That less than polite statement was one I heard during the middle of the 90’s from a fellow Navy person. His rather blunt point was that AFN- or any other military mouthpiece had to show a woman doing just about any military job; regardless of the actual demographics of that particular MOS or Designator. It was one of the dirty little secrets of the Navy’s PAO world-that they had accepted the subliminal mission of serving as an active advocate for the feminist mission. When the speaker said this particular phrase-the PAO effort to preach the feminist gospel had probably been underway for over 15 years, if not longer.
If you don’t believe me-go back and look around the Navy.mil website. For every picture of an individual-there will be at least 50% (or more of them) female. And the papers and TV have gone out of their way to trumpet any number of female “firsts”.
Even when they didn’t merit notice whatsoever.
Gotta show a gash. Anywhere and anyway you can. This is rule number one at AFN and in the PAO community in general.
Crude way to say it? For sure. But 100% accurate.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I am not exactly a fan of the repeal of the combat exclusion laws, nor the aggressive thrust undertaken by the services-having broken down that obstacle-to recruiting to a designated quota or percentage (30% by the previous CNO’s sellout embrace of the diversity mantra) of women in the service. I am, however, a realist and I do accept the reality that it is the world we live in today. Women will continue to serve and be advanced within our military, our nation as a whole—unwittingly IMHO-has agreed to accept the costs that come with that course of action.
So it was with a certain degree of resignation- that I was greeted to this picture on my Facebook page. Courtesy of the Tigertail Ombudsman, there was a whole series of photos outline the courageous act of scheduling an all female crew for a mission over Afghanistan.
From left to right, Air Control Officer Lt. Nydia Williams, Radar Operator Lt. j.g. Ashley Ellison, Plane Commander Lt. Cmdr. Tara Refo, Pilot Lt. Ashley Ruic,
and Mission Commander Lt. Cmdr. Brandy Jackson, all assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 125 pose for a photo before flying
the first all-female-crewed combat mission in an E-2C Hawkeye aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).
Voluminous coverage in Navy Times and Navy.Mil guaranteed to follow. Hallelujah-the greatest thing since sliced bread! Hallelujah brother-we have seen the light!
Except of course its not the first all female mission. Perhaps for the E-2 community, although I remain convinced that we had our female pilots fly together back in 1996 and several other squadrons had done similar things in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.
The PAO beast would have surely demanded it. After all-its been years since they already broke the barrier of a non qualified female aviator being nominated to command a carrier battle group. This is old news-if anything it shows the E-2 community has been behind the times.
All kidding (sic) aside-this really should have been a non-event. Not worthy of so much of a mention in the SDO’s log book-much less blazing headlines. If the Navy was really true to its rhetoric-this would have been just another day at sea among many days at sea-enduring mind numbing drudgery punctuated by a isolated moments of excitement.
After all, isn’t what the women said they wanted? “We just want to be treated just like the men!”
Except of course we know that is not true. What they really wanted was to ensure the men and the institution they served in, were changed to be treated like the women-and to ensure that whatever advancement of women occurred, took place at breakneck speed. I mean literally hundreds of thousands of combat hours have been flown by five guys without so much as a whisper in the news media-save for when there is a mishap or someone gets fired for giving into the instincts God gave him.
But this. This-is something different. 5.2 hours of flight time to be emblazoned in the history books. A banner day among banner days for the E-2 community!
Excuse me while I sneeze-Horseshit!
I’ll say it again. Gender should not be a scheduling criteria-and if it happens that the dice roll to have five women flying together, that should be a non-event. Just another day at the office. It’s what we signed up for-and oh by the way women have been flying at sea from carriers for almost 20 years.
Old news-except for how it supports the Navy’s ever growing business of institutionalized racism and sexism, known as Diversity.
A burning devil to take them!