THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070662
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
A four-part series
PART FOUR
SOLUTIONS
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, KERRY DEROCHI AND JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 247 lines
They helped him face down adversaries in Haiti and the Persian Gulf last year with scarcely a shot fired. Could American troops now hold the solution to one of Bill Clinton's most vexing domestic problems?
As the president ponders the future of affirmative action programs, he has looked to the military's 47-year struggle to provide equal opportunity as a model for success in the civilian world.
``No unqualified person ever gets promoted,'' Clinton told a convention of California Democrats in April as he touted the military's approach. But the services ``really do work hard to make sure that people's innate abilities are developed.''
No one claims that the Pentagon has wiped out racism or sexism in uniform.
``Blacks think they're being disciplined more harshly and more often,'' said Navy Capt. Robert D. Watts, one of the service's senior equal opportunity officers. ``Whites think that commanding officers are afraid to take discipline (to blacks) because someone's going to file an EO complaint.''
Still, Pentagon evidence indicates discrimination in the ranks is limited and declining. Surveys of more than 329,000 personnel over the last five years suggest the change has been achieved with little backlash over ``reverse discrimination.''
One key figure is the dramatic increase in minority representation throughout the military: Hispanics, African Americans and members of other minority groups now account for about one-third of all military forces. In 1949, the first year in which such statistics were kept, only 8 percent of those in uniform were black. No records were compiled on other minorities until the 1970s.
In the Army, the service with the most success attracting minorities, and the best record in promoting them, minorities account for 38 percent of all personnel. African Americans in particular have flocked to the Army, now comprising more than 27 percent of its personnel - far more than their numbers in the civilian population.
And today, all but a handful of jobs in the military are open to women. The number of women generals has increased sixfold in the past 20 years. Sexual harassment is a persistent problem in all the services, but according to surveys of military women, most say there is only a small to moderate chance of incidents occurring in their units.
As far as it has come, the military has a long way to go.
Minorities account for only about 11 percent of the officer corps in the Navy, Marines and Air Force. For the Army, the figure is 18.4 percent.
Since the retirement in 1993 of Gen. Colin Powell, one of the most admired military men of his time, there have been no minorities among the military's 36 four-star generals and admirals. The number of African Americans among all flag and general officers actually has declined slightly since the mid-1980s.
Some of the military's most glamorous career paths, including piloting the Navy's carrier-borne fighters and bombers, remain almost exclusively white.
There are substantial disparities in discipline rates for minority and majority troops. Blacks constitute 18 percent of the Navy's enlisted men and women, for example, but account for more than 27 percent of all nonjudicial punishments.
Black troops served in segregated units until President Truman halted the practice in 1948. But civilian and uniformed leaders now call equal opportunity a military necessity.
When leaders ``treat a person differently because she is a female or he is a black or Hispanic . . . the bonds of trust break down,'' said Army Col. Kevin Clement, a career infantryman who is now an equal opportunity specialist. ``And once that happens, you don't have a cohesive team.''
Clement, a special assistant to Assistant Army Secretary Sara B. Lister, traces the Army's progress in attracting and promoting minorities to the racial discord of the Vietnam era.
Junior officers then learned firsthand how such disharmony makes units more vulnerable and more likely to break and run when trouble hits, he said. Now those officers are generals, and ``they don't want to see that happen in our Army again.''
The Army draws minorities into its officer corps, the area on which all the services are working hardest, in part through a network of some 270 college ROTC units. Navy ROTC, by contrast, is available on 58 campuses.
The Army also benefits from what Navy Capt. Watts said is a perception among many African Americans ``that the Army is more familiar to blacks and the Navy is a service that has very few and may seem to be less progressive.''
He has met plenty of black civilians who assume that as a black man and a pilot, he must be in the Air Force, Watts added.
Pentagon statistics suggest that once in the officer ``pipeline,'' minorities and women advance at rates roughly equal to white males. Clement, part of a team working on a special study of that pipeline, said, ``I don't think we're going to find there's any one thing (wrong). It's just continual finetuning of how we do our business.''
While touting the Navy's overall record in attracting and promoting minorities, Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton acknowledged in an interview last month that the service has work to do in its officer corps.
``We looked at our demographic charts and saw by the year 2000 our society will be approximately 12 percent African American, approximately 12 percent Hispanic and approximately 5 percent . . . other (minority) groups,'' he said.
He has ordered that the Navy try to match those statistics in its officer ranks by the end of the decade.
The ``12/12/5'' plan, as it's known, puts the Navy in competition with corporate recruiters for the nation's top minority students, observed Atlantic Fleet Master Chief David Borne. He worries that there aren't enough of those students to go around.
``We don't control that pot of people we have to choose from,'' Borne said. ``We will try to control how many we get out of that pot. But the truth is, that number is not as high as a lot of people, myself included, would like to see it.
``I am saying we have a set number of people we are trying for, and we have to do something different to get them.''
Dalton and others involved in the program stressed that it does not establish racial quotas. Like equal opportunity initiatives in the other services, it focuses on providing incentives to get minorities into the ranks and on getting extra education and training to those who don't meet standards.
``Affirmative action is not a free lunch,'' said Clement, the special Army assistant. ``It is not a guarantee of success. The Army has established clear standards for performance. It's committed to raising people to these standards.''
And most important, say military leaders, the Pentagon's equal opportunity policies guarantee that everyone who meets service standards has the same chance to advance.
``Our affirmative action programs are not minority-only,'' said one former Navy recruiter. Whites who want them can get the same extra training and educational opportunities the services offer minorities.
