recruiting and leading

questions about our military

President Biden nominated Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the current Navy Vice Chief, to succeed Admiral Michael Gilday as Chief of Naval Operations. I heard about the nomination merely minutes ago so I have not yet read any commentary. Last month, Navy watchers were surprised when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recommended the current four star at Pacific Fleet, Admiral Samual Paparo. At that time, most Navy ‘insiders’ (of which I most definitely am not) were sure that Biden wanted to make Franchetti the second female service chief behind Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan who assumed the highest position in her service just short of 14 months ago.

I anticipate some of the conversation about this nomination. Critics will accuse Biden of selecting a woman for political correctness even though Franchetti is praised by at least one of her prior bosses, retired Admiral James Foggo, noted her role as a unify figure among flag officers in Europe. For a four star who himself was never CNO, it’s worth noting this comment because he’s obviously not awaiting another flag job so he doesn’t have to be nice.

Selecting Franchetti, Biden overruled his Defense Secretary who is pretty aware of political correctness allegations himself. Wait, was Austin being inversely political by nominating Paparo? The suspicions never cease these days. Franchetti is a Surface Warfare Officer with requisite tours in Joint and Navy assignments priming her for possible nomination to higher responsibility at each turn; Paparo and any other male nominee would have similar jobs on his resumé. Admiral Franchetti commanded U.S. Forces Korea and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. She has served for 15 months as the Vice Chief, the internal administrative focus of any service as much as anything else. Many of the personnel issues, the bane of most leadership positions in today’s government service at any and all levels, ultimately land not on the Chief’s desk but on that of the Vice.

I do not know Admiral Franchetti. I have spent a whopping 60 minutes or so in a delegation meeting with Admiral Paparo a year ago in September at his Pacific Fleet command near Pearl Harbor. One of his senior aides at that point was my former student so I heard high praise for the admiral but I listened carefully to his remarks about the conditions in the Indo-Pacific. He was impressive but I find it hard to remember too many four stars in any service that were not talented people. The anti-military bent of so many academics just gets it wrong: these people are accomplished, educated, careful, and hardworking. If they aren’t, they likely will have flamed out well before reaching this point.

Another probable factor, bound to be excluded by some, is that Paparo moving from Pacific Fleet to his new (nominated) position, assuming Senator Tuberville removes his stranglehold over all confirmation of flag and general officers in the United States, as Combatant Commander at Indo-Pacific Command, the largest area of responsibility for any geographic joint command, will bring the knowledge he has accrued over decades watching the People’s Liberation Army. Put otherwise, Paparo moving from Pac Fleet to overall responsibility to orchestrate all U.S. military forces in the Pacific allows him to move almost seamlessly into the job in a way virtually no one else could. In light of the on-going belief that Xi Jinping intends to deploy PLA assets against de facto autonomous Taiwan in the relatively near future, this move makes quite a bit of sense.

The Navy, like the Army and Air Force, confront a fundamental problem right now where Lisa Franchetti, like African-American General C.Q. Brown as the counterpart nominee for the Air Force, might be able to ammeliorate. Recruiting numbers for the All-Volunteer Force (with the notable exception of the Marine Corps) are lagging substantially this year and have been since the Pandemic. Many online conversations beat this topic to death, largely focusing (again) on whether young people are not signing up because they don’t want to be part of a ‘woke’ military. Could be but I doubt that is a major role as most youth don’t pay any attention to much beyond themselves.

I also read ‘most youth’ don’t want to sign up because they don’t want to serve with all those ‘trans’ folks. I have to ask how serious an issue that is because I have a hard time seeing too many trans people seeking to join the military in any case. Are they supposed to be any more prone to attacking fellow enlisted and officers than the numerous cases of sexual attacks and harrassment reported to the Services every year, many of those attacks by caucasian straights by all indications? This just doesn’t ring true to me that the fear of trans is stopping too many kids from serving in uniform. People may not be comfortable with ‘trans’ colleagues but I am not confortable with drunks, either, yet I know there are a lot I worked with over 45 years.

Another issue I know is depressing meeting recruitment targets is the profound decline in physical shape for youth who simply cannot qualify on weight standards. Weight problems in the United States are generalised so I don’t think anyone party merits the blame for that one.

I suspect the increase in states legalising recreational marijuana consumption is not helping the military because federal drug laws still prohibit users from getting government jobs; this legalising marijuana is not a Blue or Red state issue but an overall nationwide trend. I spoke with high school students this past Monday about jobs in national security, reminding them about this issue was the first thing I mentioned.

Part of that is dip results from a strong economy after the Pandemic. We all likely recall that astonishing graph after the spring 2020 lockdown began indicating job losses nothing like we’d ever seen. Similarly, the job creation as the economy began reopening have been persistently strong. While the jobs picture slowed somewhat in the past report, we forget the correlation between weak job options in the private sector and high volunteering for military service. The relationship works the other way as well: when the economy is doing well, recruitment declines. We certainly face that now.

I think we confront at least two other factors that are unpleasant realities about our much loved Army, Air Force, Marines, and Navy. As with the overall history of the nation, the bulk of the officers and long-term personnel are Caucasian. In the All-Volunteer Force, many serving—especially at the officer level—come from military families, reinforcing the white character of military service. Of course we have had African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and immigrants serve as the Vietnam Wall illustrates so clearly.

