period.
I still love the Corps. I think I would still recommend it for my own kids. I believe the Corps still teaches leadership and life lessons that can't be learned elsewhere. Cadets learn both positive and negative leadership. I do think cadets can also learn how NOT to lead from the Corps. They learn how to lead and not lead from both cadets and CTOs, and from their own successes and failures, if they are allowed to.
Just my thoughts. Not right, not wrong, just different.