But the military more actively recruits minorities, particularly those who have done well in college or high school. And it takes special care that minority recruits who have not performed academically are offered special training opportunities and scholarships.
Service statistics indicate that when those recruits get special aid and raise their scores, they compete and advance equally with whites and men. They also stay in the military as long as whites and men on the average, effectively giving the government a return on its extra investment.
Kathleen T. Jones, a 29-year-old petty officer first class stationed in Norfolk, is an example of how the approach can work.
Unable to afford college, Jones joined the Navy 10 years ago. She has been trained as an air traffic controller and a yeoman, or office worker. Along the way she has gathered college credits that leave her only six hours short of a bachelor's degree in education. She hopes to go to Officer Candidate School this fall.
``I've never had any problem being a female in the Navy or a black female in the Navy,'' Jones said. Because candidates for promotion all take the same tests and all who pass are promoted, Jones said she's comfortable that there's no discrimination in the enlisted ranks.
``I haven't felt any backlash. I've worked around a lot of positive people. When someone was advanced, there wasn't any backlash, whether they were black or female.''
``The Navy has opened opportunities for me I never imagined possible,'' said Michelle Beccles Lewis, a 22-year-old seaman apprentice who is stationed at Norfolk Naval Air Station. She enlisted last year after the service offered to provide $30,000 for college; she'll begin classes this fall at Tidewater Community College.
``It's only been seven months, but I look back and I don't regret anything,'' said Lewis, an African American. ``I didn't just join because of the money. The Navy was offering me the chance to do something I couldn't afford to do as a civilian.''
The key is performance, said Master Chief Borne, 43, who in 24 years with the Navy went from a kid who lived with discrimination in New Orleans to the senior enlisted man among the 140,000 active-duty personnel in the Atlantic Fleet.
``We compete based on records and performance. Two individuals going up for (promotion to) master chief, or first-class petty officer, are judged on their performance,'' Borne said.
``People (making the selection) don't know one is a minority and one is a majority. So it doesn't get to play a big part,'' he said.
Borne said that during his first tour on an aircraft carrier, ``to be honest, I don't remember any black master chief petty officers. . . . I do remember seeing one black pilot at the time. You always wanted to look at him. You always wanted to watch him. I guess I viewed him as a role model.
``Today it is a common sight. And that's good.
``When you see reflections of yourself at all levels, that's letting you know you can do it too. I think everybody in the Navy today has the opportunity to succeed, or fail, based on their own merits, or drive, or motivation.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff graphic by JOHN EARLE
FOUR BRANCHES OF THE U.S. MILITARY, BY RACE AND GENDER
SOURCE: U.S. Defense Department
[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]
Photos
LAWRENCE JACKSON/Staff
``The Navy has opened opportunities for me I never imagined
possible,'' said Michelle Beccles Lewis, a 22-year-old seaman
apprentice stationed at Norfolk Naval Air Station. She enlisted last
year after the service offered to provide $30,000 for college;
she'll begin classes this fall at Tidewater Community College.
Kathleen T. Jones, 29, is a petty officer first class stationed in
Norfolk. She joined the Navy 10 years ago and hopes to go to Officer
Candidate School this fall. ``I've worked around a lot of positive
people. When someone was advanced, there wasn't any backlash,
whether they were black or female.''
Master Chief David Borne, 43, is the senior enlisted man among the
140,000 active-duty personnel in the Atlantic Fleet. He recalls his
first tour on an aircraft carrier. ``I do remember seeing one black
pilot at the time. You always wanted to look at him. You always
wanted to watch him. I guess I viewed him as a role model.''
Graphic
NAVY PROGRAMS
A sampling of Navy equal opportunity programs
IMMEDIATE SCHOLARSHIP DECISION
Permits recruiters to offer four-year, full-tuition college
scholarships, on the spot, to potential recruits with scores of
1,280 or higher (at least 650 in math) on the combined Scholastic
Aptitude Tests.
EXPRESS SCHOLARSHIP
Similar to the immediate program, above, but for recruits with
slightly lower SAT scores. There is a delay while the recruit's
application is processed before the scholarship is offered.
ENLISTED COMMISSIONING PROGRAM
Allows qualified active-duty enlisted and reserve personnel with
previous college credits to complete their degrees and earn officer
commissions. Participants are enrolled as full-time students in Navy
ROTC programs and have up to 30 months to finish work on their
degrees. They receive full pay and opportunities for promotion while
in school but are responsible for their own tuition, fees and other
school expenses.
ENLISTED EDUCATION ADVANCEMENT
Allows active-duty or active-reserve personnel who are at least
third-class petty officers to earn associate degrees. Participants
are enrolled as full-time students and have 24 months to complete
work on their degrees. They receive full Navy pay and allowances but
pay their own tuition, fees and other school expenses.
NAVY CAMPUS
Any of a series of programs that provide qualified sailors or
airmen with educational benefits, including partial tuition
reimbursement, college credit for technical courses completed in the
Navy, tuition-free college courses on some ships at sea, and
apprenticeship certification for some skills learned in the
service.
MEDICAL ENLISTED COMMISSIONING PROGRAM
Allows active-duty personnel to complete requirements for a
bachelor's degree in nursing and earn a commission in the Naval
Reserve Nurse Corps on active duty. Participants earn full Navy pay
while attending school full time to pursue a bachelor of science
degree in nursing. They are commissioned as ensigns and assigned to
Officer Indoctrination School in Newport, R.I., when they receive
their degrees. Again, they pay their own school expenses.
by CNB