Black members seek diversity in DoD brass

Army Gen. William “Kip” Ward, the head of the new U.S. Africa Command, has a chest full of medals and a string of combat tours behind him. He also stands out because he’s the only black four-star general across all military services.

That fact has not gone unnoticed within the Congressional Black Caucus. Raising alarm about a brewing crisis, CBC members, including House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), have been pressing defense authorizers and Pentagon leaders to address the lack of diversity within the high-ranking officer corps.

{mosads}The CBC’s efforts may not stop there: Some plan to bring up the looming crisis with the presidential candidates during the general election.

African-Americans make up about 17 percent of the military, but account for only 5.8 percent of the services’ one- to four-star generals or admirals — in military parlance, levels O-7 through O-10.

According to Pentagon data, out of 207,174 commissioned officers in the military, 17,491 are black. Of those black officers, 51 are flag officers, six are at the O-9 level (the equivalent of lieutenant general and vice admiral) and one is a four-star at the O-10 level. Out of 5,194 African-American females in the military, three are flag officers at the brigadier general level.

“There is something fundamentally wrong when you have the numbers that we have now,” said Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), who has taken the lead on the CBC effort as one of the longest-serving black lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee.

“Military commanders know that they have to have a diverse command force and they have to have a diverse general flag officer corps,” said Meek. “We have been working very hard with [the commanders].”

Meek since last fall has been setting up meetings with the military service chiefs and secretaries as well as Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England. Meetings are also in the works with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, and the Air Force chief of staff, Gen. Michael Moseley.  Already, the Army has responded by creating a new diversity task force.

As the Armed Services panel prepares to mark up the 2009 defense authorization bill, Meek and members of the CBC are looking at ways to promote and grow the junior ROTC programs in urban environments.

Another issue they are mulling is developing coursework that could help with the mentoring of young black and other minority officers.

The coursework would help newly minted officers to look up the chain of command to find a mentor to help guide them along the process. Similarly, when these officers become captains, for example, they would know to look down the chain to help up newcomers.

Meek said that he and the other members are considering a joint effort with the Defense Department and all the services and are collaborating with them.

“We must do better. We need to roll this issue over and see what’s under there,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), one of the newest black members of the House Armed Services panel, said in statement issued several months ago. “We need to look into recruitment, mentoring, and ensuring that our talented young minority and female officers have every opportunity to attain our military’s highest ranks.”

The House Armed Services panel has yet to hold a hearing on the subject matter. Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) indicated his commitment to examining what he called “a troubling trend” and asked Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) to examine the issue in a personn el subcommittee hearing chaired by her.

But Meek also hopes that the issue will also become central in a new White House administration. Meek has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in the presidential race.

“It will be a point to be made with the [Democratic] nominee,” Meek said in an interview. “It will be a very critical year for us and it is something that everyone should be paying attention to.”

Societal issues such as poverty, lack of education and poor health also contribute to fewer African-Americans making it into the officer corps. But what is troubling, said Meek, is that many minorities in the military are geared towards administrative and supply jobs. The boards that ultimately determine promotion often prize combat and tactical experience.

“They get knocked out of consideration” by those boards, said Meek. “We have a lot of frustration with African-American colonels, captains and majors.” They invest many years in their careers to find out that they did not get the right assignments to grow in rank, Meek explained.

Raising this issue at the highest level would go beyond addressing the lack of black officers, expanding the debate to other minorities, such as Hispanics, who are also underrepresented in the high-level officer ranks.

The CBC efforts are already starting to show some results. Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, has made the decision to personally travel to urban communities in the country to meet with religious and community leaders as well as educators to hear their concerns about sending young people into the Navy. At the same time, these leaders would also hear from him on the merits of joining the Naval Academy.

Since the CBC has raised the issue of diversity, Gen. George Casey, chief of staff of the Army, has appointed a one-star general in charge of diversity to make the issue a priority in the Army. Also, the Marine Corps has started looking into its recruitment efforts as well as its officer corps, said Meek.