There is nothing wrong with any of those individuals serving but we risk creating a military both separate and unreflective of our population. If we are asking those in uniform to put their lives on the line to defend us, I suspect they want to believe it’s a force representing and defending all of us. According to the 2020 Census, the white/non-Hispanic portion of our population declined from 63.70% in 2010 to 57.8% ten years later.

The Pew organisation released a study in 2019 about the composition of the military which is shifting along with the national trends. Twenty percent of the commissioned officers are women. 57% of those in the services are Caucasian/non-Hispanic with 43% as non-White minorities.

Yet the leadership of the Services is and remains indisputably White and male. Colin Powell was the first African-American Chairman between 1989 and 1992 but the Navy has never had a single minority CNO nor has there been a non-White Commandant of the Marine Corps; same for the Chiefs of Staff for the Army nor the Air Force. General Brown is the first service chief who is an ethnic minority. We have had two women as Combatant Commanders (one Air Force, one Army) but never a female Chief of Service before Admiral Franchetti’s nomination this afternoon. Admiral Fagan of the Coast Guard was truly the pathbreaker on leading a service.

I am firmly convinced that Lisa Franchetti’s and C.Q Brown’s nominations are crucial steps to assure leaders reflecting all those they lead. They are models to show that military service opens opportunities for all who serve. In this case, the reflection would be that any Texas Tech University Air Force ROTC student or Northwestern University ROTC graduate have the chance to rise in the service. No, someone who is a Private today is unlikely to rise to Chief of Staff of the Army but we are kidding ourselves to assume that race, gender, and backgrounds don’t matter to the wide array of kids (and they are definitely kids) who take the oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. Today’s kids, as I learned through teaching Cornellians for 12 years, pay attention to who they may replicate in their careers.

But aren’t the majority of people still white males? Yes but those numbers are changing. And the beauty of our system, our democratic system, is that we rotate positions so Franchetti and Brown, if confirmed, will serve a fixed term, then someone else will take the reigns upon nomination. We don’t make her CNO forever as we don’t want presidents forever, either.

Any potential criticism of Franchetti’s nomination is hard for me to understand on one further point. While women are serving in greater numbers, the numbers of women in uniform are still far below the commensurate percentages of the overall national population. We are leaving assets behind when we don’t incentivise women serving in the armed forces. No, not every single woman wants to or is physically able to serve in each and every aspect of any military service. That is similarly true for many, many men. Why are we therefore continuing to discourage talented women from serving our country?

A common thing I still hear, although in more hushed tones, is that they destroy the espirit de corps. Is that espirit the means or an end? I fear it’s become the latter. Military service can’t be a fraternity for our security to succeed. The fraternity or shared experience can effectively include women.

Women and men should adhere to and be held to the same high standards of behaviour that we proudly tout. If we are not doing that, then whose fault is that? We regulate so many aspects of military life that I cannot help but recall a comment during the national debate about women serving in the early 1990s. One of my colleagues noted dryly ‘We regulate everything about their lives so why not actually adhere to regulating their sex lives and the innuendos on the part of others rather than exclude women?’ It’s a perfectly reasonable question but one impossible to assume all parties care to do in our polarised society.

If we don’t solve some of these problems that we are creating by allowing harrassment, rape, attacks by anyone, we are going to have fewer fit, top notch folks in uniform and protecting us. I know some people want to revert to the ‘good old days’ when women did not compete but it’s incredibly shortsighted as the nation changes. Those ‘good old days’ were also during conscription which no one things will return to this society. Or, should we return to a society where we do not include Irish, Catholics, and Jews? We are the United States of America.

As a citizen, I want one ironclad commonality for those who volunteer at any and all levels: that they read and take seriously the words in that Oath. The Oath makes an incredible difference, if observed and acted upon, to protect us against all enemies foreign and domestic.

I understand every single senior nomination by any president is political in the sense that we have political parties. That is reality and to say one party acts politically while the other doesn’t is childlike. But, the overwhelming majority of officers I have known (I acknowledge I did not teach enlisted personnel) recognise that politics as played out in our country is bringing it to a grinding halt and threatens our future.

We need move forward with our nominations. The beauty of system is that people at all levels of the United States government and services serve for fixed terms. They are not in jobs for perpetuity as a king or a dictator. After Franchetti, Paparo, and Brown serve their terms, someone else will bring fresh blood, fresh modelling, and fresh ideas. That is how it works.

We have a beautiful afternoon after a glorious thunderstorm at 5 am. Thankfully it wasn’t awful like the ones I heard about just today from friends in Kansas City and Minneapolis. Wishing you a safe, low-humidity and cooler weekend.FIN

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Eric Jensen, Nicholas Jones, Megan Rabe, Beverly Pratt, Lauren Medina, Kimberly Orozco and Lindsay Spell, ‘The Chance That Two People Chosen At Random Are of Two Different Race or Ethnicity Groups Has Increased Since 2020‘, www.census.gov, 12 August 2021, retrieved at https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html

Justin Katz, ‘Biden Taps ‘pioneer’ Adm. Lisa Franchetti to Become Navy’s Next Leader’, breakingdefense.com, 21 July 2023, retrieved at https://breakingdefense.com/2023/07/biden-taps-a-pioneer-adm-lisa-franchetti-to-become-navys-next-leader/