May 9, 2024

Status of LCS 8 Montgomery (Alabama) and its white leadership.


 

As expected, I suppose, the three men leading the ship are white.

Commanding Officer
Executive Officer 
Command Senior Chief

(From The American Homefront website)

The One Navy Task Force is looking at why only a handful of African Americans reach top jobs. It's also examining discrimination in all aspects of Navy life.

The problem starts at the top.

According to data provided by the One Navy Task Force, of the 268 admirals in the Navy, only 10 are African-American, and most are rear admirals, like Alvin Holsey who is heading the task force for the Chief of Naval Operations. There are no Black admirals at the two highest ranks.

Holsey concedes those numbers are small. He said building an admiral is a 20 to 30 year commitment, and someone has to be willing to guide that young officer.

"As a Black officer in the U.S. Navy, I will tell you I've mentored more people who don't look like me than do look like me," he said. "Somebody who doesn't look like me had to reach out and engage in my career."

African Americans comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population, but roughly 8.1 percent of Naval officers are Black, according to a 2019 report by the Congressional Research Service.

So the pipeline is small, and many Black officers just become exhausted as they work their way up the chain of command, said Keith Green, a retired lieutenant commander. He recently wrote the book Black Officer/White Navy.

"It is not simply just unconscious bias," Green said. "There are active behaviors that are happening to people, because they don’t like working for a Black person or a minority, and they don’t like having one be their supervisor."

https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/Ships/USS-Montgomery-LCS-8/Leaders/

The ship itself is one of those that will likely be decommissioned and sold to an allied country's Navy.

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